I was examining my course schedule in the morning. We were outside all morning, that wasn't bad. We had Herbology with the Hufflepuffs, Care of Magical Creatures with the Slytherins, Double Divination in the afternoon. Harry was complaining about it beside me. I decided I'd go back to being extremely quiet, despite the introductory last night. I eat my porridge silently, while everyone was comparing their schedules.
"What do you have, Faye?" asked Harry. I jumped up and spilled some porridge on my skirt. "Oh, sorry," he laughed.
"It's alright," I said. "And I think I have the same as you."
"Cool, do you like Care of Magical Creatures?"
"Yeah, it's better than Divination anyway."
"I couldn't agree more," chimed Hermione.
"I better be going, porridge isn't the easiest stain to wash off."
"We'll see you at Herbology," said Hermione.
"See you," said Harry.
I ran out of the Great Hall, covering my skirt with my bag and racing through the corridors until I got to the second floor girl's lavatory. I dabbed my skirt with some wet toilet paper. The stain was gone, but my skirt was wet.
"Oh yeah," I murmured to myself. "I forgot, I'm a witch."
I took out my wand and whispered a spell. Someone came out of one of the cubicles.
"Faye!" she shouted.
"Hey Sybil," I said.
"How's your first day?" she asked.
"Alright, yours?"
"Amazing! Cedric Diggory asked me out!" she shouted loudly. It was like she wanted the whole school to hear, no, it was definite she wanted the whole school to hear.
"That's great!"
"I need to go now Faye, potions."
"See you later then," I said.
"See you."
She skipped out of the lavatory to potions. I grabbed my bag and headed off to Herbology and took a seat beside Neville Longbottom. He was really nice, and we were great friends, but his best subject was Herbology, and I liked to use that to my advantage. Evil Faye, evil!
Professor Sprout was showing us the most disgusting creatures I had ever seen. Indeed, they looked less like plants than thick, black, giant slugs, protruding vertically out of the soil. Each was squirming slightly and had a number of large, shiny swellings upon it, which appeared to be full of liquid.
"Bubotubers," Professor Sprout told them briskly. "They need squeezing. You will collect the pus -"
"The what?" said Seamus Finnigan, sounding revolted.
"Pus, Finnigan, pus," said Professor Sprout, "and it's extremely valuable, so don't waste it. You will collect the pus, I say, in these bottles. Wear your dragon-hide gloves; it can do funny things to the skin when undiluted, bubotuber pus."
Squeezing the bubotubers was disgusting, but oddly satisfying. As each swelling was popped, a large amount of thick yellowish-green liquid burst forth, which smelled strongly of petrol. They caught it in the bottles as Professor Sprout had indicated, and by the end of the lesson had collected several pints. "This'll keep Madam Pomfrey happy," said Professor Sprout, stoppering the last bottle with a cork. "An excellent remedy for the more stubborn forms of acne, bubotuber pus. Should stop students resorting to desperate measures to rid themselves of pimples."
"Like poor Eloise Midgen," said Hannah Abbott, a Hufflepuff, in a hushed voice. "She tried to curse hers off."
"Silly girl," said Professor Sprout, shaking her head. "But Madam Pomfrey fixed her nose back on in the end."
A booming bell echoed from the castle across the wet grounds, signaling the end of the lesson, and the class separated; the Hufflepuffs climbing the stone steps for Transfiguration, and the Gryffindors heading in the other direction, down the sloping lawn toward Hagrid's small wooden cabin, which stood on the edge of the Forbidden Forest.
Hagrid was standing outside his hut, one hand on the collar of his enormous black boarhound, Fang. There were several open wooden crates on the ground at his feet, and Fang was whimpering and straining at his collar, apparently keen to investigate the contents more closely. As we drew nearer, an odd rattling noise reached our ears, punctuated by what sounded like minor explosions.
"Mornin'!" Hagrid said, grinning at Harry, Ron, Hermione and me. "Be'er wait fer the Slytherins, they won' want ter miss this - Blast-Ended Skrewts!"
"Come again?" said Ron.
Hagrid pointed down into the crates.
"Eurgh!" squealed Lavender Brown, jumping backward. "Eurgh" just about summed up the Blast-Ended Skrewts in my opinion. They looked like deformed, shell-less lobsters, horribly pale and slimy-looking, with legs sticking out in very odd places and no visible heads. There were about a hundred of them in each crate, each about six inches long, crawling over one aother, bumping blindly into the sides of the boxes. They were giving off a very powerful smell of rotting fish. Every now and then, sparks would fly out of the end of a skrewt, and with a small phut, it would be propelled forward several inches.
"On'y jus' hatched," said Hagrid proudly, "so yeh'll be able ter raise 'em yerselves! Thought we'd make a bit of a project of it!"
"And why would we want to raise them?" said a cold voice.
The Slytherins had arrived. The speaker was Draco Malfoy. Crabbe and Goyle were chuckling appreciatively at his words.
Hagrid looked stumped at the question.
"I mean, what do they do?" asked Malfoy. "What is the point of them?"
"I suppose if you'd actually listen, you'd find out!" I snapped.
Everybody looked at me, as if just realising I actually existed. Hagrid gave me a thankful smile, and I smiled back. Harry smiled brightly at me, Ron looked like I told him I was the Queen of England and Hermione looked at me like I told her I was quitting school. Lavender and Parvati were too busy talking about Divination to realise someone had spoken. Malfoy just glared at me with hatred in his eyes. I must admit, I was more than shocked that I actually opened my mouth during a lesson; I usually just stand there and listen.
"Tha's next lesson, Malfoy. Yer jus' feedin' 'em today. Now, yeh'll wan' ter try 'em on a few diff'rent things - I've never had 'em before, not sure what they'll go fer - I got ant eggs an' frog livers an' a bit o' grass snake - just try 'em out with a bit of each."
"First pus and now this," muttered Seamus.
Nothing but deep affection for Hagrid could have made Harry, Ron, and Hermione pick up squelchy handfuls of frog liver and lower them into the crates to tempt the Blast-Ended Skrewts. I just did it because it was a lesson, no way in hell was I ever going to do this on free will! I couldn't suppress the suspicion that the whole thing was entirely pointless, because the skrewts didn't seem to have mouths.
"Ouch!" yelled Dean Thomas after about ten minutes. "It got me."
Hagrid hurried over to him, looking anxious.
"It's end exploded!" said Dean angrily, showing Hagrid a burn on his hand.
"Ah, yeah, that can happen when they blast off," said Hagrid, nodding.
"Eurgh!" said Lavender Brown again. "Eurgh, Hagrid, what's that pointy thing on it?"
"Ah, some of 'em have got stings," said Hagrid enthusiastically (Lavender quickly withdrew her hand from the box). "I reckon they're the males… The females've got sorta sucker things on their bellies… I think they might be ter suck blood."
"Well, I can certainly see why we're trying to keep them alive," said Malfoy sarcastically. "Who wouldn't want pets that can burn, sting, and bite all at once?"
"Just because they're not very pretty, it doesn't mean they're not useful," Hermione snapped. "Dragon blood's amazingly magical, but you wouldn't want a dragon for a pet, would you?"
Harry and Ron grinned at Hagrid, who gave them a furtive smile from behind his bushy beard and I smirked at Malfoy. Take that! Hagrid simply loved monstrous creatures, the more lethal, the better.
"There disgusting!" shouted Lavender. "And they sting! Ew!"
"If you just shut up then maybe they'll treat you nicer!" shouted Hermione
Lavender and Parvati scowled at her, while I sniggered. I mouthed a 'thank you' to Hermione and she smiled warmly. The rest of the lesson was filled with Lavender and Parvati talking about stupid Divination and girly stuff which I tried to block out. I hated girly stuff. I never wore skirts or dresses apart from my school uniform, but that was just because it was obligatory.
I caught up with Sybil and Rose in the Great Hall for lunch. I could only chat with them for a few minutes because I needed to get back to the Gryffindor table.
"So what've you been doing?" asked Sybil.
"Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures. We have double Divination after lunch. Ugh, Trelawny's a crack-pot, surprised they still have her here," I answered.
"That's why we rely on facts," said Rose. "Why do you do Divination if you hate it?"
"Because it's easy!"
Rose and Sybil rolled their eyes playfully.
"S'pose," said Sybil. "Arithmacy is brilliant though."
"Yeah," I replied. "I gotta go for lunch, see ya later Sybil, Rose."
"Bye Faye."
I walked over to the Gryffindor table and munched on a sandwich. Hermione was stuffing her face with food.
"Er - is this the new stand on elf rights?" said Ron. "You're going to make yourself puke instead?"
"No," said Hermione, with as much dignity as she could muster with her mouth bulging with sprouts. "I just want to get to the library."
"What?" said Ron in disbelief. "Hermione - it's the first day back! We haven't even got homework yet!"
Hermione shrugged and continued to shovel down her food as though she had not eaten for days. Then she leapt to her feet, said, "See you at dinner!" and departed at high speed.
"Faye," said Harry, turning his head towards me.
"Yes," I replied, my mouth still full of a bacon sandwich. I quickly swallowed it so I could talk.
"What do you think about elf-rights?" he asked.
"You mean house-elves?"
"Yeah."
"They clearly like being enslaved, but they are being brainwashed. Why?"
"Just wondering. Hermione is getting obsessed on the subject," said Harry.
"She wants to free them!" joked Ron.
"They should have the choice though. They're treated kindly hear at Hogwarts, but in some places they're terrible to their house-elves."
"Like the Malfoys," Harry murmured.
"Precisely," I added. "I have to go, I don't want to be late for Divination. Trelawney might predict my death as punishment!"
"See ya," said Harry and Ron in unison.
I walked out of the Great Hall and ran up the stairs to Divination. I felt footsteps behind me, three boys were sniggering. I turned around and saw a boy with a pale face and white-blonde hair. Malfoy with his goons.
"Hey Tonks," he sniggered. "How's that mudblood father of yours?"
I continued walking and ignoring him. I felt his anger through his silence.
"No one, and I mean no one, ignores me!" he shouted spitefully.
"It's too bad I did. And as far as I know, you don't take Divination," I stated, continuing walking.
"I don't, we're on our way to Transfiguration, but I thought I'd have a nice chat with my dear cousin!"
The goons laughed and I just ignored him. I proceeded to go to Divination, and Malfoy and co. decided to leave me when they realised they weren't getting anywhere. I held my books close as I strolled to Divination.
"Hey!" said a familiar voice. I jumped at the interruption of my thoughts.
"Geez Parvati! You scared me!"
"Sorry, we're so excited!" said Parvati.
"No kidding," I joked.
"I've been practising all summer!" said Lavender joyfully.
"Me too!" chimed Parvati. "I love Divination, you know what happens, before it happens!"
"That's the point," I said under my breath.
We walked into the classroom to see Trelawney looking into a glass ball. She looked worried. Parvati and Lavender shrieked.
"What do you think she sees?" asked Lavender.
"Something bad!" said Parvati.
I wanted to insult their stupidity, but I cared about them too much to insult them. I saw Harry and Ron sitting together at a table by themselves, chatting. I decided to sit beside them. I made my way over to their table.
"Aren't you going to sit with us?" asked Lavender, a little hurt.
"I'll sit with you next lesson. I need to ask Harry something."
The truth was I wanted to get away from them. I couldn't say that to them though, for obvious reasons.
"May I join you?" I asked.
"Sure," said Harry.
I put my bag under the table and relaxed into one of the chairs.
"Don't get me wrong, Faye, you're a fine girl, but why aren't you sitting with Parvati and Lavender, they're your friends right?" asked Ron.
"They get a bit – er – mad, when it comes to Divination, they're kind of – well – obsessed about the subject. I suppose I need a break, they're nice people and all, but they're driving me mental!" I whispered, to make sure they didn't hear me.
"It's fine," said Harry warmly. "You can always sit with us."
I smiled warmly and took my Divination books out of my bags.
"You don't like Divination then?" asked Ron.
"No! I hate it, I'm just taking it because it's easy," I admitted.
"Same here," said Ron.
A/N: So there's another chapter. Not as long as the previous chapter, but it's fairly long. Ah sure, it'll do. I've been going on books, but I think I might change to the movies soon, maybe not in the next chapter, or the one after that, but sometime. Thank you for reading, please favourite, follow and/or review! It's a pleasure to hear your thoughts. Thanks to BlueGreen216 for reviewing and to those of you who followed/favourite. I might change POVs through the story, probably will. Thank you for reading! :)