CHAPTER 4 - Edith, Spud, Nelly and Marlene
Despite the drizzling rain, breakfast was as good as ever. Bacon, eggs, toast, cereal, porridge and all manner of things soon disappeared down hundreds of hungry mouths.
New timetables were handed out and were greeted with a loud shout of, 'Yes!' by Ron.
'What?'
'We don't have Potions with the Slytherins this year! We've got the Hufflepuffs instead!'
'Brilliant!'
Even the prospect of the first lesson of History of Magic with Professor Binns took on a new optimistic light. This was soon dissipated by the lesson itself, the tedious ghost teacher droning on about past Ministers of Magic and key decisions and events made in each of their respective terms of service.
By the end, most of the class wasted to bang their heads against their desks or peel the skin off their bodies just to take their minds off his monotonous voice that bored its way into their very skulls and made them want to scream.
'At least we've got Hagrid next. That should wake us up a bit.'
'Yeah, if it doesn't kill us first. Wonder what deadly creature he's got lined up for us this term.'
Harry found that time has the annoying habit of slowing down and almost coming to a halt when waiting for something as dull as Binns's lectures to come to an end. But come to an end at last it did and all three of them rushed outside to get a bit of fresh air. Even Hermione had found it incredibly, mind-numbingly boring, but the lesson was soon, thankfully, forgotten as they walked across the grounds to Hagrid's hut. The rain had stopped and the sun was beginning to break through the hanging cloud.
Waiting outside of Hagrid's humble quarters were two fairly large wooden boxes that Hagrid appeared to be talking into. He stood up and waved at them, 'Hello, you three. I've got somethin' nice an' easy fer you today as it's yer first day back.' He indicated the boxes with a sweep of one of his huge hands. Harry, Ron and Hermione looked at each other, wondering what Hagrid's perception of "nice an' easy" would be.
'I just hope it's not more Skrewts,' Harry whispered to his friends. He wasn't in the mood to visit the hospital wing (maybe not in one piece) on the first day back.
'Not likely,' said Hermione, 'they'd have incinerated those boxes by now.'
The rest of the class wandered up a few moments later, carrying with them a voice made unpleasant by the mocking tone it held, 'I wonder what vicious monster the big oaf will be trying to kill us with today? A Lethifold? An Acromantula? Or perhaps a nice, friendly Nundu?'
It always riled Harry the way that Malfoy spoke about Hagrid, although most of them felt the same way about the terrifying monsters that Hagrid seemed to find amusing, 'Nice to see you've been doing your homework for once, Draco.'
'Shut it, Potter!'
'Now that you're all here,' Hagrid beamed at them all, except for a slight sideways look at Malfoy, 'I've got somethin' to show yer.'
Hagrid bent down, unlatched the lid of one of the boxes, put his hand in and drew out a very odd-looking creature. Its long, serpentine body was solid chocolate brown in colour, the only exceptions being creamy patches on its face and chest. It almost seemed to be smiling at them, but that was disconcerting in itself because of the two dagger-like fangs that sat over its bottom lip. The only way that Harry could describe it was like a monstrously oversized ferret.
Bright, jet black eyes blinked owlishly in the light and scanned the faces in front of as it dangled from Hagrid's fist. Finally its gaze settled on the disgusted sneer radiating from Malfoy. 'Whachoo starin' at, rat-face?' it shrieked.
The whole class stood speechless for a moment before dissolving into laughter, all except Malfoy and his cronies.
The creature looked very pleased with itself as it licked its dark nose with a quick, pink tongue. Hagrid stroked its head as he talked, 'Aye, I should have warned ye about that. This here's a Jarvey. They can talk a bit, but it tends just to be insults so I wouldn't go tryin' to start up a conversation with one. They're pretty useful if you get an infestation of gnomes, nothing'll clear 'em up faster. Lot's o' country folk keep jarveys for that very reason, so you'd best learn how t' handle 'em.
'Now Edith here's a jill, that means she's a female. They tend to be a fair whack smaller than the hobs, that's the boys. Harry, will you hold Edith while I get Spud out? Come on, don't be shy.'
'Not scared, are you, Potter?'
'Not as scared as you, rat-face!'
Hagrid held the jarvey out and instructed him on how to hold her. 'That's it, Harry. Jus' hold her along yer arm like a baby. Look, everybody, Harry's a natural, that's the way to hold a jarvey if you don't want to get bitten. You should always hold a jarvey like that if you don't know it. Edith here's as gentle as a kitten, but there's lots who aren't.' Everyone made a mental note of the way Harry was holding her, except for Malfoy and the Slytherins who stared scornfully at the whole thing.
The jarvey lay peacefully along Harry's arm, in face she took the whole thing up from the tips of his fingers to where her head peered over his elbow. There was an extra third of her body-length in tail hanging down from his hand. Hagrid reached into the other box and drew out another jarvey, except that this one was pure white with pink eyes. If they thought that Edith was large, Spud was something else altogether. Including his tail he was almost three and a half feet long and was nowhere near as docile.
'I'd like ye all to meet Spud. ('Get off me, hairy!') He's probably about the biggest that jarveys get, where as Edith's about the smallest, though hobs are nearly always bigger than the jills.'
'What're we supposed to do with these things?' As usual, Malfoy's complaining voice was the first to raise an issue.
'Today we're goin' to start off with the basics. We're takin' 'em for a walk!' From one of his massive pockets, Hagrid produced a tangled mass of leather harnesses and leashes. 'Harry, Ron and Hermione, you take Edith. Here, that's hers. Who wants Spud?' Not a single hand went in the air. 'Nobody, okay, you three there can have him. Just talk to him a bit, make friends with him first. That's very important. If you want to do anything with a jarvey, it's got to trust you first. Hold him a sec, I'll get the others out.' Hagrid passed Spud over to Lavender Brown and her friends who watched the jarvey mistrustfully and tried to hold him like Harry was holding Edith. He then opened other compartments in the boxes and drew out three more jarveys in one go - a light, sandy coloured one, an almost black one and a silvery one, all only slightly bigger than Edith.
'Here, this is Nelly,' he said passing over the sandy jarvey, 'and Avril,' away went the black, 'and Malfoy, this is Marlene. Just take some time to pet them, let them get to know you a bit. Once you're friends with your jarvey you can put the harnesses on them. I think you three are ready with Edith now.'
The brown jarvey was now nuzzling Harry's robes affectionately in between licking Ron and Hermione's hands. The harness slipped easily over the jarvey's head and front legs and would have been more quickly buckled if she hadn't started trying to discover what was over Harry's shoulder. The leash clipped easily to a small ring on the cross-over.
'Brilliant!' Hagrid said, clapping all three on the back, 'You can put her down now and walk her.' Hagrid was distracted by a scream coming from Lavender's direction. 'Don' worry, he won't bite, Parvati, just grab a firm hold of him round his shoulders, that's it. Much better. Marlene!' Hagrid noticed a silvery streak disappearing into the distance. He fumbled around for a small whistle and blew it. There was an immediate change in the jarvey's demeanour, they were fixated on Hagrid, desperately trying to get to him. The distant bluish shape became bigger as Marlene came running back to Hagrid, her back arched and tail fluffed out. He picked her up and stroked her head and shoulders. 'Good girl, yeah, my good girl.' He fed her a piece of meat taken from another of his gargantuan pockets. 'You gotta be really careful with these things. They'll take any opportunity to escape. Lucky I got mine trained to come back to a whistle.'
He handed the silver jarvey back to Malfoy, but Harry had a sneaking suspicion that it hadn't been an accident. It was just the sort of thing Malfoy would do - let one of Hagrid's prized jarveys go just to spite him.
The lesson passed without further incident and most people had actually come to quite like the jarveys in the time they spent with them - their occasional rude phrases were stored up for later use on others, some of them being quite witty but most just swearing.
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The first few weeks of term flew by as they always did and it soon felt like they hadn't had a summer holiday at all. September gave way to October and before they knew it Halloween was creeping up on them, being only a week away. The weather grew colder and the rain became more frequent and gnome-hunting trips with the jarveys became a bit of a chore.
The first frost came that week before Halloween. The night was clear and bright, the moon a day away from being full, when the ice formed on the grass. It was not cold enough yet to freeze even the edges of the lake and one creature was particularly thankful for it.
Far out in the middle of the dark waters, right between the two shores at the lakes deepest part, there were ripples that caught the moons light. Someone was swimming. Swimming her pain away, swimming away from her fears towards the one place she felt she could go in safety.
The castle loomed up darkly against the clear night, but she was tired, oh so tired. The chill waters were finally taking their numbing effect on her body, freezing her bones and muscles, making it difficult to take another stroke.
Her limbs lost all feeling and she knew her effort was in vain. Her own thick fur that had kept her warm for so long was pulling against her, dragging her down into the icy, deep black waters. With her last grain of strength she tipped her head back to look at the stars, so beautiful, so unreachable, before she sank down under the silky, unforgiving water.
The air bubbles escaping from her nose and fur created new stars in the clear sub aqua world. But if they never found her body, never knew where she had gone, then she would be happy and it had all been worth it. But one thought pushed its way into her dying brain, a face that would remain with her as long as her heart lived. Then everything went beautifully and mercifully black.
Despite the drizzling rain, breakfast was as good as ever. Bacon, eggs, toast, cereal, porridge and all manner of things soon disappeared down hundreds of hungry mouths.
New timetables were handed out and were greeted with a loud shout of, 'Yes!' by Ron.
'What?'
'We don't have Potions with the Slytherins this year! We've got the Hufflepuffs instead!'
'Brilliant!'
Even the prospect of the first lesson of History of Magic with Professor Binns took on a new optimistic light. This was soon dissipated by the lesson itself, the tedious ghost teacher droning on about past Ministers of Magic and key decisions and events made in each of their respective terms of service.
By the end, most of the class wasted to bang their heads against their desks or peel the skin off their bodies just to take their minds off his monotonous voice that bored its way into their very skulls and made them want to scream.
'At least we've got Hagrid next. That should wake us up a bit.'
'Yeah, if it doesn't kill us first. Wonder what deadly creature he's got lined up for us this term.'
Harry found that time has the annoying habit of slowing down and almost coming to a halt when waiting for something as dull as Binns's lectures to come to an end. But come to an end at last it did and all three of them rushed outside to get a bit of fresh air. Even Hermione had found it incredibly, mind-numbingly boring, but the lesson was soon, thankfully, forgotten as they walked across the grounds to Hagrid's hut. The rain had stopped and the sun was beginning to break through the hanging cloud.
Waiting outside of Hagrid's humble quarters were two fairly large wooden boxes that Hagrid appeared to be talking into. He stood up and waved at them, 'Hello, you three. I've got somethin' nice an' easy fer you today as it's yer first day back.' He indicated the boxes with a sweep of one of his huge hands. Harry, Ron and Hermione looked at each other, wondering what Hagrid's perception of "nice an' easy" would be.
'I just hope it's not more Skrewts,' Harry whispered to his friends. He wasn't in the mood to visit the hospital wing (maybe not in one piece) on the first day back.
'Not likely,' said Hermione, 'they'd have incinerated those boxes by now.'
The rest of the class wandered up a few moments later, carrying with them a voice made unpleasant by the mocking tone it held, 'I wonder what vicious monster the big oaf will be trying to kill us with today? A Lethifold? An Acromantula? Or perhaps a nice, friendly Nundu?'
It always riled Harry the way that Malfoy spoke about Hagrid, although most of them felt the same way about the terrifying monsters that Hagrid seemed to find amusing, 'Nice to see you've been doing your homework for once, Draco.'
'Shut it, Potter!'
'Now that you're all here,' Hagrid beamed at them all, except for a slight sideways look at Malfoy, 'I've got somethin' to show yer.'
Hagrid bent down, unlatched the lid of one of the boxes, put his hand in and drew out a very odd-looking creature. Its long, serpentine body was solid chocolate brown in colour, the only exceptions being creamy patches on its face and chest. It almost seemed to be smiling at them, but that was disconcerting in itself because of the two dagger-like fangs that sat over its bottom lip. The only way that Harry could describe it was like a monstrously oversized ferret.
Bright, jet black eyes blinked owlishly in the light and scanned the faces in front of as it dangled from Hagrid's fist. Finally its gaze settled on the disgusted sneer radiating from Malfoy. 'Whachoo starin' at, rat-face?' it shrieked.
The whole class stood speechless for a moment before dissolving into laughter, all except Malfoy and his cronies.
The creature looked very pleased with itself as it licked its dark nose with a quick, pink tongue. Hagrid stroked its head as he talked, 'Aye, I should have warned ye about that. This here's a Jarvey. They can talk a bit, but it tends just to be insults so I wouldn't go tryin' to start up a conversation with one. They're pretty useful if you get an infestation of gnomes, nothing'll clear 'em up faster. Lot's o' country folk keep jarveys for that very reason, so you'd best learn how t' handle 'em.
'Now Edith here's a jill, that means she's a female. They tend to be a fair whack smaller than the hobs, that's the boys. Harry, will you hold Edith while I get Spud out? Come on, don't be shy.'
'Not scared, are you, Potter?'
'Not as scared as you, rat-face!'
Hagrid held the jarvey out and instructed him on how to hold her. 'That's it, Harry. Jus' hold her along yer arm like a baby. Look, everybody, Harry's a natural, that's the way to hold a jarvey if you don't want to get bitten. You should always hold a jarvey like that if you don't know it. Edith here's as gentle as a kitten, but there's lots who aren't.' Everyone made a mental note of the way Harry was holding her, except for Malfoy and the Slytherins who stared scornfully at the whole thing.
The jarvey lay peacefully along Harry's arm, in face she took the whole thing up from the tips of his fingers to where her head peered over his elbow. There was an extra third of her body-length in tail hanging down from his hand. Hagrid reached into the other box and drew out another jarvey, except that this one was pure white with pink eyes. If they thought that Edith was large, Spud was something else altogether. Including his tail he was almost three and a half feet long and was nowhere near as docile.
'I'd like ye all to meet Spud. ('Get off me, hairy!') He's probably about the biggest that jarveys get, where as Edith's about the smallest, though hobs are nearly always bigger than the jills.'
'What're we supposed to do with these things?' As usual, Malfoy's complaining voice was the first to raise an issue.
'Today we're goin' to start off with the basics. We're takin' 'em for a walk!' From one of his massive pockets, Hagrid produced a tangled mass of leather harnesses and leashes. 'Harry, Ron and Hermione, you take Edith. Here, that's hers. Who wants Spud?' Not a single hand went in the air. 'Nobody, okay, you three there can have him. Just talk to him a bit, make friends with him first. That's very important. If you want to do anything with a jarvey, it's got to trust you first. Hold him a sec, I'll get the others out.' Hagrid passed Spud over to Lavender Brown and her friends who watched the jarvey mistrustfully and tried to hold him like Harry was holding Edith. He then opened other compartments in the boxes and drew out three more jarveys in one go - a light, sandy coloured one, an almost black one and a silvery one, all only slightly bigger than Edith.
'Here, this is Nelly,' he said passing over the sandy jarvey, 'and Avril,' away went the black, 'and Malfoy, this is Marlene. Just take some time to pet them, let them get to know you a bit. Once you're friends with your jarvey you can put the harnesses on them. I think you three are ready with Edith now.'
The brown jarvey was now nuzzling Harry's robes affectionately in between licking Ron and Hermione's hands. The harness slipped easily over the jarvey's head and front legs and would have been more quickly buckled if she hadn't started trying to discover what was over Harry's shoulder. The leash clipped easily to a small ring on the cross-over.
'Brilliant!' Hagrid said, clapping all three on the back, 'You can put her down now and walk her.' Hagrid was distracted by a scream coming from Lavender's direction. 'Don' worry, he won't bite, Parvati, just grab a firm hold of him round his shoulders, that's it. Much better. Marlene!' Hagrid noticed a silvery streak disappearing into the distance. He fumbled around for a small whistle and blew it. There was an immediate change in the jarvey's demeanour, they were fixated on Hagrid, desperately trying to get to him. The distant bluish shape became bigger as Marlene came running back to Hagrid, her back arched and tail fluffed out. He picked her up and stroked her head and shoulders. 'Good girl, yeah, my good girl.' He fed her a piece of meat taken from another of his gargantuan pockets. 'You gotta be really careful with these things. They'll take any opportunity to escape. Lucky I got mine trained to come back to a whistle.'
He handed the silver jarvey back to Malfoy, but Harry had a sneaking suspicion that it hadn't been an accident. It was just the sort of thing Malfoy would do - let one of Hagrid's prized jarveys go just to spite him.
The lesson passed without further incident and most people had actually come to quite like the jarveys in the time they spent with them - their occasional rude phrases were stored up for later use on others, some of them being quite witty but most just swearing.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The first few weeks of term flew by as they always did and it soon felt like they hadn't had a summer holiday at all. September gave way to October and before they knew it Halloween was creeping up on them, being only a week away. The weather grew colder and the rain became more frequent and gnome-hunting trips with the jarveys became a bit of a chore.
The first frost came that week before Halloween. The night was clear and bright, the moon a day away from being full, when the ice formed on the grass. It was not cold enough yet to freeze even the edges of the lake and one creature was particularly thankful for it.
Far out in the middle of the dark waters, right between the two shores at the lakes deepest part, there were ripples that caught the moons light. Someone was swimming. Swimming her pain away, swimming away from her fears towards the one place she felt she could go in safety.
The castle loomed up darkly against the clear night, but she was tired, oh so tired. The chill waters were finally taking their numbing effect on her body, freezing her bones and muscles, making it difficult to take another stroke.
Her limbs lost all feeling and she knew her effort was in vain. Her own thick fur that had kept her warm for so long was pulling against her, dragging her down into the icy, deep black waters. With her last grain of strength she tipped her head back to look at the stars, so beautiful, so unreachable, before she sank down under the silky, unforgiving water.
The air bubbles escaping from her nose and fur created new stars in the clear sub aqua world. But if they never found her body, never knew where she had gone, then she would be happy and it had all been worth it. But one thought pushed its way into her dying brain, a face that would remain with her as long as her heart lived. Then everything went beautifully and mercifully black.