Chapter Number: 25
Chapter Name: " Class, Meet Cuddles"
Parvati Patil was the first person to reach the Potions class that morning. She muttered angrily at herself for coming into the room so early. And alone. ' You just had to wake up so early... didn't you?,' she thought to herself as she took her seat next to where Lavender was supposed to sit.
' Well at least the Slytherins aren't here yet.'
It seemed fate didn't like Parvati that day. No sooner had she thought that, all the Slytherin boys walked into the room with Malfoy in the lead. They took their usual seats at the front of the class. No words were exchanged between Parvati and the Slytherins, nor were any said between the Slytherins themselves. Malfoy quickly became bored with the situation and decided to terrorize the only Gryffindor present.
His job was made even easier by the simple fact that Parvati was one of the docile types. She had the habit of exploding occasionally, but that rarely happened and Parvati had a feeling that this morning was not going to be one of them. Malfoy intentionally took a long time to get up from his seat. He made sure that Parvati could not miss the malicious expression on his face.
Parvati shifted on her seat and wished like hell someone else from the Gryffindor house would come in. When Malfoy was finally off the seat he slowly made his way towards her at the back of the room. His wand waving in the air menacingly.
" Petrificus Totalus" said Dean Thomas and three other Gryffindors in unison as they entered the room pointing their wands in Malfoy's direction. It took them a split second to determine that Malfoy wanted to intimidate poor Parvati. Malfoy felt his arms stick to his sides and his legs get stuck together, just before he fell to the floor with a loud thud.
Dean and the other three Gryffindors made a point of stepping on Malfoy as they quickly went to where Parvati was sitting.
" You alright, love?" asked Dean, careful to keep an eye on Malfoy's little gang.
" Yes." Her voice radiated relief. " Thank you."
" Don't worry about it..." he turned his full attention to the Slytherins now.
Crabbe and Goyle looked as though they might start a fight with the five Gryffindors present, but stopped when they saw Professor Snape walk in the room.
Malfoy had managed to get free of the spell fairly quickly, considering three of the student had combined their magic to do it. Since the teacher was in the class he decided to launch a formal complaint, in the hopes that Professor Snape would take points off the Gryffindor house and hand out detention. " Sir…" he said in a wounded voice.
Professor Snape's entrance was missed by all those present, as they had all been paying attention to what was happening between Malfoy and the Gryffindors.
He did not make his trademark 'Tap' noises every six steps, since he had totally forgotten to wear his normal footwear in the morning. Had it been one of the students, he would have had taken points off them, for it was dangerous for students to work with dangerous potions without protection. He didn't even take his deep breath of Gryffindor fear in the air.
Most importantly he did not scratch his buttocks once, as his hands were busier holding a piece of equipment that was in his hand. He sat down quietly on his desk and stared at the mortar and pestle set that Harry had given him.
The mortar and pestle set was the only one of its kind in the world and he knew that just by owning it he had become the envy of potion masters all over the world.
' Just wait till they see me at the next Potions convention... I'll finally get the upper hand on that ...' even though he was just thinking he could not help shuddering at the though of the name this person, ' Professor Snooty from Cartova Mountain Academy... I'm going to really rub my face into him...'
Professor Snooty was the person that Professor Snape hated almost as much as Lord Voldemort. In reality his hatred was equal to that of James Potter and his marauders, and Harry and his reckless behavior combined.
He was his main rival in potions when they studied together at Hogwarts. Though Professor Snape did not particularly like the subject that he taught, he always tried to make himself known as the best - it was his solemn duty as a slytherin. For years Professor Snooty had beaten Snape at showing off their prized possession to the conference. He was enjoying his daydream so much, that he actually blew up on a Slytherin.
At that point, he really didn't care, on whom he blew up. The only things he could remember correctly were "I hate Snooty"; " I Hate Potters" and " I need some owl droppings for my wart removal potion".
" What in the blue blazes do you want?"
" Th..the.. Gryffindors attacked me without provocat-" Malfoy was interrupted by Professor Snape.
Professor thought for a split second and decided that he'll take some points off. This way he didn't really have to fill up any paper work.
" Five points off Gryffindors..." he said, choosing the least amount he could take off with out filing any paperwork. He did not care whether or not Malfoy was killed at that point all he cared for was going back to his daydream about how he was going to rub Professor Snooty's nose into the work.
" ...Go to your seat Draco." He said shortly. " And stay there".
Then an angry Professor Snape turned to the class and said, " Next person to make a peep gets a month of detention in the Forbidden Forest." before going back to looking at the mortar and pestle set with a glazed expression on his face.
He was not sure if he would follow through with the punishment, but he knew just the threat was good enough to keep the class well controlled. For the rest of class Professor Snape was very nice to Gryffindors, not intentionally of course.
He didn't notice when Harry and his two friends showed up to class well over five minutes late. Malfoy didn't dare point it out to Professor Snape, as he was scared of how differently Professor Snape was acting.
Snape also did not really take the class; rather he let the students do what ever they wanted as long as they were quite. He never stopped staring at the mortar and pestle set to actually teach anything that day. The Gryffindors were simply happy to do nothing in class. That is except for Hermione ofcourse.
Her academic mind reeled at the thought of a whole period being wasted because the teacher was not actually teaching anything. She had to be restrained by Harry and Ron all throughout the potions class, so that she did not ask Professor Snape what was going on. When the class finished she was really upset by the situation.
" If you two ever do anything like that again..." there was a crease on her forehead from the anger. " I swear in the name of the Merlin and his library of Magical books and all that is good in the world, I'll kill you both. Do you realize what just happened?" she asked, looking back and forth between Harry and Ron.
They were a bit tired from holding Hermione down on the floor, so didn't answer. " Well do you?" the pitch of her voice getting dangerously higher, "... He was staring at that..." she actually did not know what it was that Snape was staring at she did not see it, "...that thing"
" A Mortar and Pestle set to be exact, and a very expensive one." said Harry. " I should know, I gave it to him." said Harry as the moved down the corridor to where the Care of Magical Creatures class would be held.
" Is it enchanted to make Snape forget about class?" asked Neville, who had just caught up to the terrific trio and sounded very hopeful that, for the rest of the year, he would not have to make a fool of himself in front of Professor Snape. Surprisingly enough Hermione though that Harry had done the same thing. She walked a few steps ahead of Harry and spread her arms, effectively blocking the narrow corridor to Harry.
" Is that why you gave it to him?" asked Hermione.
Harry was taken aback by the fact that, Hermione thought that Harry was capable of doing something like that. ' Well I have to admit it is a reasonable assumption...,' thought Harry, as he tried to dodge Hermione. Seeing that she was determined to get an answer, he answered.
" As hard as it may seem, I didn't even think about it. Now that you mention it, maybe I should have done it." Harry paused, a little to see Hermione's eyes flare up. When he thought she was going to start to scold him again, he started to speak, " The Mortar & Pestle set is very expensive and it's what all potion masters hope to have. The maker of that particular one was very famous all over the world. That's the only one of his work that survived the Shozar Wars", he stopped and tried to dodge her again. She was very persistent and it was one her qualities that Harry found very fitting. There was no hope of him actually getting past her without attacking her, so he decided to cave in for a while. " I gave it him because he was a good friend to my mom, even though he was in Slytherin. You happy, now?"
" Very..." said Hermione.
" You mom, and Snape." Ron cried disgusted.
Harry punched Ron in the shoulder. " Not in that way you git. Remember when I said Gryffindors picked on her - he was one of her only friends."
" Ohh.. Well, it's okay then.." Ron still looked uneasy.
" Well good. Now can we get to Hagrid's class?" asked Harry.
For the first time in history of Hogwarts, the Gryffindors wanted to stay in the potions class rather than go to Care of Magical Creatures. They all knew of the eccentricities of Hagrid and they knew chances were he had something that was bigger, faster, had more teeth and was more dangerous than ever before, just waiting for them in class.
" Maybe he won't have anything dangerous this year," said Neville, trying to convince himself rather that anyone else in particular.
" Chances of that happening and Snape giving you points in class are the same.", Commented Ron.
Indeed this was the case as halfway across the school Hagrid got his arm bitten by a small winged creature as he tried to put it inside it's enclosure. The Gryffindors weren't really surprised to see Hagrid show up for the class with bandages to his right arm. They would have been more scared if he hadn't. Hagrid looked like he always did, Big and gentle. It's just a shame that Hagrid never brought around any nice and easy to love creatures.
Hagrid scanned through the class for his favorite pupil, a scrawny little boy with round glasses. Lately all the girls in his classes were always talking about him. Since Harry hadn't come and seen him in the first few days of first week, he hadn't had a chance to see him for a while. When he finally saw him he let out a gasp.
Hagrid appeared happy when he recognized Harry, but his happiness was replaced with something that Harry could not identify. It was almost as if Hagrid was seeing something else around Harry. Harry watched as Hagrid looked between him, Hermione and Malfoy. He gave a small smile to Harry and asked, " Is that 'ye Harry?"
" In the flesh!" he said as he gave the friendly half giant a hug. " How was your summer?" he asked when he separated from Hagrid.
Harry had answered yes to Hagrid's question, and it looked as though he was happy, but when he asked about his holidays Hagrid looked genuinely distressed. Harry wondered what had happened in the summer to make Hagrid act in such a way. He had assumed that him and Madame Maxime were sent as envoys to the giants, to ask them join the side of light.
" It was ok... I'll talk ter 'ye later" answered Hagrid obviously not wanting to elaborate any further than he had to in front of the large number of waiting students. Hagrid then rushed off to get something. Ron looked at the rapidly escaping Hagrid and asked, " Where's he going off to?"
" I don't know, but I think he wants us to talk to him after the class is finished."
" But we'll miss lunch." complained Ron, but a look that reminded Harry of how Hermione's mother controlled her husband made him stop.
When Hagrid was back he had with him, on a trolley, a large cage and some sort of cloth hid the contents of the cage - mostly. Occationally they could see a silvery flash. The creature inside it didn't sound too happy. Well how can a wild beast be happy to be trapped?
" Good Monin to 'ye all"
There was a mumbled reply to the greeting. The cage was shaking and the hissing and growling noises from cage just kept increasing. The whole class took on collective step backwards. Hagrid didn't seem to notice the fear in their eyes.
" Some err 'ye know, I huv been outer England in the summer"
None of students were informed of this actually, nor did they ever actually wonder what he did over the summer.
" Been doing a bit of critter collecting." He then took one step to the cage and with one yank he took off the cloth covering the cage.
"Class..." his voice filled with excitement, " Meet Cuddles" he said pointing at the blue and silvery creature in the cage.
The whole class took one more step back, while Hermione stood where she was. She was busily trying to remember what creature it was as she scratched her head to get inspiration. She would have had stayed there if Harry and Ron hadn't dragged her back with them once they realized that she hadn't taken a step backwards.
The serpentine creature had scales that reflected a diffused version of sunlight, giving it a surreal appearance. It had wings, each the same length as its body (head to tail). The creature didn't have a claw or grabbing mechanism, but on the end of the wings there was something that resembled three fingers. The tail looked to be strong enough to grab hold of something.
" A Veloron" shouted Hermione, at the top of her voice, once she had figured out what the creature was.
" Good job, Hermione... but could 'ya wait til I ask 'yer a question?" said Hagrid.
Hermione seem to take to complement even though there was a hidden reprimand for her, since she had interrupted what he was about to say. " As Hermione said, its a Veloron. These lil critters are found in the deserts of India. Don't worry 'ye don't have ter deal with this one." When he said that the class took a collective sigh or relief.
Neville went to the ground on his knees and clasped his hands before starting to say, " Thank you. Thank you. Thank you" but he had acted a bit too soon, as neither Hagrid nor the Veloron was done with surprises.
" Nice to see 'yer enthusiasm" said Hagrid, " This is a pregnant mother. In the next few weeks it'll give birth to about fifty little critters and once that happens 'ye all get ter take care of one of 'em"
Before the class could finish their collective groan of displeasure, the Veloron opened its mouth and fired a ball flame towards the students. They had all seen the creature open its mouth, but they hadn't expected anything to come out of it, let alone a large ball of fire. Hagrid quickly put the cloth back on the cage to prevent any future fireballs. Hermione knew this was bound to happen and she was well prepared for this.
She pointed he wand at the ball of flame and yelled, " Iglus", causing the ball of flame to turn into solid ice and shatter on the ground on impact, several inches from Neville's kneeling body. This was too much to handle for Neville, who, promptly fainted.
Most people when they saw the fireball backed away from the scene. Malfoy could have had set the world record on how fast he had ran from where he was standing to a nearby tree. Amidst all this four people made their way to where Neville's body was.
Pansy happened to be the person standing behind Neville when this happened, and was the first one to see if he was all right. She knelt down beside him and poked his unconscious body with her wand.
Ron, ever the gentleperson that he was, nudged Neville's body with the tip of his shoes to see if he was still alive. The other person trying to revive him was Dean Thomas.
Hermione was still examining the shattered fireball. " Pansy, Dean and Ron". Hagrid yelled from the front of the class, where he had just put the cover on cage, " -take Neville back to the hospital wing. You guys can stay with him if you want."
After the events with the Veloron, the students weren't sure if they wanted to go to that class anymore. If it hadn't been for Hermione's quick action, Neville would have been in a serious condition. There was a round of applause for her when she looked up from the shattered remains of the fireball. Hagrid wasn't really concerned about the fireball.
" Class, let me assure 'ye the fire ball is only dangerous if 'ye are within two meters of the beast.... after that there's not 'nuff for a cup of tea and 'ye are all five meters away."
When Hermione nodded her head in agreement from behind Hagrid, the class relaxed a little, though not much. Harry really wasn't worried about the fireball like Hermione had been. He knew Hagrid was capable of bringing something into the class that could severely injure, scar or even burn a person, but not something that could kill one of the students by accident.
Hagrid told Zabini, one of the Slytherins girls, to go and grab Malfoy from behind the tree, while he worked on trying to settle the class after the fireball incident. By the time they had done so both Ron and Malfoy were back.
" Hey Harry" said Ron as he took a seat next to Hermione.
" How's he doing?" he asked.
" Fine... You're not going to believe this but Pansy started to cry, saying it was her fault. She thinks she should have pushed him out of the way." said Ron, before he started to laugh.
He did, however, manage to choke out " -she's even staying behind with Dean." Ron did not get to finish he sentence as Hagrid started to cough in his usual thundering way to get attention of the class.
" Like I told 'ye, these critters…" said Hagrid. Ron and rest of the class worked hard to keep up with what Hagrid was saying about the creature, while Hermione wrote down whatever she already did not know. That, when Harry peeked at her notes, turned out to be only six lines and two of them were about Victor coming to see her in a few weeks time.
Harry on the other hand was listening to what Hagrid was saying and then copied down what was either not common sense or unusual about the creature. By the time class had finished, Harry had written about a scroll full of notes, while the rest of the class had done several.
As the rest of the class made their way to the great hall, the trio moved towards Hagrid's hut. Hagrid's hut had not changed much except for the fact that he had added some pictures on the wall. French muggle painters did most of them. When Harry noticed the pictures he thought it was best that he did not say anything about them.
' Hagrid's taken a real shine to Madame Maxime,' though Harry as he took his seat. Harry did not know why but his sense told him that their privacy was not assured at that moment. ' Almost as if someone is listening...,' but Harry dismissed the idea as a product of his mind and what had happened in Morocco in his time there.
(A/N: I'm getting tired of doing 'Hagrid's heavily accented dialogue. SO If I get lazy from this point on - sorry about that.)
Hermione and Harry had discussed what might have had Hagrid done in the holidays and they both came to the same conclusion. Hagrid was sent to the giants as an ambassador to bring news of the impending war between light and dark wizards. Suddenly Hermione started to look around the room for something, sensing that their privacy was suddenly not assured. It was almost as if she knew that behind the hut Malfoy was listening in on the conversation with a clear hearing spell.
" Ron you feel that?" she whispered looking around the cabin.
" Feel what?" answered a confused Ron.
" Almost like there is..." Harry did not finish his sentence but Hermione got the message.
Hagrid was looking back and forth between Harry and Hermione as if they were mad. Hermione searched her mind for a spell, which she found, and cast it on the four people present.
" rof tnaem" she said as she pointed her wand one by one until all of them were under the spell. Ron looked taken aback when he was the first person to get hit by a spell he did not even know the purpose of. He shouted something really loud as he stood up from his chair and only Hermione reacted to it.
Harry and Hagrid only saw their lips move. Hermione said something to Ron and he quietly sat down on his seat just before his gaze travelled back and forth between Harry and Hagrid. She cast the spell on her self, before speaking to the other three present.
" That was a privacy spell," she said before getting interrupted by Hagrid.
" What do we need that for?"
" I got the feeling that someone was spying on us." said Harry as he looked at Hermione for support.
" Yeah me too... It was really eerie. Harry and me are spotters right..." she looked at Hagrid who she had no idea if he was aware of what it was. She took it in her stride when he indeed knew what it was. " Well, I did some research and found out that spotters can tell when someone is spying on them."
" I thought I was just imagining things-," said Harry.
" Well, now you know the full story… anyhow…" She said dismissively, turning to Hagrid, " I assume this has something to do with the fact that you and Madame Maxime went to the giants for support... am I right?"
Hagrid looked dumbfounded. He did not expect the topic to arise almost the moment they entered the hut. Hagrid had assumed Harry would slowly pump him for more information, until he eventually slipped. He guessed the fact that someone was listening onto the conversation meant that the topic was going to come up sooner than he had expected.
" Well... yeah. Me and Olimp...Madame Maxime..." there was a slight increase in Hagrid's happiness, as he mentioned the name "...went to mountains of Siberia and Himalayas to look for them. We looked in the Gobi desert and we found some small tribes of Giants..."
" So what happened..." asked an impatient Ron.
" ... We didn't convince them to join the war with our side"
Ron, Harry and Hermione paled at this sentence. If the giants joined with Voldemort the war would be long and disastrous for the light side. " ... You mean they joined Vold-I mean You-Know-Who." said Harry with an audible gulp.
" No!" said Hagrid who seemed seemingly surprised as to how Harry had come to that conclusion, " I said they are not fighting with us. Never said, they're fighting against us..."
The three friends understood what the statement meant and their faces brightened immediately. This meant that though the giants wouldn't be fighting with the light side they would not be fighting against them either. The giants had agreed not to participate in the war at all. " That's good then isn't it?" asked Ron.
" It would be but..." Hagrid paused and Ron spoke up. " There is a 'but', this can't be good..."
"... There was a rumor of a big giant tribe somewhere in Europe, but we didn't know where about. We looked all over there and we couldn't find them. If they joined You-Know-Who, then I don't think it'll matter if the other giants join him or not."
" Did you look in Ukraine?" asked Harry suddenly. He was just as surprised to hear what he had said, as those with whom he was sitting. He just could not think of any reason why he would blurt out Ukraine.
" Why would we look there?" asked Hagrid scrunching his enormous nose making his eyebrows almost become one.
Harry did not know why those words came out of his mouth. He was still lost as to how they related to what Hagrid was saying when Hermione came to his rescue. She always knew him better than he knew himself. " I know..." she said eagerly raising her hand to answer the question.
Hagrid nodded in her direction when she spoke ups, " It' like this… When Harry's father James Potter went to look for wild beasts at the beginning of his 7th year, he met this friendly giantess." she stopped in mid speech. Suddenly the implication of what she was saying hit her. ' It couldn't be... I mean why would a person with such a vicious record, would help a Human -but she did, and asked about Hagrid,' thought Hermione, as she kept looking at Hagrid.
" ...Err... I don't know how I can put this..." she gulped and said, "... but I think, I just figured out who Harry's dad saw."
" Who?" Asked Hagrid and Harry at once.
" Hagrid, I think it was your mother."
" What?!" shouted Hagrid as he rose from his chair. The room shook as the chair fell he was sitting on fell. " Me mom, she's alive! Still? " Hagrid rushed to where Harry was sitting and lifted him right out of his chair. Harry was too surprised to do anything but be lifted up in the air.
" What're you doing?" asked Harry in a panic. He forgot for a second he was a wizard and he had his wand in his hand.
" Where did he see my mother? What did they talk about? " he demanded in a roaring voice.
Harry understood what Hagrid must have been feeling. For years he had thought his mother was dead and now that there was a glimmer of hope that he would get to see his mother once, his emotions would have overwhelmed him too. It was a good thing that Hermione had her wand out and was not in shock like Harry and Ron seemed to be.
" Nephrite" she said, casting a calming spell on Hagrid.
Hagrid suddenly felt all his emotions dampen a bit. With this also came the realization that he had been holding Harry well above six feet off the floor. He looked deeply ashamed as he slowly put Harry down on the floor.
" Forgive me Harry," said Hagrid as a single tear escaped his eyes. ... I don't know what came over me…"
" Don't worry about it." Harry said, dusting himself off - shaking away the fright too. " I would have had done the same thing if the situation was reversed..." he said and added a joke at the end to lighten the mood, " Though I really doubt that I could have had lifted you off the floor."
Hagrid laughed at the joke and so did the other two in the room. With the mood lightened, everyone sat down again. Harry told him about how Hagrid's mother had saved James Potter from certain death at the hands of the Chimera, and how the only thing she wanted to know was how Hagrid was doing in school. He said she was very proud to hear that Hagrid was a great grounds keeper at Hogwarts and very popular with the students.
After hearing that last bit of information, Hagrid cried for a full five minutes before he finally smiled and asked the trio a question. " Want some of my Rock cakes?" the trio's face faltered, as they politely refused saying they had to get back into the castle.
They promised to come back and visit soon.
<<~~~>>
END OF CHAPTER
READ AND REVIEW