"And they lived happily ever after!" The ball of white fluff
vibrated contentedly on the half-giant's lap. He patted it proudly.
"Er, you might not have noticed this, Hagrid," Ron Weasley
whispered loudly, "but---it's got fangs!"
"Fangs?" Hermione asked, stomping the snow off her boots. She
caught sight of Hagrid's white bundle and gasped. "Cuniculus
coniuratum! I read in Unnatural Beasts that---"
"No, Hermione! Don't touch it!"
It was too late. The creature had launched itself from Hagrid's
lap and fastened firmly around the girl's left ankle.
"Help! Hagrid, get it off my leg!"
"Calm down, 'Ermione! Yer scarin' poor Flora!"
Hermione jerked her leg in agony as the animal's grip got
tighter. "Why won't she let go if she'd so scared?!"
"Tell 'er a story."
"And stop jumping around," Harry interjected. This was rather
good advice, as Hermione was quickly running out of places to jump. "Here,
Flora," he said soothingly. "Once upon a time..."
Two long, tufted ears emerged from the ball of fur. Hermione
stopped jumping. "Once upon a time," she repeated.
"...there was this short kid with a scar on his head," Ron
appended with a grin. Harry elbowed him in the ribs.
"He didn't know it yet," Hermione told the animal, "but he was
destined to be a great wizard."
Flora released her death grip on Hermione's leg and rotated her
ears in all directions, as if waiting for someone else to pick up the tale.
Harry sighed. "I---I mean he---never knew his parents, but until
he was eleven years old, he didn't know what had happened to them, either."
The light streaming in the windows of Hagrid's hut faded to the
pink and gold of sunset as they talked. Hagrid himself had taken Fang into the
forest on an errand but hadn't wanted to interrupt their tale. Harry and Ron
were arguing over Harry's full-body reenactment of his first Quidditch game
when Hermione noticed something was missing.
"Where's Flora?"
The boys stopped and stared at her.
"Where's Flora?" she repeated.
They checked under the table, in the cupboards, behind the sofa.
Flora was gone.
"Hagrid's gonna kill us!" Ron moaned. He flopped into a chair
and hid his face in his hands. Hagrid had left about an hour into the
retelling, but Ron was sure he'd be back before it was full dark.
Harry excused himself to go look outside while Hermione rummaged
through her bag for Merlin-only-knew-what.
"No, he won't," Hermione exclaimed triumphantly. She pointed to
a page of Unnatural Beasts and called to Harry through the window. "See
here? She's become an adult! When the chosen tale of the cuniculus
coniuratum is released into the public realm, it changes to its adult form---a
leather-bound "first edition" of its chosen story."
Three pairs of eyes turned to Hagrid's bookshelf. A green
leather tome lay open on the top shelf.
"Look, it's signed!" said Ron.
"To Hagrid---" read the inscription. "Thanks for
everything---love, Flora." A pawprint in slightly smudged ink stood out below
the name.
Hermione flipped to the title page.
A Guide to the Common Plot-Bunny
by Rubeus Hagrid
And they lived happily ever after.
---
Yes, cuniculus coniuratum is Latin for "plot bunny". Anyone who cares for translation details can feel free to email me, but should keep in mind that doing so makes him or her as much of a Latin dork as I am ;)