"Aye 'arry," Hagrid called cheerfully. "Are yeh excited 'bout me class?"
"Yeah," he lied with an enthusiastic nod. "Real excited."
They still had twenty minutes until his class started and were attempting to enjoy their free time. Breakfast was over hours ago, with them nervously poking at their food, unable to eat because they feared that anything they ate now would be puked up later.
"Well, I'll see yeh later then," he said and he left.
The looked on in trepidation.
"Maybe we can play sick and stay here," Ron suggested.
"No," Hermione shook her head. "We have to be there to support Hagrid, even though it might kill us."
"Might? Might?" Ron squeaked. "It WILL kill us."
They brooded forever and finally the time came for them to head to their next lesson.
Each of the Gryffindors crowded around the gigantic form of Hagrid.
"Now, today we will learn useful foragin' skills and how ter cook in the wild. I want each of yeh ter look around the woods till yeh find somethin' that looks edible. Bring it back and put it around the camp fire and I'll tell yeh what is safe ter eat and what isn't."
No questions were asked and when it was clear that Hagrid had nothing else to say, they went out in search of food.
"How the bloody hell am I supposed to know what's edible or not?" Ron grumbled when they were out of earshot from the rest of the Gryffindors.
Harry shrugged and looked questioningly at a collection of mushrooms that were growing around one of the trees nearby. He picked a couple and put them in his inner robe pocket.
"Oh," Hermione cried in excitement. "Cabbage!"
She pulled up the cabbage and wrapped her arms around it. While Ron was glaring at her, he noticed a bush out of the corner of his eye. Big, red, delectable looking berries were clustered within the branches.
"There," he announced in glee. "I'll bring these berries." He snapped off a branch that had a clump of them and started skipping back to the campfire.
They each deposited their, hopefully edible finds and glanced around warily at the rest of the selection.
"Since most of yeh are done, I'll begin," Hagrid announced.
He picked up the mushrooms with a frown. "I see a lot of yeh thought ter bring mushrooms, but, unfortunately, if you were ter eat these, you'd prolly be dead within a couple hours."
Harry blushed a little in embarrassment along with a few other students.
Hagrid tossed the mushrooms back into the woods and picked up a beetle that had been placed in the pile. He stared at it thoughtfully for a while. "I'm not too sure 'bout this one, but I say, 'Let's not risk it.' "
Collin looked away sheepishly, while the rest of the Gryffindors let out a relieved sigh. None of them were too keen on the idea of eating beetles.
Hagrid tossed it into the fire and it exploded in a bright burst of pink and purple. It was most definitely not edible. Then Hagrid grabbed up a bunch of different berries.
"I also see, that most of you thought ter bring berries. Good plan, but sadly, none of these are edible. A few of them would only give you a mild stomach ache, but these," he held up Ron's berries. "These cause a person to fall into a deep unwakeable sleep."
Ron gulped; he had been planning on eating some.
He threw the berries away and began rifling through the assortment of hopefully or unhopefully edible food, explaining what each was and what symptoms it produced before throwing them away.
"It seems," he said at last, "that the only thing edible would be the cabbage that Hermione found." Hermione blushed at the compliment.
"Now I'll show yeh the cookin' part of the lesson. First we'll begin with how to build a fire."
He showed them how to build a fire and how to roast things on sticks held over the flame. He showed them food that he had gathered in advance that was safe to eat. After that they went to look for the safe food he had demonstrated and together they began roasting their food over the fire.
Hagrid kept looking thoughtfully at the cabbage. He hated plain cabbage as did most normal people, but he had never tried to cook it. He built his own fire and set up everything he would need. When the water was boiling he dumped the sliced cabbage into the water and added some seasoning. Strangely enough, it started to smell really good and soon the students were watching the giant with curious expressions. When the cabbage was almost translucent he fished out a piece with his spoon, blew on it, and then ate it. It still tasted horrid, but he was not willing to allow the cabbage to go to waste.
"Maybe if I fry it..." he mumbled to himself, trailing off in thought.
He nodded once and set to work, straining the cabbage, mashing it and then squishing it together into a little patty. He pulled out a frying pan and set it over the fire, then tossed the patty on the pan. At first the smell only grew more delectable, but then it began smelling foul. Thick black smoke poured forth engulfing the student in a sickening aroma. The smell invaded their nostrils, making the Gryffindors wrinkle their noses up in the hope that they could prevent it from invading their noses any further. It didn't work.
"Bugger," Ron said, squinting at Hagrid through the smoke. "It seems you burnt it."
Hermione frowned at Hagrid. "What in the world made you think that you could fry cabbage?"
"I don't know," he replied with a shrug.
"I thought you were supposed to know these kinds of things," Lavender quipped. "You are teaching us how to cook in the wilds after all."
Hagrid glared at the two girls. "The fried cabbage patties worked in theory, OK?"
Hagrid gave them all a hurt look and stormed off, leaving them to their one-hundred percent all-natural lunches. They watched him go before tearing into their food, ravenously hungry from having skipped breakfast.
The Gryffindors were gathered around the campfire listening to muggle ghost stories. The orangish glow of the firelight was reflected in each attentive eye as Hermione's creepy voice echoed around the silent night air. The night should not have been silent and wasn't until just a few minutes ago. It was if someone had turned off a switch and all the crickets hushed and the only noise that remained was the crackling of the fire, the panicked breathing of the students, and Hermione's bone-chilling voice filling the void.
"It happened on a night, much like this one, under a full-moon just like this one. The late summer air was blowing through the trees and the leaves were rustling against each other. That was where it all began," she paused for affect.
"Three kids were going camping in the woods, all alone. They were excited because this was the first time in their life that they didn't have some adult hovering over them protectively, but maybe they should have been scared, really scared, because maybe if they were scared, they'd still be alive. This is their ta..."
A rustle in the nearby bushes cut her off. Two first-years gave a terrified squeak and clung to each other.
"Mmmmmmm... huuuumans..." A deep male voice purred from outside of the clearing. "I just love humans. My favorite bedtime snack."
Slowly a wolfish shape appeared, illuminated by the fire.
"Werewolf!" someone shrieked in fear.
Suddenly the night air was lit up as a dozen or more curses flew in the general direction of the werewolf, some hitting their target, most missing it horribly. The repetitious flashing of curses flying through the night air was reflected in everyone's eyes. They continued even after the werewolf was down and unmoving, but slowly, ever so slowly, people got the hint and stopped.
Neville was thrashing about on the ground wildly. All eyes turned suddenly to him and someone, possibly the same someone who had screamed 'werewolf,' screamed again. "Somebody help, Neville's having a seizure!"
Hagrid and Professor McGonagall were already on their way when they heard the first scream.
A crowd was already gathering around something when they heard a girl scream, "Somebody help, Neville's having a seizure!"
They shoved through the crowd towards the center and there, thrashing about on the ground was Neville. Harry and Ron were on top of him, trying to hold him down so he didn't injure himself and Hermione was close by barking orders.
"Somebody go get the Profe...," she looked up when she heard them approach. "Oh."
"Get off him boys," Professor McGonagall commanded. They rushed to obey. She pointed her wand directly at the boy's chest and shouted, "Petrificus Totalus!" He went straight as a board and didn't even so much as twitch a muscle afterwards.
"Everyone go back to your tents. It's been a long night and you need to be awake and alert for tomorrow's lesson."
Everyone wandered off except Neville's friends.
"Is he going to be all right?" Hermione asked in concern.
"I think so," McGonagall answered. "But just to be safe, I'll have Hagrid take him to Madame Pomfrey."
They nodded and wandered off looking worried. No one was getting a good night sleep after that frightening episode, especially since it was now painfully clear that it was a full-moon tonight.
"That was rather irresponsible for Dumbledore to plan a camping trip in the Forbidden Forest when there was a full-moon out," Hermione huffed. They all nodded in agreement.
Unbeknownst to them, their supposed werewolf was actually Professor Flitwick in disguise.