Disclaimer: Harry Potter characters and everything except the storyline – Copyright J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers.

Chapter Eleven: Frederick Stumber

Scorpius POV

After Albus's talk with Professor Longbottom it turned out that there wasn't enough time to go and see Hagrid afterwards because we had classes. We decided to wait a few weeks before going to see Hagrid since me and Rose weren't entirely sure that it was a good use of our time, even though Albus wasn't happy about that. I was still almost certain that Albus was seeing things but he was dead set on finding out more about the stuff he saw.

Me, Rose and Scorpius had been getting very close over the last few weeks. Well, I'd been getting close to them, they were already pretty close since they were cousin. Sometimes I felt like a bit of a third wheel but they were the only friends I had really. I had stopped calling Rose names about her hair and how she looked because it looked like she seemed to be getting quite upset but I did keep calling her Rosie.

After a long argument with Albus in the common room about the fact that there's probably no Streeler in the castle and that there's not really any point going to see Hagrid, I decided to give in to Albus so the next day we grabbed Rose after Transfigurations class and we went to Hagrids.

We were casually walking through the castle and I looked outside and saw a hut down the hill, surrounded by various plants and pumpkins and there was a big, black dog laying outside the front door of the hut, in the sun. The door was open and from this distance you couldn't really see anything or anyone in there so Hagrid might not have even been home.

"Come on guys! I'll race you." Albus said, excitedly and him and Rose started running. I wasn't much of a runner so I watched them run down the hill towards the hut as I casually strolled down.

"Hi Scorpius." I heard someone say. I turned and saw Vicky walking next to me.

"Oh, hi Vicky." I replied.

"What are you doing down here then?" She asked.

"Oh, we're going to see Hagrid about-" I started but she butted in.

"The Streeler." She said, in quotation marks. "I've heard you two talking about it in the common room for weeks now, Scorpius. You don't exactly try and keep it quiet do you?" She told me and laughed. "Albus finally convinced you to go and see Hagrid then?" She asked.

"Yeah." I replied. "I still think that there's no point. I mean, what are the chances that there's a venomous creature roaming the castle?" I said.

"Well, it wouldn't be the first time." She told me. "When our parents were here at Hogwarts there was a Basilisk." She explained.

"A Basilisk?" I asked, confused. What's that?

"Yeah. A Basilisk is a great bloody snake. Big fangs and shizz." She told me. "You know, it was Albus's dad that killed it." ...WOAH.

"Are you serious?" I asked her, sounding very shocked.

"Yeah. It's a long story that I really can't be arsed to explain. Anyway, you have fun at Hagrid's, I have to go meet Ryan. Ask Albus about the Basilisk." She said, smiled and walked away.

"COME ON SCORPIUS!" Rose called up to me so, for fun, I decided to run down the rest of the hill, even though there wasn't a lot of it left.

We walked along the path towards the front door of Hagrid's hut and the dog looked up at us and made a low pitched, tired groan and rested it's head back on it's front paws. It was drooling and it was pretty disgusting but it looked like it couldn't help being that way. Just looking at it I could see that it was old.

"Well 'ello you three." We heard Hagrid say from next to the open door. "Wha' you doin' down 'ere?" He asked.

"Hagrid, we have something to ask you." Albus told him, bending down to give the dog a little stroke.

"Well, come on in then." He said, gesturing for us to come in the hut. We walked in and Hagrid turned round to the dog. "Come on, Fang." He said.

"How old is that dog?" I asked, curiously.

"Oh, he's very old." He said looking down at Fang. "Very old indeed. Older than you lot, and ya' parents, put together. 'e aint like any ol' muggle dog you see on the streets of London and what not." He explained, stroking the dog carefully and slowly. "Not like 'e used to be. He was such a wee little thing when 'e was a pup'. So lively. Now, well, 'e can barely move. Just sits out next to the door in the sun all day. But I don't blame 'im. 'e can't exactly do much more." He said. "But anyway, what was this you lots wanted to ask me then?"

"Oh yes-" Rose started. "We wanted to know if you knew anything about a possible Streeler in the school?" She said.

"A Streeler?" Hagrid said as his eyes widened. "That's a very odd thing to ask." He told us.

"But is there?" Albus said. "Is there a Streeler in the school? We thought you would know." He told Hagrid. "On our first day, I saw something. It was like, this slime. This colourful, glowing slime." He went on to say. "We did some research and discovered that what it could have been is a Streeler." He said.

"Well, I shouldn't really tell ya this but if what ya say is true then ya have the right to know I guess." He said. Me, Albus and Rose looked at each other and I could tell we were all thinking the same thing... Oh no. "When I was first startin' 'ere at Hogwarts there was another man who worked with me. His name was Frederick Stumber. 'e trained me an' showed me what I needed to do in this here job of mine. One day, I walked in on 'im and he was with this big snail. I wasn't quite sure what it was but then I realised. It was a Streeler." He said, sitting down on his wooden kitchen chair. "I wasn't quite sure what was goin' on so I asked 'im what 'e was doin' and 'e told me 'e was modifying it. Unfortunately, it went wrong. Stumber had done somethin' to it and it's venomous snail trail killed him. I studied the beast, hid it. I discovered that the slime could kill whatever it touched by burning it and fryin' it's skin." He told us. I suddenly felt Rose grab my hand and squeeze it as if she was really scared. "I was sent off to do some work in the forest one day and when I got back, the creature was gone. I searched for years but couldn't find it. I'd hoped it had left the grounds of Hogwarts, but I knew that there was the possibility that it could still be in the grounds." He told us.

"So, there's a dangerous, giant snail, strolling around Hogwarts and no one but me, you, Rose and Scorpius knows about it?" Albus inquired. It then occurred to me Rose was still holding my hand so I pulled away and looked at her. She blushed and turned back to Hagrid.

"Yes. An' I don't want you three goin' off lookin' for it and lookin' for trouble. An' I certainly don't want you lot tellin' people either." Hagrid seemed very serious so we all agreed to this. "I knew your parents you three and they were very sneaky, goin' off lookin' for trouble at your age so just try not to be too much like ya parent's." He told us. "Now run along." He told us, and we left.

This could be a very interesting year...