A/N: SORRY FOR THE LATE UPDATE I MEANT TO THEN FORGOT IM SO SORRY. So both me and my friend are now back at school, so updates may slow down, although we're gonna try our best to keep it weekly. As always, feel free to leave reviews/suggestions for plot development, and we'll do our best to include your ideas :)

By the time I had reached the comfort of my common room, Lucius was already sprawled across one of the sofas by the fire. I sat down next to him with an elongated huff, causing him to look at me concernedly.

"What's up, B?" he asked

"Just had an awful lesson" I muttered, closing my eyes and tilting my head back to lean it against the back of the sofa "The teacher was trying way too hard to impress us and get us to like him."

Lucius ahhh'd in understanding and, much to my relief, simply settled into a comfortable silence instead of pushing me for more information. After a few moments, I decided to exchange the books in my bag for the ones I would need for the next few lessons: Care of Magical Creatures, and Defense Against the Dark Arts. Once I had finished my task, Lucius rose from his seat and we walked together, me listening to the description of his last lesson. We parted ways at the entrance hall; him heading up the marble staircase towards the Astronomy tower, and me out of the doors, heading down the grounds towards the cluster of people I could only just see at the edge of the Forbidden Forest that Dumbledore had mentioned in his speech at the beginning of the night that we first arrived at Hogwarts.

As I was walking, I felt a hand, then arm, slip through the gap between my own arm and body. I looked around, slight panic rising in my chest, and surprise evident across my face, only to be reassured by the sight of sky blue eyes glittering as the owner smiled at me.

"Tt, Chloe" I tutted, "You almost gave me a heart attack!" She merely giggled while I tried, and failed, to glare at her; instead joining in with her laughter. It was a good sound; our laughs mixing together. Once we had gotten a grip upon ourselves, we proceeded to make our way down towards the ever-enlarging group of students at the bottom of the hill. A grin stretched across Chloe's face, and a smirk adorning mine. She really did have a lovely smile

As we reached the bottom of the hill, we were greeted by a brisk, official voice. "Come on boys, hurry up, we haven't got all day!" ….Boys? I looked over my shoulder, to see that a few hufflepuff boys were trailing behind us. Well that makes a change. Not last to the lesson… I thought bemusedly. Chloe giggled at the confused expression on my face, which caused me to grin at her without thinking, but quickly covering it with a scowl before she could see it.

"What are you laughing at, Beale?" I demanded (or at least tried to). She, frustratingly, just shook her head, whilst her giggles faded to a smile. While we waited for the guys to catch up, to many cat calls from the assembled class, I unlinked our arms. There were two reasons behind this manoeuvre: I didn't want anyone to think I was some sort of pansy; and I was getting slightly uncomfortable at the prolonged contact with a person who was pretty much a stranger. Chloe didn't really seem to mind though, instead moving a bit closer to stand just behind me at my side, so I couldn't quite see her in my peripheral vision, but I could hear her breathing, so I knew that she was still there.

Once the late-comers had arrived, the witch introduced herself as Professor Kettleburn, then swiftly herded us towards some paddocks just around the corner of some sort of hut structure. Situated in the seperate paddocks were a couple of dozen Hippogriffs, Unicorns and Nifflers. When they came into sight, there was a collective gasp and "awwwhhh"s from the mouths of all of the girls apart from me, as I just rolled my eyes at this reaction. Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw Chloe giggling again, but when I turned to her, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, as she simply smiled at me. Quickly returning the smile, I turned away, my smile dissolving into a slight frown, and followed the teacher to the last enclosure.

"These are Kneazles." Professor Kettleburn informed, presenting a feline-like creature to the class. The odd beast strongly resembled Patrick with its wide-set eyes and horrendous amounts of fur. The major differences being the large ears which curled up at the tips like a pixie's; the extra tufts of hair on the tip of a rather disproportionately sized tail; and with more fur forming a lion's mane around it's grumpy features. "For those of you with cats, today's task may be easy. Once I have demonstrated how to feed, pet and tame the more aggressive of Kneazles, you will each work with the creature assigned to you and your partner." She turned on her heel, and proceeded to demonstrate what she had just said, while pointing out the key points in a quiet voice so as to not disturb the creature in front of her. Wait! Partner? I thought, expressing clear confusion as I frowned.

As she finished, Kettleburn turned away from the animal, striding back to the fence and returning to her normal brisk tone. "The pairs you are put in today will remain the same for the rest of the term in my lessons. If you don't like it, then tough." With that, she moved through the crowd of students, placing them in twos. When she reached the small group that had congregated around where I was stood, one of the students asked to go with a specific person. The teacher frowned and purposefully put them with different people. As she reached me, I tensed, waiting to see what person of the class she would put me with. To my surprise, she gestured me towards the redhead behind me.

She gave me her sunniest smile, and I couldn't resist returning the gesture as the teacher moved away. "So. It looks like you're stuck with me for a whole term then." I deadpanned, smirking at her.

"I know, it's great!" She enthused, choosing to ignore the sarcasm dripping from my voice. "It should be really fun! I've always wanted to do Care of Magical Creatures. Although, I think some of the creatures might scare me..." A worried expression overtook her face. I scoffed at her, but smiled afterwards. Totally because I needed to have a partner who I could work with, and not because I didn't want to seem mean and hurt her feelings. The red headed cautiously smiled back, before we turned to the front to await further instructions.

When Professor Kettleburn was finally finished separating us into pairs, she beckoned us forward towards the fence lining the enclosure. Her next action was to start assigning Kneazles to each pair. Chloe and I ended up with a particularly restless one. Glancing over at Chloe's slightly worried face, I smiled reassuringly, and approached the small beast slowly, extending a flat hand cautiously towards its nose so it could get used to my smell. When I got nearer, and it started to back off, I smoothly dropped to my knees so I was nearer to its level, keeping my hand perfectly still as I made encouraging sounds. Tentatively, the feline padded forwards and inhaled my scent. Once deciding that I was not a serial killer or something else bad, it nuzzled against my hand, wanting fuss. I willingly obliged, smirking at how it had a light purr.

"Woah..." a voice said softly. Shit I'd forgotten Chloe was there: all my thoughts had gone into making myself less of a threat to the Kneazle. "How did you- where did you learn- woah" she repeated. I stood up, blushing slightly as I asked her where her horse was. This remark was immediately followed by a cringe. Nice Beca. Now you're inheriting dad's lame jokes. I thought. To save myself from cringing at Chloe again, I looked around me to see that no one else had managed to get close to their Kneazles, who were all running away from the students. I quickly made to step away, but the creature followed me, intertwining itself with my legs.

"Can you teach me?" I barely heard the request,t for it was practically whispered. I did hear it though, and simply nodded and started instructing the redhead.

"Ok so you want to be as small of a threat as possible, so make sure to get down low if it starts to look uncomfortable. This is because you're making yourself smaller and so less intimidating. First thing to do is allow it to smell you, so it can decide whether it likes you or not- which it will" I hastened to add, and a look of alarm flashed across Chloe's face. "Ok. Start walking towards me, nice and slowly, that's it. Ok, stop right there. Now, crouch down- preferably onto your knees- good." I watched carefully as the cat look-alike started its way over to Chloe. "Right. Now, if it makes eye contact, blink slowly. It's the way cats signal to each other that they're friends. If it returns the gesture, then it is willing to accept you. See? Like that. Ok, rub your first two fingers and thumb together- it's an encouraging sound. There you go!" I beamed, as the Kneazle finally accepted fuss from the offered hand. "Make sure you do nice even, firm strokes. It's more soothing than uneven ones. See? It loves it!" Returning to Chloe's side, I joined in fussing the beast between us who was purring as loud as a tractor.

Professor Kettleburn arrived a few seconds later, complimenting us on our handiwork, but was whisked away quickly by the worrying sound of a growl from the other side of the enclosure.

"Beca?" Chloe started softly, still focussed on the Kneazle, which was now lying on its side, basking in all the attention. I hummed in response "Where did you learn all this?" I looked up, seeing Chloe looking directly at me, eyes searching my face as though the answer would be hidden there.

"Uhh I have my own cat- Patrick. I got him a couple of months ago as a congratulations-for-getting-into-Hogwarts prize. My sister helped me pick him. He was really shy when we first got him, so I had to learn some tips and tricks to try and get near enough to him to be able to let him know I could be trusted."

"You have your own pet? Oh, neat! My parents wouldn't let me get one; said I needed to focus on my studies, not on taking care of a dependent being." She sighed, and I felt empathetic to her situation.

"If you want, you can visit my dorm and spend some time with Patrick? I'll let you into the common room?" I offered, looking directly at her, with no trace of a smirk or eyeroll, so she knew I was being deadly serious. Seeing the apprehensive look on her face, I guessed the idea of voluntarily entering the common room of the most notoriously selfish and vindictive house scared her. I quickly changed plan "Or we could just meet up in the lower school grounds and hang out for a bit, and I can bring Patrick?" I knew I had said the right thing as a relieved smile split across Chloe's face.

"Yeah that sounds great! How about-" just as she was about to suggest a time for our 'meet up', a booming voice cut across her.

"Well would yer look at tha'? I reckon tha's the fastest approach onna Kneazle we ever seen, ain't it Potburn?" Chloe and I turned our heads simultaneously to see Professor Kettleburn wince at the mistake of her name.

"It's Kettleburn, actually" she informed crisply, clasping her hands behind her back. If the giant man she was addressing had heard, he didn't pay her any mind; his laugh booming across the grounds. Squinting slightly into the sun, a smile spread across my features, seeing Hagrid's friendly face grinning back at me.

"I'll tell yer, whenever I've come down this far throu' the lesson on my preevus years of workin' 'ere, I ain't never seen any students already sat with their Kneazle, at ease enough to jus' be chattin'. Let alone havin' the Kneazle jus' layin' contently in the grass. Tha's some real skill you two 'ave got there" he beamed at the pair of us sat on the floor, his eyes alight.

Just as I went to thank him on both our behalfs, Chloe spoke up.

"It was all Beca actually" she gestured towards me, to which I started to go red, not wanting to be the centre of attention. I was about to comment on how it was nothing really, but Hagrid also beat me to replying.

"Well, Beca, ev'n I dunno 'ow you do it! Youse'll have to be teachin' me them techniques you was usin'." I tried to shrug it off and muttered "Yeah, maybe", staring at the ground. But Chloe wasn't having any of it…

"I guess Beca's just a bit shy, and trying to stay badass although she clearly is just a big softy!" Chloe teased, nudging me and winking when she said 'badass'.

"Chloe..." I hissed, throwing her one of my death glares, which barely lasted two seconds when she started mischievously grinning at me.

"Well th'n, I better get goin'- the pumpkins won' grow themselves…" he sighed, as he turned away, giving a cheerful wave to the rest of the students, who had barely noticed his presence; far too preoccupied with the creatures in front of them. "I'll be seein' ya, Kettlescorch"

"It's Kettleburn!" the woman called after the diminishing figure, but once again her correction fell upon deaf ears.

By the end of the lesson, only two other pairs had managed to 'tame' their Kneazle, and a few others sustained some minor scratches and instructions to see Madame Pomffrey (the school nurse) just in case.

"Don't worry!" the teacher called after the disheartened class as we walked away "We'll carry on next time! You will be feeding them before you even know it!" her last action was to wave curtly at us before turning away to prepare for her next lesson as we started to make our way back up the grounds towards the castle.