Year 3: Friend Like You

Chapter 25: January 2014

"Truth or dare?" Brianna asked. They had been back at Hogwarts for a week now and as usual, Victoire and her friends found themselves clustered in a corner of the common room playing one of their favorite games.

"Truth," Victoire chose.

"How many times did you and Nathaniel kiss before you broke up?" Brianna asked.

Victoire flushed. "Three," she muttered.

"Seriously?" Brianna asked, unconvinced. "You dated for practically two months!"

Victoire shrugged. "Kara, truth or dare?" she asked.

"Dare," Kara decided.

"I dare you to lend me those super cute earrings that are shaped like little hearts," Victoire declared.

"Done," Kara agreed. "You can wear them tomorrow."

"That's not a dare!" Brianna cried.

"Sure it is," Victoire disagreed. "Besides, I want to wear those earrings. They're adorable."

"But a dare has to be something difficult – something you don't want to do," Brianna complained.

"If it makes you feel any better, I was planning on wearing the earrings tomorrow," Kara offered.

"Victoire, truth or dare?" Brianna asked. "I'll show you what a real dare is."

"Truth," Victoire smirked.

Brianna huffed. "You're supposed to choose dare," she insisted.

"Fine then, dare," Victoire allowed.

"I dare you to… go up to that second year boy over there with the black hair and tell him you think he's cute," Brianna said.

Not wanting to appear weak in front of Brianna, Victoire carried out the dare without protest. The boy in question was sitting alone at a table doing what appeared to be his homework. Victoire sat next to him and they talked for a second. The boy blushed when she told him he was cute and she proudly returned to her friends.

"Done," she said triumphantly.

"Did he say anything?" Brianna asked.

Victoire shrugged. "Just 'thanks'," she said.

Brianna rolled her eyes. "Typical," she muttered.

Victoire wasn't entirely sure what Brianna meant by this, but chose not to ask. Brianna was in one of her moods, and Victoire didn't like bothering her when she was in one of her moods.

Alright Brianna, truth or dare?" Kara asked.

"Truth," Brianna decided. "You guys suck at giving dares."

"Hey, I gave a good dare that one time!" Kara protested. "I made Victoire go out after curfew."

"And she got caught," Brianna pointed out.

"Well that was hardly my fault," Kara crossed her arms.

Before Brianna could retort, Billy and Teddy came over and joined their circle.

"Hey girls," Billy said. "What's going on over here?"

"Just playing truth or dare," Victoire replied.

"Really?" Billy asked. "Truth or dare? That sounds pretty lame."

"Alright then Billy, truth or dare?" Brianna challenged.

"Dare," Billy declared, lifting his chin as if to show that he was better than the game.

"Hmm…" Brianna thought. "I dare you to kiss Kara."

Kara spluttered, but Billy wasted no time in leaning over and quickly pecking Kara on the lips.

"Brianna!" Kara cried when it was done. "That was hardly fair! Why'd you have to involve me?

"Your dare was inadequate," Brianna replied.

"Was not!" Victoire protested, feeling attacked as she had been the one to issue the dare.

"It was so and you know it," Brianna disagreed. "Teddy, you in? Truth or dare?"

Teddy had been relatively quiet up until this point. With all eyes on him, he looked around the group uncomfortably and then stood up. "Neither," he decided. "This game is lame. Come on Billy."

"Aww come on, I had a really good dare to get back at Brianna," Billy protested.

"Well I'm leaving," Teddy declared, disappearing up the stairs to the boys' dormitories.

Billy glanced back at the girls. "Sorry," he said, getting up to follow the other boy.

"What was that about?" Kara asked, she and Brianna both looking to Victoire for an explanation.

"Don't look at me," Victoire said, holding her hands up in front of her. "I certainly don't know what's going on with him."

VvVvVvVvVvV

In Care of Magical Creatures, the next day, Hagrid had a very special surprise for the third years. They had spent the first term studying flobberworms and horklumps and now they were ready to more onto some more dangerous creatures.

"Chizpurfles!" Hagrid announced proudly, unveiling a container filled with the little crab-like insects.

"Oh! Gross," Brianna wrinkled her nose upon seeing them. Victoire elbowed her in the side, telling her to be quiet and let their Professor speak.

"Now as you may know," Hagrid continued. "Chizpurfles are attracted to magical items. Wands mostly, because o' the concentration of magic inside them, but if there's no wands around, they'll go fer anythin' imbued with any sort o' magic. Whatever it is, they like to consume magic, so they'll try an' eat away at it. They also tend to find themselves crawling into cauldrons and licking up what's left of whatever potion was brewed in it last – a lot o' the time cauldrons don't get properly cleaned after all."

"What are we supposed to do with them?" Sara Pucey demanded, not bothering to raise her hand. People rarely raised their hands in Care of Magical Creatures class. At first, Victoire had been caught off guard by the nature of how the students were relating to their Professor, but she'd come to realize that it was just the way Professor Hagrid liked to teach. He even refused to teach inside the castle in a classroom, preferring instead to make them all trek down to the grounds, even when it was the middle of winter like it was now.

"Each o' you are going to receive a chizpurfle," Hagrid declared. "In a small jar o' course. You wouldn't want it getting' out an' eatin' yer wand or summat. Fer the next three weeks, you'll care for yer chizpurfles; you'll feed em' and give em' water and make sure they're happy."

"Oh my God, seriously?" Brianna muttered. "We have to keep them as pets? They're so gross!"

"It'll be in a jar," Victoire assured her. "It's not like it's going to be sharing your bed."

"Oh eww!" Brianna exclaimed. "Don't put those ideas in my head!"

The students lined up and Hagrid gave them each a jar to capture their chosen chizpurfle.

"Who knows what chizpurfles eat?" Hagrid asked.

"Magic?" May Enlow volunteered.

"Apart from that," Hagrid amended. "Something that you can feed them throughout the next few weeks."

This was met with silence.

"Nobody?" Hagrid asked.

"In Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, it doesn't talk about how to feed them," Arnold Rosen said. "It talks about how to kill them. Which is exactly what we should do."

"Well as this is Care o' Magical Creatures class and not Kill o' Magical Creatures class, we'll do things this way," Hagrid replied a little angrily. That was the other thing Victoire had learned. With Professor Hagrid, never joke about killing creatures – even the ones that were considered dangerous by the Ministry.

"Could we feed them crumbs from our own food?" Joe Sanders asked.

"Good guess, but no," Hagrid replied. "Apart from magic, chizpurfles eat grass and leaves and other things that grow."

"Where are we supposed to find any of that in the middle of winter?" Frederick Edgecombe asked.

"A good question," Hagrid said. "This is why chizpurfle infestations become worse during the winter months – because their natural source o' food is gone and magic is the only thing left to eat. Luckily for you lot, I planned ahead and I have bags o' leaves and grass that I collected before it started snowing."

He revealed a box filled with bags of grass and leaves and instructed everyone to take a bag.

"These bags have to last the whole three weeks mind," Hagrid warned. "So don't go feeding the chizpurfles all of it at once."

VvVvVvVvVvV

"This is completely ridiculous," Brianna muttered when class was over and they were returning to the castle with their chizpurfles. "You don't care for a chizpurfle, you kill them like ants or termites. They're household pests. We ought to call the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures right now."

"Oh give it a rest," Victoire insisted. "They're in jars, they're not crawling around in the bottoms of our cauldrons gorging on leftover drops of potion."

"It's unnatural," Brianna insisted.

"I think they're cute," Kara spoke up, holding her jar up to eye level to look at her chizpurfle.

"You would," Brianna muttered.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kara demanded.

"Nothing," Brianna shrugged, backing off.

VvVvVvVvVvV

"Look at my chizpurfle!" Victoire announced later, finding Teddy alone in the library.

"Why are you carrying a chizpurfle around in a jar?" Teddy asked, looking up from his rune translation.

"It's an assignment," Victoire explained.

"For Hagrid?" Teddy asked, understanding.

Victoire nodded. "So listen, I know we talked at Christmas and everything was good, but yesterday you were acting weird and I just wanted to see if you were really alright. Is something bothering you?"

Teddy sighed. "It's just, you know, O.W.L. year and all. There's so much work to do and it's all really stressful and the Professors are all expecting me to prioritize their class, but it's not like I can prioritize every class."

"Of course!" Victoire cried, having almost forgotten Teddy was in his fifth year. "I forgot you were dealing with the O.W.L.s. Of course you'd be stressed out."

Teddy shrugged. "Yeah, well I mean it's not always bad, but – "

"No, I completely understand. It's got to be a lot of work. I'm only in third year, but with the two extra classes from last year I already feel stretched. Obviously it would be worse for you. Do you want me to let you study?"

"NO!" Teddy cried, probably louder than he needed to. "Sorry, I mean no… I don't mind having some company for a bit."

"Well alright then," Victoire agreed, sitting back in her chair.

"So you're babysitting a chizpurfle?" Teddy asked, returning to the original topic of conversation.

"I am," Victoire agreed. "For three weeks."

"Three weeks?" Teddy cried. "Isn't that a long time to carry an insect around in a jar?"

"Apparently you need three weeks to properly bond," Victoire quoted her Professor from earlier. "Of course, personally, I think if the goal is to bond, it's pretty cruel to then take it away."

"You know, I'm sure if someone really bonded with the chizpurfle, Hagrid would let them keep it," Teddy said.

Victoire laughed. "Probably," she agreed. "Good thing it's not going to happen."

"It could happen," Teddy defended. "You could form a really strong attachment and not be able to part with it."

Victoire rolled her eyes. "We'll see about that."

Over the next three weeks, the third years took their chizpurfles with them everywhere they went. They brought them to class, to the Great Hall, where they would place them on the bench next to them so as not to have to look at them while they ate. They brought them to the library, much to Madam Maxwell's annoyance, and they brought them back to their dorms at the end of each day. When the three weeks were over, everybody was eager to see the chizpurfles go.

"Last night," Brianna said gleefully as she quickly removed the lid of her jar and threw in the last of the grass from the bag she'd received from Hagrid. "Finally! I can't wait to be rid of these things."

"I think I might miss him," Kara said as she also fed hers. "I mean, for three weeks, I've gone everywhere with him."

"Please don't say that," Victoire pleaded. "Teddy will think he was right and he wasn't."

"Right about what?" Kara asked.

"He said he thought we were going to end up attached to them and not want to part with them," Victoire replied.

"Oh, don't worry," Kara assured her. "I definitely don't want to keep him."

"The fact that you refer to it as 'him' disturbs me," Brianna said. "I'm going to the bathroom."

Brianna left for the bathroom just as Raina and Caitlin returned to the dorm.

"You still have those things?" Caitlin demanded, wrinkling her nose. She wasn't taking Care of Magical Creatures and couldn't understand why those who were had consented to carrying insects around with them everywhere they went.

"Last night, we promise," Kara told her. "We give them back in the morning."

"Thank Merlin!" Caitlin said, pulling her robe over her head and tossing it in the direction of her bed. Unfortunately, she overshot and the robe sailed over her bed and landed on top of Brianna's sidetable, on top of which the jar containing her chizpurfle was sitting. The jar toppled precariously and in a panic, Victoire dove for it. She didn't make it in time though, because the jar fell and shattered on the floor and the chizpurfle scuttled out.

"Grab your wands!" Victoire cried in a panic, running for hers. If they weren't careful, the chizpurfle would gnaw through the wood of their wands to consume the magical core. "Get up on the beds!"

All four girls scrambled to grab their wands and climb up onto their beds to keep away from the chizpurfle.

"Where is it?" Kara whispered.

"You don't have to whisper," Victoire pointed out. "It's not like it doesn't know we're here."

"I wish I knew where it was," Kara muttered.

"Knew where what was?" Brianna asked, re-entering the room. "What are you all doing?" she frowned.

"Brianna, get up on Kara's bed!" Victoire cried. "There's a chizpurfle loose!"

"What?" Brianna cried, almost knocking Kara off the bed in an attempt to climb on herself. "How?"

"Caitlin knocked your jar off the side table," Kara explained. "It shattered and your chizpurfle got out."

"So this is all your fault!" Brianna snarled, looking in Caitlin's direction.

"It is not!" Caitlin protested. "If you didn't keep the thing right on the edge of the table, this wouldn't have happened. If there'd been the tiniest movement, it would have fallen."

"Guys!" Raina cried. "Shouldn't we focus on finding the chizpurfle before we start arguing?"

"Good idea," Kara agreed. "How should we catch it?"

"First we need something to catch it in," Victoire pointed out.

"We can use one of our jars," Kara said. "Here, pass me yours and I'll put your chizpurfle in with mine."

Victoire did as instructed and while Kara opened the jars to make the transfer, Brianna jumped over to Victoire's bed, not wanting to be that close to Kara if the transfer went awry. Thankfully, it went smoothly and Kara tossed back Victoire's now empty jar while carefully placing the jar with two chizpurfles on her pillow where it couldn't fall and shatter.

"Now what?" Caitlin asked in dismay. "How do we catch it? You guys are the supposed experts."

"Well they're attracted to magic," Raina said. "Mainly to wands. What if one of us put our wand out on the ground and waited for it to come and then trapped it in the jar?"

"That could work," Victoire agreed. "But who's wand do we use?"

"Well this is Brianna's chizpurfle…" Raina said slowly.

"It's not my fault he's loose!" Brianna cried. "Caitlin's the one who loosed it!"

"I'm not even a part of this project!" Caitlin cried. "You can't use my wand!"

"Here, use mine," Kara said, rolling her eyes and tossing it towards Victoire so she could put it down. "Just be careful not to let it eat any of it."

"I'll do my best," Victoire promised, laying down on her stomach across the bed and placing Kara's wand on the floor. She waited for a moment, the jar poised above the wand to catch the insect as soon as it showed itself.

"It's not coming," Caitlin pointed out when nothing happened.

"Just give it a second," Raina insisted. "Maybe it's shy."

"Oh sure," Caitlin rolled her eyes. "Clearly it's left the room. It's probably upstairs terrorizing first years or something."

"There!" Brianna cried suddenly, pointing as the tiny insect ran out from under Raina's bed and crossed the room, making its way to Kara's wand.

"Come on little chizpurfle," Victoire coaxed as it approached. "Come here…. And…. Gotcha!" she cried, slamming the jar down over it. With the chizpurfle safely trapped, the girls climbed down from the beds and Victoire grabbed a piece of spare parchment to slide under the jar so she could pick it up and flip it over. Then she quickly removed the parchment while Kara screwed the lid back onto it.

"Here you go," Victoire said, holding the jar out to Brianna.

"I'm not taking that thing back!" Brianna cried. "You keep it. Kara's got yours anyway."

Victoire rolled her eyes. The end of this project could not come sooner.

VvVvVvVvVvV

The next morning, the third years trooped down to the grounds with their jars, eager to return the chizpurfles.

"What happened here girls?" Hagrid asked when he saw the two chizpurfles in the same jar.

"There was a mishap," Kara explained. "One of the chizpurfles got out and its jar got broken. We caught it, but we were a jar short, so two of them had to share."

"Well as long as you caught it," Hagrid shrugged as they dropped the jars back into the large box. "Couldn't imagine Headmistress McGonagall would be all that happy if there were chizpurfles running around the school."

"But she okayed the project, right?" Brianna frowned.

Hagrid tilted his head, apparently confused. "What d'you mean?" he asked. "I don't have to ask permission to do projects. I jus' do 'em."

Victoire and her friends exchanged a look but let the subject drop. Hagrid laughed and shook his head, apparently baffled by the thought of running his crazy ideas past his boss.

VvVvVvVvVvV

"So no more chizpurfles?" Teddy asked that night as he and Billy played exploding snap with the girls.

"No more chizpurfles," Victoire confirmed. "They are back where they belong."

"And by that you mean…?"

"In a box in Hagrid's hut probably," Victoire confirmed. "Merlin knows what he's got planned for them."

"If he had any sense he'd hand them over to the DRCMC," Billy said.

"This is Hagrid we're talking about," Brianna pointed out. "Sense isn't something he possesses."

"Hey!" Teddy protested. "Don't talk about Hagrid like that. He's a good guy."

"That's Uncle Harry's influence talking," Victoire commented. "But you're right, we shouldn't be mean."

"Hey Teddy," a new voice said. "Ready for rounds?"

Victoire looked up to find that the female fifth year prefect – she could never remember her name – was standing behind Teddy, waiting for him.

"Oh right," Teddy said, shaking his head. "I forgot we were on duty tonight."

The girl smiled. "We'd better get started, it's almost curfew."

Teddy said a quick goodbye, adding that they shouldn't wait up for him because he'd probably be a while completing his rounds.

"That's strange," Kara commented when he was gone. "He doesn't usually take too long when he's on patrol. It usually only takes about an hour, unless there's someone out after hours to deal with."

Billy shrugged. "Maybe they're doing double rounds tonight," he suggested. "Sometimes they do that."

"Oh no!" Victoire cried, noticing that Teddy forgot his wand. "He might need that! I'd better go after him." She grabbed the wand and started to rise.

"Oh, here, give it to me, I'll go after him," Billy said, standing and reaching for the wand.

Victoire held it away. "I don't mind, I'll go," she said with a frown. Why didn't Billy want her to go?

"It's after curfew, if you get caught you'll get in trouble," Billy said.

"I'm bringing Teddy his wand," Victoire pointed out. "I doubt he'll dock me points."

"What if someone else sees you?" Billy asked.

"Well the sooner I leave, the closer they'll be and the less likely that would happen," Victoire said, backing away. "Don't worry, I'll be right back."

Not bothering to listen to Billy's next protest, Victoire climbed out the portrait hole and started down the hallway heading for the Grand Staircase, knowing that Teddy always began his rounds at the Great Hall.

She rounded the corner and suddenly found herself face to face with a sight she'd never expected. Right there, in the middle of the empty corridor, Teddy and the female prefect were kissing.

"Oh!" Victoire cried, catching their attention and causing them to break apart. "I'm sorry. I – " She turned around to leave and then remembered why she was even there in the first place. "Your wand," she muttered, tossing it to Teddy and then returning the way she'd come.