The Toad Hunt
By Caleythia
Summary:
Harry, Ron, Choral toads and Hogsmeade in the snow. Just a bit of silliness written for FictionAlley's 2003 Christmas Challenge
Author's Note:
This was written for Fiction Alley's winter challenge.
Disclaimer:
All characters and places belong to J.K. Rowling, Warner Bros., etc. I don't own them, nor am I making any money off of them.
Hogsmeade in the snow, so picturesque, like Christmas card. And so bloody annoying , thought Ronald Weasley as he trudged through the two feet of fluffy, wet snow that covered, well, everything. "Not even any decent snow removal," he grumbled. "All these wizards and no one thought to just magic the snow off the road. Huh, even Muggles clear their roads."
"Come on, Ron. I thought you liked snow?" his companion, and best friend, Harry Potter, asked.
"I do, Harry, 'course I love it. But, snow's for having snowball fights, building snow men, sledding, trying to freeze Malfoy to death. It's not for trudging around for hours trying to find escaped choral toads. I'm gonna kill bloody Hermione. And Snape, ooh, that slimy git. How is what Hermione did our fault? I mean, it's cruel and unusual punishment, or something. Do you believe we're not allowed back in until we've found all of them? That's twenty-three toads, Harry. We'll be here all day."
"And do you know what she said to me when I asked her what in God's name she'd been thinking? Do you know?" Ron composed his features into the most innocent expression he could manage, which looked remarkably like his usual expression, and continued, in a high falsetto. "But, Ron, the choral toads wanted to be free. I looked into their little toad eyes and could just tell. They don't want to be manhandled by the students; they want to hop about to their little hearts' content. It doesn't matter that they are specially trained and cost buckets of galleons. It was the right thing to do."
"Did Hermione actually say little toad eyes?"
"Oh shut up, Harry."
Harry looked at his friend. The cold had turned his face bright red, which, combined with his hair, made him look like a very cold, and very angry, tomato. Harry had to stifle a laugh as Ron tripped over some unseen object buried beneath the snow and landed face first into a drift.
The snow-covered Ron pushed himself up on his hands and shook the snow from his eyes. "Snape...Hermione...dead," he managed to grumble before his hands slipped and he fell in again.
As Harry went to help his friend up, while trying to suppress the hysterical laughter that was bubbling up, he saw it. A large green animal landed right in front of Ron's nose. Ron, for his part just stared at it in shock. The choral toad stared back at the redhead. Finally, it croaked in his face, and then hopped away up the road back towards the school. Harry and Ron remained frozen, only their heads moving as they followed the toad's progress with their eyes. The toad stopped outside of Honeydukes, turned to the boys, and croaked once more. It was almost as if it were teasing the boys, croaking, "Come and get me."
That broke the spell that held the two boys immobile, however. With a "bloody hell," Ron propelled himself out of the snow drift and hurtled down the road after the toad. Snow flew from under his feet, most of it hitting Harry in the face. Harry broke into a run as he tried to keep up with the furious Ron. Boy, that toad sure hops fast for a fat, little reptile. Or is it an amphibian? I can never remember, he thought. The situation, to Harry, was simply hilarious, and he started laughing.
The two boys followed the toad back up the road to the school grounds. It started to hop towards Hagrid's hut. They nearly lost sight of it, but Ron saw a little green foot disappear through the open door. They crept silently up to the hut, or as silently as two exhausted, panting boys can be, and peered through a window. When Ron saw what was in the hut, he muttered a curse and stormed in.
"Hermione...what...how...explain," he sputtered out.
Hermione looked up at her two friends from her seat in front of the warm fireplace. Surrounding her were the missing twenty-three choral toads, all contentedly humming in the backs of their throats as Hagrid served them little bowls of...of, well, something.
"Hiya, Harry, Ron. The toads came down here after Hermione let 'em free. I've been feeding 'em lacewing flies since," the gamekeeper explained. Of course, where else would lost magical creatures go than to the man who thought that three-headed dogs and dragons made wonderful pets? It made perfect sense.
"Now, Ron, don't be mad. I had a hunch that the toads were here, so this was the first place I looked. There were only twenty-two, but I knew that you and Harry would find him. Now, we'll take them into the forest and find a good place to..."
"No, no, no. Do you know how much trouble we're in? They have to go back to the castle. I don't wan to spend the month disemboweling or cleaning anything. I'm going back to the common room to warm up. I expect those to be back in Flitwick's office right away," Ron ordered. His friends were shocked, mostly at how much he sounded like Hermione. They watched as he marched out of the hut and back into the snow. They watched as he tripped and fell face first into the snow.
Harry, grinning, turned to Hermione and simply said, "Run."