The next couple of weeks blurred by and before they knew it September had gone, and they were well into October. The school weeks were fine, and Icarus was selected to be a Chaser for the Quidditch team. Caractacus had tried out but it seems his flying was more suited to travelling rather than high speed games. Nyx had begun to talk more with Caractacus. She would sometimes be in full conversation with him, then suddenly stop like she had realised what she was doing. Icarus said she must like him, but he thought he was just joking.
The three of them were heading over to their Care of Magical Creatures lesson walking, along the edge of the Forbidden Forest when Nyx stopped.
"Did you see that?"
"See what?" Icarus replied looking into the forest next to Nyx. "I don't see anything other than trees and the odd bird".
"I thought I saw a man", she said still staring intently into the forest.
"It must have been your mind playing tricks on you. Remember Professor Longbottom said all sorts of strange things live in the forest, and the majority of them are magical and dangerous. Come on we best get to class, Professor Floundling will be waiting".
With this Caractacus turned and walked on towards the Care of Magical Creatures shack. Nyx and Icarus followed on too after staring into the woods for a little longer.
. . . . .
Hagrid peeked out from under his cloak, the three students had gone. He was sure they had seen him, but he had dived to the ground and thrown his camouflaged cloak over his head. He hoped they hadn't noticed him. He had been hiding in the forest for nearly ten years now, ever since Malfoy had fired him.
He peeked out again double checking the coast was clear. It was, so he stood up and carried on his journey to the Hollow. The cloak had been given to him by Mundugus Fletcher, before his imprisonment in Azkaban. It was a magical cloak which when you threw it round yourself it made you look like a boulder, the only way you could tell it wasn't was if you got really close and noticed that the boulder was breathing. It had served him many times in the last decade and, so far, had not failed him.
He hoped today would not be the day he were found. He knew what would happen if he was found. He would be taken to Him, and then it would be all over for him and Grawp. He carried on his trek to the Hollow. He had a meeting he could not miss.
. . . . .
They arrived at the lesson only a minute late but the Professor hadn't noticed. She was stood next to a mound of very large white shoe boxes, every now and then one of them would judder and shake, and you could hear squeaking and mewling noises coming from them.
"Right class, today we start our projects for the year" Professor Floundling announced.
She was a squat woman with an old face, grey hair tied into a pony tail which stuck out from beneath the rim of her pointed wore the teachers uniform of black robes with a green sash around her waist, which matched the green pads on her shoulders and ribbon around her hat. Green was the colour for the Nature classes, this included: Care of Magical Creatures and Herbology.
Caractacus had learned that although Professor Floundling came across quite strict and forward, she was actually a very kind woman who cared greatly for all animals and creatures. Even if she had lost two fingers on her left had and badly burned the right whilst doing so.
"We will be raising Chimaera from kittens to young adults. This takes approximately seven months and so will be your main project throughout the year. You are expected to come down twice a day to feed them and clear out their cages. You will be working in teams, so arrange a rota between yourselves. At the moment the Chimaera are kittens and so are not dangerous, the worst they could do it give you a mild burn and a nip on the finger. Please remember as they grow the fire breath will become stronger and their bites sharper, not to mention their front claws, rear hooves and strong tail. Now divide yourselves into teams of three and come collect a kitten."
There was some mild hubbub whilst the students split of into their teams. Caractacus turned to Icarus and Nyx.
"Us three yeh?"
"Yep" said Icarus.
"Indeed" said Nyx
"Good".
Caractacus walked up to the Professor and she passed him one of the boxes.
"You pulled the short straw Cracky, you've got the runt".
Walking back to his friends Caractacus opened the lid and stared into the box. Inside was an animal, it had the head, shoulder and front legs of a lion cub, the body and rear legs of a baby goat and a scaled tail which looked like a dragons. It was rolling and running around inside the box and when he had opened the lid the kitten had stopped and put it forelegs against the walls of the box, looking up at the trio.
Nyx swooped, picking up the kitten and cradling it to her chest. She began stroking it and cooing at it. Caractacus was shocked, he had barely seen her so much as smile and now she was holding this kitten like it was her own child!
"She has a thing for kittens", Icarus whispered to him, "We used to have a cat and she had nine of them, and she wouldn't let us get rid of any of them".
Caractacus smiled and watched Nyx play with the kitten, gazing round at the other groups he could see what the professor had meant by the runt. The other groups kitten were the size of a small dog, whereas theirs wasn't much bigger than a normal kitten, they would have a lot of work to do.
"OK everyone listen up and follow me". Floundling called over the noise of the class.
She turned and walked around the back of the shack to where they were presented with what looked like large rabbit hutches piled two high.
"These are where the kittens will sleep, they are made of wood, but they have a inflammable charm placed upon them so no need to worry about the breath. When the weather gets cold we will move them into one of the dungeons which I have arranged to be heated during the cold months. When they get too big for their hutches we will move them into the holding cells in the dungeons".
The class then prepared the hutches for the kittens, putting down some cat litter in a tray for them and putting some food and water in a bowl.
"Remember Chimaera only eat raw meat at this age, anything else will just cause they to throw up. Believe me, you do not want to clean up flaming vomit from the bottom of your hutches".
Once the hutches were ready they spent the rest of the lesson playing with and feeding their Chimaera. Nyx decided they were going to call theirs Hercules, and at the end of the lesson no one was most loath to leave than Nyx, who told Hercules fervently that she would be back after classes that evening.
