BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM! 'Move your body like a hairy troll! A-learning to rock and roll!' The music thumped along the floor, I was stood by the drinks table getting some more butterbeer as the door to the room of requirements opened. I turned to see my sister's friend from Gryffindor, Taylor, come in again, she had been down to the kitchens. 572
'WHO'S THE DADDY?' She yelled holding up two bottles of firewhiskey above her head and spinning on the spot. Tia, the rest of her friends and my couple of friends on the dance floor cheered. I couldn't help but laugh a little. Still with the firewhiskey above her head Taylor kicked the door closed and bounded over to the drinks table.
'Hey Jamie' she said, she put down the drinks and poured two goblets out, then immediately bounded off over to Tia again, giving her one of the drinks. I went over to my friends, as the song switched and carried on with the party.
By the end of the night barely any of us could stand straight, a couple of the girls, and of course by that I mean all of them, had at least some of their makeup smeared or running down their face from the heat. Naturally though I had no idea about this because by this point I was so drunk it was difficult to even sit straight, let alone stand. Suddenly someone, though I don't remember who, shouted about it being past curfew – by a few hours, and we were going to be 'in deep doggy doo-doo' if we were to get caught. So with that we magi-taped our mouths closed, it seemed a good idea at the time because we couldn't resist talking with that much influence from alcohol, and made a break for it through the halls of Hogwarts.
I got lost several times within the next hour, at one point I found myself in the trophy room, with no recollection of how I got there and had to start my search for the Slytherin common room again. My couple of friends from the party had disappeared completely and it was a good thing because tonight was definitely not my lucky night. Next I found myself in the Great Hall, I was sure I could find my way from here.
'Meow, Purrrrr' a sound reverberated around the room, I span, knocking over several chairs as I did so. By the door a cat slunk out, to get Mr Filch I thought. I looked around the hall, there was nowhere to hide, I moved some chairs out of the way and hid under the table, it seemed the best hiding place I could think of but moments later the cat was back to where I had been standing and pawed at the chairs I had moved. Busted.
'Who's in there?' Mr Filch's voice echoed across the otherwise silent hall, he walked to the cat and shoved some chairs away from the table, then I saw his face emerge, the melted look of his wax like face against the thin moonlight shining through the windows, it was horrifying!
'well, well, well' he sneered 'good night for Snape'
I don't remember how I moved from the frozen flagstones of the great hall floor, but the next thing I knew I was in the tiny office of Professor Snape, he was leaning over his desk glaring at me viciously. Filch had blocked the exit by standing in front of the door and all I could smell was his overpowering odor stenching the entire room, or was that me?
'you stink of alcohol' Oh so it was me then... 'and you are out of bed after hours! This requires massive punishments!' Snape continued to spit the words at me like darts, I leaned backwards slightly, I found the farther away I was from him the less disgusting he looked. I braced myself for my fate, I was prepared to wager it would be at least 100 points lost and a detention.
In the morning I woke with a throbbing headache and dragged myself back to the great hall, I couldn't use the excuse of illness as I had been planning because of being caught last night, I walked past the giant hourglasses by the front door to the school and looked into the glass. There was about one third of the green beads of sand missing from the hour glass (around 300 points), all because of me, though we were still in front of Gryffindor, but only just. Snape would never take away so many points as to lose the lead. He found the idea of it ridiculous as head of house, and happily so, otherwise my life would be fit to end today at the hands of my house mates. I walked into the great hall, there were a few people yelling at me from the Slytherin table, many had already heard what had happened but my head was still thumping and I had even less tolerance than usual. I looked around for Tia and spotted her at the Gryffindor table, separated from the others from her house as usual apart from Taylor. I joined them both in silence, taking food from my own table with me to avoid even more people's complaints. I confided with Tia and Taylor about what had happened last night and they replied by shaking their heads at me.
'I was completely out of it too' Taylor laughed, she seemed to be reminding Tia rather than telling me, 'when I got back to the dorm I was out like a light, McGonagall apparently got asked to check everyone was in bed, we got back just in time.' I looked up the Gryffindor table and saw professor McGonagall sitting at the teachers table directly at the end. I looked back to the girls in front of me. I saw Snape join the teacher's table further down at the same time, he saw me spot him and sneered at me, or at least, I think he did. Suddenly all the food disappeared from the table, the only things left were the food in people's hands. I finished my toast quickly, grabbed my bag and made my way to my care of magical creatures lesson. Care of magical creatures is my all time favourite lesson in Hogwarts, I made my way down to professor Hagrid's hut near the dark forest and met the class down there. There was barely anyone here yet but nobody acknowledged my presence as I arrived. I hovered at the back of the class and as everyone arrived and we moved slightly into the forest I broke ahead of the crowd to reach the destination first and to be at the front; nobody cared and everyone kept pretending that I wasn't there. The lesson today consisted of an animal I hadn't ever paid attention to before.
'does anybody know wha' these crea'ures are?' Hagrid asked. I looked at the creatures that had been floating around us for the last five minutes, attracted by a small flame that somebody had conjured into a small jar, I was guessing this hadn't been conjured by Hagrid since he weren't allowed to use magic.
There were creatures of every colour, the closer they were to the jar the brighter they were, but there were ones from blue to pink, from yellow to red, there were bright white ones and ones of the darkest colour of shadows. They were just smaller than the average fly and were like little balls of fur, tufted slightly on top. They had two small but bright globe-like eyes that emerged beside each other in the centre of the fluff, always contrasting colours to the fur of the individual creature. They had wings on either side, level with the eyes, the only description that would fit them were golden snitch wings, however they had curls of fur that would stretch halfway along each wing, softening the look of the pointy ends. I noticed a soft, slightly squeaky chuckle that hung in the air, it got louder as the animals flew closer to me and I could only assume it was coming from them. I looked to the side and noticed one rather close to my face, it had a small mouth, close but not directly under the eyes. Somebody raised their hand a little bit behind me.
'ye'?' Hagrid prompted
'they're called Puffidub Al Snaglif, or Snaggle Puffs' the boy said,
'Snuggly Snaggle Puffs' a girl nearer the back giggled, I smiled, I recognised the voice, it was Taylor's and she must have followed me down, having walked with my sister part of the way out from the hall slowly as usual. I turned my head to confirm it was her, she didn't see me but I had been right. She had her hand out and one of the Snaggle Puffs were floating around above it, not wanting to stop moving or to fly away, it was slightly brighter than the others around it, I realised they must be brighter as they get warmer or go nearer warmer objects, like the flame.
'uh, Righ', ye' they're called Snaggle Puffs, by the ordinary wizard, though Puffidub Al Snaglif is the official name' Hagrid said, ignoring Taylor's comment, I turned back to the front. 'Snaggle Puffs are attra'ted to ligh' an' heat, and when they move a lo', or are near heat a long time, they hold hea' too. They can be caugh' easily and many wizards like to kee' 'em as pe's bu' there are loads of 'em in the wild still.' After this we simply had to take notes about the behaviour of the Snaggle Puffs for the rest of the lesson. Professor Hagrid would occasionally come out with things about the Snaggle Puffs as if he had just remembered them and I'd note those points down too. I thought about how Tia would like the creatures too and considered ways of getting some into the castle, Hagrid was right, they do seem like the perfect pets. I made a small envelope from a spare piece of parchment I had, and scooped a few Snaggle Puffs into it, then sealed the end with my wand. For a moment they tried to escape, pushing at the sides, the parchment heated slightly and began to gain a gentle glow. But soon the creatures settled down, glowing only with the heat of my hand. The rest of the lesson went quickly in comparison and before I knew it I was following Taylor at distance up the hill to the castle, and my next lesson.
x.X.x
A/N: Sorry this is a short and not very interesting chapter. I'll get more into it once we're on the move with the storyline. By the way, A/N means Author's Note(s).
Lizzy =]
Kyrsten's next XD – over to u LK :P
