Hello, one and all! Catgrl52 here, saying my new kittens are as cute as ever! Cuter, if possible. Thanks to all who reviewed. Um… oh yeah! This is chapter number I don't know. You all know I am not finishing this story, and I had gotten an idea for this before I got to this point in my fanfic. So I decided to post it cuz I like this chapter and the chapter after it. And it is when… you'll find out! Now, here we go with the usuals.

DISCLAIMER!!!!: Oh, come on you guys, y'all know very well by now that it's: NOT MINE NOT MINE NOT MINE NOT MINE NOT MINE! So there. Harry Potter is NOT MINE, and I'm not J.K. Rowling. Blah blah blah.

Now for my lovely reviewers that reviewed the last chapter and a few who didn't (a-hem ALLISON).

Arimel: Yes Harry will wind up with Ginny of course, but you forgot to read and/or review the third chapter. So go do that NOW! And you do to have a name and I know it and I don't think it's boring, justly slightly uninteresting. JK. HA! THAT'S FUNNY! GET IT? JK? AS IN JK = JUST KIDDING AND J.K. ROWLING? THAT'S SO FUNNY!!! HAHAHA, hoo, hoo, ha, hooo… ok, I'm fine now.

Padfoot4eva: WHAT'S THE DEALIO??? REVIEW!!! I'll send you an email and remind you to review.

There! Now that that's all taken care of, we can continue my wonderful story! (lol)

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The next day in Care of Magical Creatures, Hagrid was bursting with excitement.

            "Got summat to show yeh!" he said softly, his voice quivering with anticipation. "Be quiet now, yeh don' want ter wake 'em up jus' yet!"

            "Oh, what are they? Blast-ended screwts that we're going to raise from the dead?" drawled Draco Malfoy, raising shouts of laughter from the Slytherins, or in Pansy's case, shrieks. Hagrid began to look ashamed, then suddenly he stopped and, with a determined look on his face, raised his head, stuck out his chin, and said, "no, Draco, they're not. These are much gentler creatures that won't harm yeh if you don't harm 'em. It won't matter if yeh insult 'em cuz they can't hear yeh. However, that was not the case with some past creatures I 'ave shown to this class."

            Harry, Hermione, and Ron were all speechless. Everyone was. But nobody was as shocked as Malfoy himself, gaping at Hagrid, opening and closing his mouth with no sound coming out. Hagrid had never stood up to anyone before. Malfoy quickly recovered, however. But being caught by surprise, he had no snide comment to remark, and simply sat at one of the many tables with filled fishbowls on them.

            "Now, I want yeh to come over here, and look in this 'ere tank. Remember to hush!" Hagrid led them to a large tank filled with water. All the girls gasped. Inside the tank, floating in the water, were about thirty egg-like things. They were blue and turquoise green, and had they been stationary, would have been as unremarkable as any egg, dyed by muggles for an Easter-egg hunt. However, these were obviously not Easter eggs. Aside from floating to the top of the tank then floating back down a foot or so and spinning, they were emitting tinny bubbles, as if the "eggs" were asleep.

            "Everyone get a fishbowl and get in line!" Hagrid said. He took Harry's bowl, and, using a cup, scooped out one of the "eggs" and popped the "egg" into it. Doing the same with all the students, he instructed them to carefully walk back to one of the tables and not try to spill the water.

            "Er, Neville? Perhaps I better take yours," he said worriedly.

            "No professor! I'm fine! Really!" Neville was unusually confident this morning, much to the surprise of everyone.

            "Well… if you're sure." Neville confidently walked back to his seat, not spilling a drop. Harry felt like applauding. Ever since he had found out about his parents, Harry had felt a slight pang in his stomach every time Neville was laughed at or goofed up. Hagrid looked relieved. "All righ' now, everyone carefully – carefully! Yeh want to wake 'em up, not give 'em a concussion—tap on the glass."

            Everyone did so, and Harry, preparing himself for a vicious attack in case one came from the thing, followed suit. This time everyone gasped. The "eggs" unfurled to reveal tiny blue and turquoise green humanoid things with brownish reddish hair on their heads. They swam around, looking curiously out at their "humans" and blowing bubbles, or in some cases, (such as Malfoy's, who had rapped the glass hard with his knuckles) the things were crouching at the bottom of the bowl, trying to disappear.

            "Blue water squarips!" proclaimed Hagrid. (Pronounced square - ips) "Caught 'em myself in the lake this mornin'! Now, the blue ones are the girls, and greenish ones be the boys! Everyone, get a partner with someone who has a girl if yeh've got a boy, and vice versa!"

            Harry ended up with Neville. Surprisingly, it was not accompanied by the usual feeling of dread he had when partnered with Neville previously. Hermione and Ron, were together, however. Ron was slightly pink around the ears and Hermione was trying to hide a blush by going about in her usual business-like manner. Maybe they'll realize how the other feels, thought Harry. It's about time they started admitting how much they care about each other.

            Neville was doing very well with his squarip, which happened to be a girl. It seemed to have taken a liking to Neville, looking up at him lovingly from watery black eyes,, nudging the glass in what it thought to be an affectionate manner, emitting a long stream of bubbles, and purring (at least that's what the noise it was making sounded like). Neville then made the slight mistake of sticking his finger into the water: his squarip (which he was now affectionately calling Jessica) (I don't know why Jessica, it just called to me, Jessica, name her Jessica) had grabbed onto his finger and refused to let go, nudging his finger and purring some more. Not until Neville, in a last attempt to regain control of his finger, lifted her out of the water did she release him to plop down into the bowl and gaze at him lovingly.

"Now, pour both bowls into the larger fish tank on yer tables, an' watch what happens!"

Harry and Neville's squarips did nothing. Nevilles continued to gaze at him lovingly, and Harry's tried to attract her attention by doing flips and tricks under water and jumping above the water. After a while, he floated to the bottom of the tank, with a forlorn look on his face. Harry truly felt sorry for the little guy, having known what it was like trying to attract a female's attention and her not noticing in the slightest. He perked up only after harry sticking a small bit of purple Himalayan water-weed from a bowl on the table into the tank. He then proceeded to show it off, finally winning the girl's attention, who left Neville without a second thought when she saw the water weed (I know I'm adding lots of fluff, I can't help it, I just want to give y'all an idea of what the thingies are like). Neville chuckled.

Ron and Hermione's, however, had had quite a different reaction. Upon seeing each other, they began swimming around each other and doing flips and tricks and blowing streams of bubbles, which appeared to be how the creatures communicated.

"Oh, hey! Everyone, come 'ave a look! That means they like each other, they do!" cried Hagrid. Both Ron's and Hermione's blushes deepened. Harry grinned. "okay, write yer names on the tank and get ter yer next class! Oh, and," Hagrid paused, his face furrowed with decision. Suddenly he looked resolute. "Yer homework is to get different plants to see what these beauties like ter eat! We'll be taking care of them for the res' o' the year." Harry was impressed. Hagrid had never given homework before. It seemed that for once, their Care of Magical Creatures Class would be okay.

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            Harry, Ron, and Hermione talked while walking back towards the castle.

            "Wow! I've never seen Neville do so well in a class before besides Herbology!" said Ron.

            "I know! You're really lucky you got him as a partner, Harry!" said Hermione.

            "Wait a minute!" demanded Ron. "What about me? Aren't I a good partner to have?"

            "Well, of course you are! But Care of Magical Creatures isn't really your strongest asset," she answered. Harry could see she was trying to retort back but was failing miserably as she was beginning to blush slightly again.

            "Oh really! Well then, what are my strongest assets?" persisted Ron.

            "Well… you are… um, you're very… uh," Hermione began to blush furiously now, and Harry was trying very hard not to laugh. Averting her eyes from Ron's queatining and Harry's amused ones, Harmione looked at the ground and mumbled something.

            "What? I don't think I understood you correctly, Hermione," Ron pestered.

            "You're… you're… uh," Hermione hesitated, blushing even more.

            "Yes?" Ron waved his hand in the air, trying to keep the flow of words coming from her mouth.

            "you're – you'reveryniceand," she paused for only a moment. "You'reveryniceandcute!" With that, Hermione turned and ran up to the castle as fast as she could without a backwards glance.

            "I tole you so!" laughed harry, clapping his dumbstruck friend on the back.

            "she th-th-thi-thi-thinks i-i-i-I'm c-c-cute?" He stuttered. "I need to sit down." With that, he plopped onto the ground. The fall must have affected his brain somehow because he suddenly got a vague, dreamlike smile on his face and a far-off looking expression in his eyes and said in a dreamy voice, "she thinks I'm cute."

            "Come on," said Harry, grabbing Ron's arms and attempting to pull him up. Ron refused to budge.

            "She thinks I'm cute," he repeated. "She thinks I'm cute… cute… hmm…"

            "Oh get up, you!" Harry pulled harder. "The Yule Ball's in two weeks, you gotta ask Hermione before someone else does." Harry looked at his friend. Suddenly he had an idea. "Well, of course, you don't have to, that is, if you want another incident like last years Yule Ball with Krum," he said nonchalantly, shrugging.

            Ron's face lost its dreamy expression as his eyes widened. He jumped up, grabbed Harry, and proceeded to run back up to the castle as fast as he could, dragging a laughing Harry the whole way.

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Hey! Thank you so much for reading! Now review! I am quite sure I don't need to tell you guys to be nice. I think I've gotten that point across enough already. So review and be nice! REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!!!!!! Please review. NOW! Ok. I'll shut up now.

Love y'all,

Catgrl52    ^·∙·^    y'all know this is a kitty now, right?

P.S. REVIEW!

P.P.S. RIGHT NOW!!!!