Disclaimer: I am not JKR and I am not making any money whatsoever from this.
Chapter 11: Weird Friendships
Over the last week Ernie had been in The Common Room taking in much more information than he'd ever though existed on cauldron metallurgy. Luna seemed to know everything although some of her theories seemed a little out there like using mercury to make gold, if it were that easy everyone would be rich.
Ernie was currently bored out of his skull. He had come to The Common Room for his weekly Gobstones match with Draco, only to find that Draco was not in the mood to play, he was however, listing all of the ways in which the Malfoys were better than the Weasleys.
"-the hole or whatever they call it is the size of my bathroom at Malfoy Manor." He heard as he made his decision, "Draco."
"Yes?"
"I have to go. I promised Hannah I'd help her with Charms."
"Oh, well, okay. I'll walk with you. I still have some Potions homework to finish." They waved to Luna who sat in the Ravenclaw chair reading The Quibbler and left.
After Draco continued down to the dungeons, Ernie walked past the kitchens turning into the corridor that led to the Hufflepuff dormitories when he saw a door he'd never noticed before, which was surprising as it was a bright green. The room was small and dark. It's probably a closet that moves about, Filch probably painted the door in order to keep track of it. He was closing the door when he heard a low screeching. He pulled out his wand, "Lumos" he said quietly, and the room lit up and he saw what appeared to be a nest in the middle of the room. In front of the nest lay an animal, it had a dark green scaly body and what looked like fur around its head and paws. It was covered in blood and long cuts, and it was obvious it was dead. Looking into the nest he noticed several eggs were broken, the shards lying everywhere like bones, but there were no small bodies near it.
Then he heard it again, the screeching it was coming from the back of the nest and there he saw a baby lizard trying to get out of his shell which was tangled in the nest, probably what saved it from whatever animal had attacked. He placed his wand down and helped the small lizard out, he now saw several holes in the walls of the closet and knew that he had to take care of the lizard if it would have any hope for survival. Placing it in his pocket he grabbed his wand. He stepped out of the room, closed it behind him and ran towards the Hufflepuff dormitories.
He looked around the room trying to spot Hannah's blond pigtails and saw her talking with Justin. What did he want? He wondered as he hurried to her side.
"Hello, Justin, may I borrow my best friend for a few minutes?" Hannah looked at him curiously and he ignored her.
"Of course," Justin said, looking expectantly, bloody mudblood!
"Alone."
"Oh, sorry." Once Justin walked away, Ernie sat down next to Hannah.
"Why were you so rude?"
You were talking to that git. "I need your help. You're doing well in Care of Magical Creatures, right?"
"We've been caring for flobberworms all year."
"Oh, anyway, what do you feed a baby lizard?"
"Bugs?" She said just when the lizard shrieked. "What was that?"
"A baby lizard. Where do you think we could find bugs?" He said opening his pocket to give her a view.
"Where'd you find it?" She asked stroking its head with a finger.
"A closet, you don't think it's against the rules to keep a lizard, they weren't mentioned in our letter first year."
"I don't think so, it's so cute."
"You're just lucky you saw that snitch before Cho did." Ginny was saying when Ernie walked into the Common Room.
"Luck had absolutely nothing to do with it." Draco responded as he took one of her knights.
"Harry could have caught that snitch twenty minutes into the game, but then again the Gryffindors wouldn't have been so far behind either." She responded.
Ernie could see her strategy and it was working, Draco was getting progressively angrier and was making careless moves.
He moved into the room and went to sit beside Luna who was reading a book about the healing power of crystals. He placed his hand in his pocket and stroked Fred's head and he squeaked in what Ernie hoped was delight.
"What is that?" Luna asked putting down her book.
Ernie pulled Fred out placing him in his palm, "It's my new pet, Fred." He then proceeded to tell her about how he'd found him.
"You found a Lavi!" Luna exclaimed.
"A what?" Ernie asked, immediately regretting it.
"My father wrote an article about it two years ago. It's a warm blooded lizard with fur. It's fur is actually used in several ancient protection potions, unfortunately the eggs are a favorite treat of Kneazles and they are very rare." Ernie wasn't sure how to respond as he knew that almost anything that appeared in the Quibbler was completely fictitious, he was saved answering by a very loud "Checkmate!" coming from Ginny.
"You cheated!"
"I won! I won, I won, I won!" Ginny sang as she skipped over to the fireplace, "I woooooon" she belted out as she threw herself on the Gryffindor chair.
"You cheated." Draco said as he sat down on the Ravenclaw chair sullenly. "What's that?"
"It's a Lavi." Luna said.
Ernie shrugged when Draco sent him a questioning glance, "his name is Fred."
Ginny giggled, "my brother's name is Fred."
"You mean you know all their names?" Draco asked spitefully.
"How's the search for the Cauldron going, Luna?" He interrupted before Ginny could respond and another argument could begin.
"Not well, I think the most we can do right now is keep watch for any mysterious cauldrons," Luna said and Ernie thought back to a few weeks ago.
He'd been on his way to meet Draco in the dungeons, but he'd forgotten which room he was supposed to meet him in. He knew that this end of the dungeons hadn't been used in years and so he decided to just open random doors until he found the right one. One of them had contained a cauldron slowly simmering in the middle of the room, assuming that it belonged to Snape he'd continued on to meet Draco.
"It's in the dungeons!"
"How do you know?" Ginny asked.
"I saw it there two weeks ago, I was helping Draco with Charms."
"Is that why you are sitting there Draco, think if you sit there long enough you won't need a tutor?"
"At least I'm not taking history lessons from a portrait."
"Why don't we go get it?" Luna asked getting up and walking towards the door.
It had been strange for the four of them to walk down the hallways together. Luckily it was Sunday and there wasn't much traffic in the halls and they didn't run into anyone they knew, but the few people who did see them would stare dumfounded at the group. Luna walked on completely oblivious to the stares, Draco walked at the front as if he were a king followed by his servants and Ginny trailed behind blushing furiously, until they finally reached the dungeons and Ernie led them to the room.
"Are you sure this is the room?" Ginny asked looking around the empty classroom, desks and chairs were piled up on the sides, but otherwise there was nothing..
"Yes, it was right here," Ernie said walking towards the center of the room, he studied the floor, "you can see a trace of magical fire here, see?" He said pointing to a spot that was slightly darker than the rest of the floor.
"It doesn't prove it was the same cauldron, it could have been anything." Draco said looking around the dirty room with disgust.
"But this does." Luna said walking towards them with a book.
"100 Spells, Potions, and Tricks To Enhance Your Mind?" Ginny asked.
"Yes, this book has been missing from the Ravenclaw library since last year."
"It was a Ravenclaw?" Ginny asked incredulously.
A/N: Hey, I told you the plot existed. Well, as a special treat here is a deleted scene, it was the rest of Ernie's memory, I wrote it months ago, but I couldn't find a way to fit it in, so here it goes:
"Why are we meeting here and not in the common room?" Ernie asked by way of greeting.
"I don't want to run into that Weasel." Draco answered looking up from his homework. "Come help me with Charms."
"I'm not a House-Elf for you to order me about." Ernie responded.
"Alright, would you please help me?" Draco asked not sounding the least bit supplicate. I guess it's hard when you have everything you want.
"Why do you need help in Charms anyway? I thought you were second in our class?"
"That's why!" Draco said. "I'm second, my father said he wouldn't take me to the World Cup this summer unless I came out top of the year. It's worse because it's that mudblood Granger that's top."
"Actually I heard she's taking Divination, Arithmancy and Ancient Runes this year. The weird thing is they are on at the same time."
"How is she doing it? She hasn't missed one Arithmancy class so far."
"Well, she hasn't missed Muggle Studies either so I don't know."
"It's that mudblood loving fool Dumbledore, he gives her special privileges-"
"Draco," Ernie said loudly knowing if he didn't stop him now, he'd go on forever. "Let's start that essay now."
"Alright…"
