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Care of Magical Creatures- a class usually taught outside, near the Forbidden Forest.
Draco still wasn't sure why he was taking this class. He didn't really like Hagrid or his sub, (who was here now) Grubbly-Plank. He wasn't really an animal person. He tended to get dirtiest in this class. It was taught outside, so he sometimes had to slog through muck and mire, thoroughly wrecking his shoes and the bottoms of his robes, with the rain washing away his hair gel. All-in-all, a horrible class.
At least there was no rain today, but it was by no means sunny.
Slytherin had this class with Gryffindor today-oh, joy. An hour of listening to that Mudblood show off her mind and think she was better than everyone else, watching Potter get attention, and Weasley bungle whatever it was they were learning.
Well, when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade.
"Hey Weasley! Are those robes, or a bunch of raccoon carcasses sewn together?"
Ron lunged and Potter raised his wand. Draco leveled his wand and shot a curse right towards Ron's face-the same curse that had hit Mrs. Norris.
But the curse didn't connect.
At the last second, someone had reached out and grabbed the redhead's robes and gave them a firm tug. The Gryffindor had been pulled out of the way, but also pulled away from Draco.
"Ron! Can't you see he's baiting you? You too, Harry. Honestly! Don't lower yourselves to his level."
The Mudblood stood behind the boys, admonishing them. Of course. Granger always had to ruin his fun.
But before he could have another go at the Weasley's ego, Professor Grubbly-Plank showed up. The noise of chattering muted with her presence.
Looking around to be sure she had everyone's attention, Professor Grubbly-Plank nodded. "Students, today you will be learning about the unicorn and its natural habitat."
Many female faces lit up whilst many male faces pouted. The curriculum seemed to focus on feminine creatures while the sub was teaching.
"I will pair you up, and you will go into the forest together to a specific location marked on a map which I will hand out to you. These are places where there have been unicorn sightings. You are to take notes on your surroundings, then come straight back. Do you hear me on that? No stopping to smell the roses."
With that, she began to pair students up 'at random.' Though Draco noticed that no friends were paired together, and that the all-Gryffindor pairs and all-Slytherin pairs were few and far between.
Then, four horrid words reached Draco's ears. "Malfoy, you're with Granger."
Both Draco and Hermione looked like they might just make a run for it. Unfortunately, the care of magical creatures sub was oblivious to their unhappiness, and just handed the pair a map with a dot in what appeared to be a random place, but apparently once hosted a unicorn.
"As soon as you and your partner have your maps, you may go."
And so, by cruel twist of uncaring fate, Draco Malfoy was forced to set off into the woods for an hour with Hermione Granger.
It actually went well for maybe the first ten minutes. Somewhere around the ten minute thirty second mark Draco tripped on a root jutting out of the ground like a foot extended out in an aisle and fell flat on his face in a puddle of mud and moss and leaves. This did not put him in a good mood.
Draco didn't get up quite as quickly as he maybe should have, and Hermione tripped over him, and she was not as lucky about where she fell. Hitting a rock, her nose promptly began to bleed. All over the back of Draco's robes.
"UGH! I'VE GOT BLOOD ON MY ROBES! THAT WILL NEVER COME OUT! AND IT'S FROM A MUDBLOOD, TOO! CAN THIS DAY GET ANY WORSE?"
He probably should have kept the Mudblood comment to himself. Two seconds later, the pair had two nose bleeds between the two of them.
Hermione pulled the map out of her robe pocket, and groaned. Mud had seeped through her robes and ruined the bottom third of the map. She could see where they had started, the key, and the dot marking where they were supposed to go. But the path to get there had been completely obscured.
"Well, we are now officially lost."
"Of course we're not, Granger. We just have to go back and get another map."
"Wrong again, Ferret. Yes, go back. Do you know how to get back without the map?" Sure enough, the light that signaled the end of the forest was too far behind them to be seen. The two were cloaked in the forest's shadows. The color drained from Draco's face.
"You got us lost!"
"I got us lost? Who wasn't looking where they were going in the first place? I don't think that was me."
"Who wasn't looking where they were going? I tripped over a root, you tripped over me! Which is bigger, me or the root?"
Hermione's curt reply was cut off by a rustle in the bushes. Upon closer examination, he could see a faint glow coming from behind the leaves. Draco's memory chose that moment to drudge up all those lessons on small but dangerous creatures that made their homes in the Forbidden Forest-creatures with teeth, with spines, with poison, and with magical abilities such as to create an illusion. Why did he have to remember these now?
Granger, instead of going still like him, advance on the bush in question with her wand raised. Extending her hand, she pulled a branch of the bush aside, and then abruptly put it back in place.
"Well, don't keep me in the dark, what is it?" Demanded Draco, having found his voice at last. "It's not dangerous, is it?"
"Don't worry-it's just a Firebird." Draco's stare was akin to a blank piece of paper. "You know, a zhar-ptitsa."
"Granger, if I didn't know the common name, why in the world would I know the scientific name?"
"Russian in origin, glows, said to bring both luck and doom? Stravinsky wrote a ballet inspired by it! Don't you remember this? It was on our last test! And it was on out history of magic test. And we learned about it in potions-the feathers can be used in many potions!"
"I don't remember things that are on tests! I memorize it for the test, and then flush it out of my brain!"
"How did you manage to keep an O in magical creatures?"
"I showed up! It's not that hard of a class! Besides, just because I'm not a walking book doesn't mean I'm not smart!"
"If Darwin was right about anything, you wouldn't have lived this long!"
"Who's Darwin?"
While they were bickering, the firebird in question stepped out from behind the bushes, and slowly inched closer to the group. When it wasn't attacked, it grew bolder, and walked right up to Draco. Absorbed in his argument, Draco didn't notice it until it nuzzled its torch-bright head against Draco's clenched fist.
"AHH!" Draco jumped a foot in the air and, unthinkingly, hit behind Hermione. The fiery bird just cocked its head, bright eyes still focused on Draco. It then sprinted around Hermione and plopped itself onto Draco's lap. Draco was far from happy about having a brightly colored glowing peacock sit on his lap.
"Quit your whimpering, Draco. It isn't that dangerous, unless you capture it."
"Do you have to capture it? What if it tries to be captured?"
"That's tagging along, not being captured."
The bird cooed, and nuzzled Draco's hand again. "Looks like it likes you." Draco's eyes widened and he tried to thrust the bird off his lap, to no avail. "Is that bad?" "Draco, don't you remember anything at all about the Firebird? Remember all those Russian princes that tried to capture it only to get a mixture of extreme good luck and misfortune?"
Draco's face remained confused.
"Oh, just don't try to hurt it and you should be okay. If it wants to go, it will. If it likes you, you can give it to Hagrid when he comes back or Professor Grubbly-Plank if you're desperate.
The pair trudged through the woods, getting thoroughly dirty and their mood worsening. The Firebird appeared unaffected by the muck, though, and took a lost-puppy kind of adoration for Draco.
After about an hour, Draco collapsed on the ground and shouted, "First I get mud on my robes, then I get a nosebleed, then I get lost, now a stupid glowing bird thinks it's my pet! Where will it all end!"
He received no sympathy from Hermione.
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