Simon was dreading Magickal Creatures. He hadn't seen Baz since the morning before (which is pretty impressive when you share a room), and now he'd have to spend the whole lesson working with Baz. No wonder he was panicking.
"Hello Baz," Simon muttered to himself, trying to figure out how to greet him, "hey," "sup," "how are you?" nothing felt right. As Simon collapsed onto a log, he gave up on planning the perfect conversation starter, and decided to simply leave it to luck.
It was only a couple of minutes until the lesson began, and the logs (oh the wonders of an outdoor classroom) were beginning to fill up. There was one noticeable exception though, Baz still wasn't in class. 'What if he's avoiding me?' Simon wondered, 'what if he hates me?' Simon was beginning to panic even more when-
"Simon," Baz greeted, dropping gracefully onto the log beside Simon. He looked much better than he had the previous day, more alive somehow.
"Oh, hi Baz, how are you? Isn't the weather just lovely today? I hope class goes well, and we don't have to do anything too difficult," Simon stammered out, turning bright red.
"Well, if you're done with your conversation, Snow, maybe we can start our lesson," Professor O'Malley boomed. Baz meanwhile was chuckling quietly at Simon's side, the traitor! Simon became aware of the eyes that were on him and smiled sheepishly.
"With that over," Professor O'Malley cleared his throat, "Your Magickal Creatures assignment is due."
"Baz?!" Simon hissed, forgetting his shyness in his panic, "What assignment?"
Baz shot him a sideways glance and then turned back, "I thought you were doing research for your Magickal Creatures assignment."
"What assignment Baz?!" Simon was almost frantic.
Baz smiled, a first, and then answered, "If I didn't know any better Simon, I would say you hadn't done it."
Simon stared at him wordlessly.
"You really have to stop doing that Simon," Howard and Penelope said together and then blushed, taking a seat on the ground by the log.
"Doing what?" Simon was gobsmacked.
Suddenly Professor O'Malley was above them, "Where's your notes on the creature of your choice? C'mon, I haven't got all day."
Simon copied everyone, miming looking through his satchel whilst really thinking up an excuse to why it couldn't be done, when he found the notes he'd written about vampires to compare them to Baz. This in itself was not so strange, apart from the fact that Simon distinctly remembered leaving the page on his desk. Baz grabbed the sheet from Simon and handed it to the Professor with a flourish. Penelope and Howard looked as abashed as Simon felt, as Professor O'Malley grunted and moved away.
"Right, today's lesson is going to be done individually."
"I wonder how that got in there." Simon muttered.
Baz gave a wicked grin.
"I have no idea," he said innocently, turning back to face Professor O'Malley, who was explaining the days lesson.
"Alright everyone," Professor O'Malley said, beaming around at the class, "I've got a real treat for all of you today!"
"I hope it isn't like last time he had a 'treat' for us," Howard whispered to Simon across the table.
Simon winced at the memory of both Howie and him running around with fairies in their hair. His hair had been stuck like a bird's nest for days before the fairies tired of living there!
"I don't know," Penny said slyly, "I thought it was rather amusing."
"Penny you traitor!" Simon exclaimed, "I knew you were taking your time researching how to get rid of them!"
"It was a low priority Simon!" Penny defended, "and besides, either of you could have researched it for yourself." She glared at both Simon and Howie, who dropped his gaze, while Simon continued staring at her defiantly.
"Who ended up getting rid of them anyway?" Penny asked frostily. At that, Simon's gaze dropped guiltily, "Yeah, that's what I thought!" she finished triumphantly.
"Anyway," Professor O'Malley concluded, "now that we've gone over the safety precautions, I'm going to let you get on with today's lesson."
"Um…" Simon started, "Does anyone know what we're doing?"
Howie shrugged, "I wasn't paying attention, sorry."
Baz smirked, "Well, I'm off to start the lesson, because I was listening while you were arguing."
"I'm going to join him," Penelope smiled vindictively, "good luck."
Howie and Simon exchanged terrified looks and rushed off after the others.
"Grab yourselves some gloves to handle the critters."
A crowd had gathered around Professor O'Malley, so as hard as Simon and Howie tried, they couldn't see over the heads of those in front of them.
"Your task is to identify the creature, and keep it alive for the rest of the week, you'll be graded on this, so try your hardest."
With this, off he went, back through the forest, leaving his class alone in the clearing. Simon began pushing his way through people, and was almost at the front when he heard a cry-
"Ew! What are they?"
I was Penny's voice, and as Simon craned his head he could see what had made her act this way. Penny, in typical Penny fashion, had uncovered the lid off of a bucket that presumably held instructions to find wriggling mass, upon wriggling mass of black insects.
"Millipedes!" Howie hissed to Simon.
"How do you know?" Simon asked shocked.
"When you don't live in an ancient Wizarding estate, these critters are everywhere!" Howie exchanged a grin with Simon.
Penny and Baz had grabbed a millipede each in a gloved hand and were appearing to have a heated discussion on the magical powers that they may possess.
"OK, here's the plan," Simon waved his hands, "We let our creatures run wild and put an enchantment on them so we know where they are, got it?"
"Wow Simon," Howie paused, "That's actually smart."
"Millipedes never last long in captivity."
Howie stared.
"Watching only the Discovery Channel does teach you some things."
"At least your knowledge of that isn't from personal experience." Howard said, "I never knew what to feed them, I tried everything, chocolate, pizza, all my favourite foods, but it never worked."
Simon shook his head, "The people at the orphanage wouldn't have let me even think about keeping one."
"So anyway," Howard, looking around, "it looks like no-one from a fully wizarding family knows what a millipede is."
Simon laughed looking around, he noticed Baz and Penelope (mostly Penelope) panicking over what to do with their, 'little black snakey things'.
Howard joined in as Agatha began complaining that hers smelt.
"Bet she squished it!" Simon chuckled.
"That is the worst," Howard said, "My mum always hated it when people stepped on millipedes in my house."
"What are the two of you chatting about?" Baz asked smoothly sliding up alongside them.
"Nothing, nothing at all." Simon smiled innocently back at Baz.
"Hang on, do you know what these creatures are?" Baz asked, his eyes narrowing in suspicion.
"Oh yeah, they're super poisonous when their toxin is combined with rubber, that's why Simon and I aren't wearing any gloves." Howard piped in.
Baz's eyes widened in shock, before he rolled them in exasperation as Simon and Howie roared into laughter.
"Do you know what these are?" Penny demanded.
"Um, yes…" Howie confessed sheepishly.
"But," Simon interrupted quickly, before Howie's resolve could melt any further in Penny's strong gaze, "this is an individual project, so we couldn't help you even if we wanted to."
If there was one thing that Penny abides to it's the rules, sadly the same could not be said of Baz. With one swift movement he upended his millipedes onto Simon's hair. There was a beat of shocked silence before-
"GET THEM OFF!"
Simon went racing around like a mad man, especially because Baz had gone overboard and grabbed ten. Howie laughed before Baz slowly met his gaze.
"That could be you, if no one tells us what they are."
"Millipedes!" It seemed that Howie didn't want the same fate as Simon.
Baz grinned vindictively, "And he thought he could get away with it."
Penny started talking to Howie about the magical properties of millipedes which left Baz and Agatha watching Simon, who had enlisted the help of some fan girls to remove the crawling insects from his head.
"I'm sorry." Baz stared straight ahead, "about before."
"About what?" Agatha said.
Baz half turned, noting the too innocent set of Agatha's eyebrows, about to ask her what she'd done when Simon returned.
"I got them off Baz, ha!" Simon said looking slightly like a mad scientist with his hair sticking out in all directions.
"Ah, yes, I see that you did get all the millipedes off."
Simon's face fell, he was crushed.
"Who told you?"
"Turns out Howard didn't want the same fate as you." Baz smirked.
"Great, I went through all that for nothing." Simon felt his dishevelled hair and groaned, "Not again, this always happens when Professor O'Malley has a treat."
Baz, Penelope and Howard just laughed at Simon.
"You won't be laughing," Simon said threateningly, "When you go to eat food and there are millipedes in it."
"You wouldn't," Howie gasped, "I ate one, accidentally and…never again." He shuddered in distaste.
"Ew." Penelope said, "You'd better not, you know what I can do to you in return."
Simon cringed, remembering some of her more embarrassing 'let's humiliate Simon because he did something stupid' pranks.
"You wouldn't dare do anything to me either, I know where you sleep." Baz said snarkily.
By the end of the lesson, rather a large proportion of the class had already killed their millipedes.
Simon and Howard, however, were feeling cautiously optimistic about their chances of getting a good grade on this project, and, once Penny and Baz understood that millipedes were harmless, and non-magical, they were guaranteed to be able to find good information to keep them alive for the week.
"Go free, Frederick." Simon said, releasing his millipede into the wild once he'd put the locating spell on it (this spell includes several 'blips' if you are interested).
"You named it?" Baz said incredulously.
"Of course I did." Simon exclaimed, "They grow up so fast."
Baz rolled his eyes and for the first time looked uncertain.
"Simon, a couple of us were thinking of playing a messing-around game of football, will you join?"
Simon laughed, "Aleistor almighty, is this the yes I was waiting for?"
Baz's permanent scowl lightened slightly, "H-"
"Alright, everyone gather up!" Professor O'Malley's voice boomed.
Simon jumped and whirled around to find the full-set man lumbering into the clearing.
"Where does he go?" Baz mussed.
"Maybe he has a secret girlfriend?" Simon smirked, leaving Frederick behind and striding back toward the other end.
"Or a wife, there's a ring on his finger." Baz observed.
"Guys, he's one of the Mage's close friends, they have coffee." Penelope joined them.
"Wait, how did you know this?" Simon asked.
Penelope paused, "I thought it was common knowledge."
"Obviously not." Baz stated.
"Now that, hopefully ya'all know what the creature is," O'Malley said once all were gathered.
One of the girls burst into tears, her friends tried to comfort her.
"Well," O'Malley continued, "Let's now hope that the creatures will survive the rest of the week in your care. Remember that you Magickal Creatures grade depends upon it."
It seemed that Professor O'Malley's speech was over, there was a stampede of Baz and Simon's classmates asking him questions about the creatures already dead, how they could save their grades.
"So about the football game…?" Baz drifted off.
"I'll see you there." Simon said determinedly.
Now all he had to do was learn how to play football within the day. And Simon logged Professor O'Malley as someone to look out for, if he was the Mage's friend, Simon reckoned that they should be better acquainted.
We do not own many off these characters, they are Rainbow's!