None of the characters in this chapter belong to me. Billywig and hippocampi are from the Harry Potter Lexicon.


Chapter Five

The Magical Creature

Harry and Hermione hurried up the stairs to Care of Magical Creatures. Ron was already waiting for them in front of Hagrid's cabin.

"So, how'd potions go?" he asked as the two students stopped in front of him.

"Well, we found out that Snape is unfair to Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw too." Harry answered. Hermione sighed.

"Harry, if you had noticed, Hannah and Patricia's potion was grey and smelled foul. And Rosalind's turned into a hydration potion. I think she added too much billywig."

"Hermione, we've known each other for five years. When are you going to realize that we just don't care?"

"Maybe you don't care, Ron, because you're not in potions! I bet Harry is interested...aren't you, Harry."

But Harry wasn't listening. He was staring towards the Forbidden Forest where a dark mass was visible through the bushes.

The mass came closer and closer.

Hagrid appeared on the edge of the forest, carrying a large brown sack that had the strong aroma of moldy roses and dead fish.

"Hullo, ev'ryone!" Hagrid called. "Is ev'ryone here?" He glanced at the faces looking up at him and winking at Harry, Ron and Hermione. "All right, let's get down to the lake then."

"What in the world are we going to be doing by the lake? Studying the giant squid? That's hardly what I'd call interesting."

Hagrid turned to face the speaker. "Well Mr. Malfoy, we're not goin' ta study the giant squid right now, but that's a good idea fur another lesson." Ron chuckled under his breath when he saw Malfoy's pale face turn the color of sour milk.

"Now, foller me ev'ryone!" Hagrid called. The class followed him. Some students lagged behind as they had to take three steps for every one step of Hagrid's. They reached the edge of the lake.


Harry shielded his eyes from the sun and saw a dozen or so little wooden boats. In fact, they were the same boats that had taken them to the castle for the very first time six years ago.

Hagrid got into the nearest boat pulling the sack in with him. Getting the idea Hermione stepped into a boat, followed by Harry and Ron. The students began to carefully get inside the weather-beaten boats. Neville climbed in with the trio.

The boats immediately began to follow Hagrid out into the middle of the lake. There was chatter everywhere as people wondered what they were going to be doing. Most had a look of apprehension on their faces and Neville looked like he was about to be sick.

Suddenly all the boats came to a stop in a closed circle. Hagrid cleared his throat. "We're here cause they can't come to us. You see, these are water creatures and can't live on land."

"I'm sorry, Hagrid, but what can't live on land?"

"Why, hippocampi, of course!" Hagrid declared as if they were dense not to have known. "Now, can anyone tell me what a Hippocampus is? Ah, Hermione!"

Hermione grinned as she put her hand back in her lap and began her recitation. "A hippocampus, or hippocampi in plural, is a mer-horse. It has the head of a horse and the hindquarters and tail of a fish. The name is derived from the Latin, hippos meaning horse, and kampos, meaning sea monster."

Hermione was about to continue, but Hagrid cut her off. "Thank you, Hermione. That's good." Hermione looked disappointed.

Hagrid opened up the sack and the foul smell got worse. Malfoy was plugging his nose, when he said "What is that disgusting stuff?"

Hagrid grinned. "It's just a bit of ground up fish and wild flowers. This is the hippocampui's favorite thing to eat. I thought we'd lure them here. At this, Hagrid took a large handful of the chunky fish parts with colorful spots all over it and threw it into the water. They waited.

Suddenly a shadow appeared from beneath the surface of the water. A hippocampus broke the surface and grabbed a large chunk of the food and sank back beneath the blue water.

The class gasped, and a few people clapped. They spent most of the lesson throwing the smelly food into the water and watching as the creatures stuck their heads out of the water to eat.

Neville grabbed a handful from the sack that was now being passed around the circle of boats, and threw it into the water with force. He wobbled on one foot. Hermione scream echoed in the air just before the entire boat capsized.

All the boats suddenly began to make their way back to the shore, leaving Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville floating in the middle of the lake.

Hagrid looked back at them and waved for them to swim to the shore. Neville started flailing his arms and screaming. Hermione conjured up a large life saver that they hung on to. It carried them to a part of the lake where they could all stand up.

The four of them walked onto the dry shore, soaked to the skin. Neville immediately began kissing the sand and getting some in his mouth. Ron and Harry were huffing and puffing as they were trying to keep Neville afloat while Hermione was conjuring the life saver.

Harry looked over at his dry school mates perplexed. He turned to Ron and he had the same expression on his face. Harry turned to look at what everyone else was staring at.


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