Secrets and Dirty Deeds
By the Barefoot Pianist
Chapter 26
Breakfast next morning started off quiet, however much arousal was to be expected later on…
"What's our first subject today?" Carmen asked, picking up a glass of orange juice.
"Care of Magical creatures," said Malfoy before Daphne could, as he sidled up to sit beside Carmen. Jade and Daphne exchanged wised looks.
Carmen looked at Malfoy, indicating that she did not appreciate either his reply or his presence. The looked that she gave to him was something close to looking down upon a flobberworm. "Great, I wonder what disgusting creature we're going to be looking at today?" Carmen couldn't help but shudder when she thought of their last study case: Grindylows – Horned heads and spindly fingers never appealed to her.
"Apparently we're going to be studying Runespoors," Jade said quietly.
Her reply was followed by silence and paling of faces.
Carmen choked on the glass of orange juice, coughed and spluttered, waving her arms blindly for a napkin. "Ow, my nose!" she howled, raising much confusion and commotion. Carmen had snorted some orange juice up her nose.
"…What is going on?" Snape said in a dangerously quiet voice. He had silently slid up to the Slytherin table and was now standing directly behind Carmen.
"I think she got some orange juice up her nose, sir," Malfoy said, trying to hide his enjoyment from Carmen. Carmen stamped hard on his feet. "Ow!" he yelled, cradling his foot and was returned with a murderous glare from Carmen.
"Silence, both of you," Snape hissed. "Miss Davies, you will restrict yourself from stupid behavior in public." Malfoy smirked. "And Mr. Malfoy, you will not encourage your friend, or I shall have to take points away."
Malfoy was left speechless as Snape glided away.
Carmen fanned away at her red nose. After a while, she said, "First books and now Runespoors!" She finished off her glass of juice, placed the empty glass on the table and got up to get her books.
"What the…?" Daphne said.
"Yeah, what was up with that?" asked Jade.
"Let me explain," said Malfoy.
………………………………………………………
It turned out that the Sixth Years would not be studying Runespoors in Care of Magical Creatures. Instead, they would be studying Jarveys for the next few weeks.
"Righ', we're gonna be lookin' at Jarveys. Now, mind yer manners with these Jarveys – they can be a bit rude. They haven't been very happy, ever since I got 'em brought into Hogwarts. But never the less, it's part of the curriculum requirements from the ministry, so off yer go. One Jarvey per pair only! And don't go too far with 'em! There're some rats here that you can feed 'em with."
The Slytherin and Gryffindor Sixth Years approached a large crate with unease. They had many an experience with unknown creatures lurking in crates in their past Care of Magical Creatures lessons. But when they peered over the edge, they only found dirt.
"Where are they?" asked Daphne, half-relieved.
"They're in the soil," Granger said impatiently. "You would have read that in Fantastic B…"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say," Pansy said before Granger could get herself started. Everyone else then started to burrow down to the bottom of the crate to find a nest of dozen or so over-grown ferrets. They picked them up, but were then bombarded with a long string of profanities and rude phrases from the Jarveys, clearly disturbed from their sleep.
Ten minutes later, Weasley and Potter could be seen trying to put a silencing charm on their Jarvey who was progressively wriggling out of Weasley's grip while spitting out insults. A few times, Potter's aim wasn't accurate enough and had hit Weasley, much to the Jarvey and the Slytherins' amusements.
Meanwhile, Carmen was having a ball with her Jarvey – or one could perhaps call it her newfound best mate. It so happened that she had gained the Jarvey's respect by swearing at it when it had greeted her with an insult. Then, Carmen proceeded in feeding it a few rats, had a few swearing contests and an intellectual conversation involving profanities only.
By the end of the lesson, nearly everyone had been insulted, thus bad tempered, and had also learned a few swearwords and handy insults – all except Carmen of course, if anything, she taught the Jarvey something. She could be seen walking away at the end of the lesson with a bulge in her stomach, soon to be caught by Hagrid.
A/N: R&R! Okay, I'm sorry I haven't exactly updated anytime soon, but I haven't had much suport in the way of people reviewing! The next chapter is really juicy, so if you want to know what happens - and you'll never guess - review me! You know, 'give a little - get a little'.