Care of Magical Creatures
Part 8.5! I added this for HUMOR. Hopefully…
Everything in bold is copied from the Goblet of Fire! Did you read that? Good. And you may wonder, "What book four? Hello? You're messing things up, you're writing about book five right?" Well it's just a bit useful to some humor.
3rd person POV: Harry
"Did you hear?" A breathless girl asked. "We're doing unicorns in Care of Magical Creatures!" she looked like she wanted to dance in joy. "Er, okay," Harry mumbled. The girl, Lavender Brown looked at him in slight disgust. "Not you," she said loudly. "Unicorns favor the females." She stuck her nose up, turned, and walked off. Nearby the exchange students were giving each other amused looks. AGAIN. What was it with "exchange students" and "amused looks"? Whatever. He would find out soon enough.
"My name is Professor Grubbly-Plank," she said briskly. "I am your temporary Care of Magical Creatures teacher."
"This way, please," said Professor Grubbly-Plank, and she strode off around the paddock where the Beauxbatons horses were shivering. Harry, Ron, and Hermione followed her.
She led them past the paddock where the huge Beauxbatons horses were standing, huddled against the cold, and toward a tree on the edge of the forest, where a large and beautiful unicorn was tethered.
Many of the girls "ooooohed!" at the sight of the unicorn.
Lavender Brown whispered, "How did she get it? They're supposed to be really hard to catch!"
The unicorn was so brightly white it made the snow all around look gray. It was pawing the ground nervously with its golden hooves and throwing back its horned head.
"Boys keep back!" barked Professor Grubbly-Plank, throwing out an arm and catching Harry hard in the chest. "They prefer the woman's touch, unicorns. Girls to the front, and approach with care, come on, easy does it. ... "
That was when Percy decided to walk up too. Professor Grubbly-Plank stared at him for a second and then she remembered how unicorns liked women better and tried to hold him back.
"What are you doing? Are you trying to get killed? That unicorn will probably kill you on sight! Stop! Stop!" Professor Grubbly-Plank was running towards Percy now. When Lavender Brown saw Percy untying the rope she started yelling too. "Professor! He's freeing the unicorn! It was obviously difficult to catch and you're ruining Professor Grubbly-Plank's work!"
By this time Percy had finished with the complicated knots. A panting professor was catching her breath, then realized the unicorn was untied.
"Uh oh," was all she said when the unicorn began to move. To almost everyone (especially the girls and Professor Grubbly-Plank), the unicorn started bowing. Harry was confused. Bowing? To a boy? Either the professor was wrong or something else. He saw Hermione frown. He saw Percy look at the unicorn as if it was crazy (or maybe some weird unidentifiable expression), then the unicorn looked sheepish and stood back up.
"Uh okay," was all Professor Grubbly-Plank could say. "Girls let's try this again." They walked towards the unicorn slowly, but it backed off from them. Harry heard Percy say, "No they won't hurt you. Don't worry." The unicorn stopped moving.
So strange… Did Percy put the unicorn under an Imperius Curse? Harry thought that it only worked on people though!
Ron was saying something next to him. "- has got to be a Death Eater! Using Unforgivable Curses, acting weird, I bet he has a Dark Mark!"
"Ron, I've read in all the textbooks on Dark Arts, and the Imperius Curse is always written as 'only works on humans,' so Percy is probably doing something else. An animal controlling spell (Alright! I know that it does work on animals [proved on a spider by Professor Fake Moody] but still stories are stories right?)?"
Harry was beginning to doubt his attempt at making a friend from Percy, but still… Percy seemed pretty nice, not like what he thought a Death Eater would be like.
A few minutes later the three friends had cornered Percy as best as they could, with their wands pointed at him.
"Go ahead, you can wait for me in the castle!" Harry heard Percy call to his friends.
"Now," Harry said venomously (or he tried to). "Tell me, why did you use the imperius on that unicorn?"
"Imperius?" Percy asked, confusion etched on his face. He turned to the unicorn. "Block him," Harry said to Hermione. "Don't let him get away before we get answers!"
Hermione 'discreetly' scooted in front of the unicorn.
"Uh," Percy mumbled. He spoke directly to the unicorn.
"Hey Claire what's an Imperius Curse?"
"Who's Claire?" Harry wondered aloud. "I don't remember a Claire in this class."
"Wait used to control people? What?" Percy said randomly.
"DARK ARTS?! You could have told me that earlier."
"No, they (Percy gestured to Hermione, Ron, and Harry) think I used an Imperius Curse on you. So they asked me and I asked you what it was, because they obviously don't care to explain."
Harry and Ron exchanged looks. Then Harry and Hermione exchanged looks. Then Hermione and Ron exchanged looks. Then all three of them exchanged looks.
"This is weird," was all Ron said.
"Come on, let's go. We have homework," Hermione said. When the boys refused to move because they didn't want to do homework she began pulling Harry's sleeve. "We have homework! Hurry up," Hermione said, practically dragging Harry to the castle. Ron shrugged and followed.
When they were inside the castle Hermione let go of his sleeve and Harry turned on her. "What was that for?"
"Harry, we can't talk about him in front of his face, you should know that!"
"Oh," he said dumbly. "I thought you actually wanted us to do homework!"
"Well of course I do, but that's not the point. My point is that Percy may have created a Magical Creature Communication device, or at least gotten hold of one. They are extremely rare, the only ones known are in Dumbledore's office and the other is hidden in the Ministry."
"So are you suggesting Percy stole it from Dumbledore's office? I think that's more likely than the Ministry," Harry asked.
"My guess also," Hermione said. "The one in the Ministry is still unconfirmed. No one knows where it is. We aren't even sure it's still in the Ministry anyways. Last update was three centuries ago, while the one in Dumbledore's office has been recently checked to be in working condition just last month."
"I remember reading it on the news!" Harry exclaimed. "I remember it said 'pocket sized, easy to conceal,' so it is entirely possible Percy has it! What I don't get is how he got into Dumbledore's office anyways."
"Dark Magic," was all Ron said. "It's obvious isn't it? How else could he have gotten in?"
"Wait I thought we all agreed the culprit was Jason right?" Hermione asked, slightly confused. Then she straightened. "Or maybe Jason stole it, gave it to Percy without saying how he got it, and when Percy is caught…"
"The blame is shifted away from Jason. An ingenious plan, on a Death Eater smartness level, though not as good as one of yours," Ron said to Hermione.
"Thanks," she mumbled, blushing. "I'm going to find Annabeth now and finish some homework," she said pointedly, raising her eyebrows. Then she left.
"I guess we should finish our homework," Harry thought aloud, glancing at Ron. "See you." Then Harry followed Hermione.
I had to put Care of Magical Creatures SOMEWHERE so I decided here. That means two chapters between the original 7 and 8. I called this one 8.5 but still. Next update will be March 1! Or before…
