A/N: Because someone asked, I'll try to be a bit more descriptive in their appearances in this one. And, for the record, if you want a sort of idea what I mean by hybrids, think Thundercats, only more realistic, more species and with tails or wings. Some of them are more humanish like Fred, George and Harry while some are safely in between like Ginny and Hermione while Ron and Draco have more animal traits. Does that help?
In the distant North Tower of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, two twin tigerlicious terrors were currently mumbling dire pranks to pull upon Professor Trelawny. Their already quiet voices were muffled even further by the fact that they had buried their noses and mouths beneath several layers of clothing just to enter the fragrant tower room.
When they had first entered the room, Trelawny had made a big production of pointing out that she had warned them of big changes coming to the school this year. The seventh years bothering to take the course for easy grades had merely rolled their eyes and, for the most part, were doing homework for other classes. Fred and George, who usually used this time for plotting pranks, were discussing what to do to get back at Hermione for the attack in the Hospital Wing several days ago.
Lee Jordan, while helping the twins with ideas, couldn't help but chuckle as he watched the way their striped tails twitched with anticipation. Deciding to see just what would happen when a person grabbed a tiger by the tail, Lee darted both hands out and snatched their tails mid-twitch. The muscular twins had been so involved in their discussion that the unfamiliar sensation of someone touching their tails startled both of them into jumping up. "Jordan!" "Lee!"
Thankfully for Lee, and unfortunately for Fred and George, jumping up and pulled their faces from their protective coverings and the twins were subjected to the full force of Trelawny's incense filled room. They swayed comically for a moment before the aroma overwhelmed them and both young men toppled over. A slight twitch from Fred's leg was the only movement as Lee stared at them with wide eyes.
"My dear boy, whatever is the matter over there?"
Lee, taking one look at the twins, turned a serious look to Professor Trelawny's inquiry. "They saw the Grim ma'am! And just fell right over, I think I'll take them to Madam Pomfrey now and hope that it's not too late!"
With a casting of dual mobilicorpus, Lee rescued the twins from the horrors of Trelawny's class and carted them down to the infirmary. As he left, Lee was hard pressed to keep from laughing as Trelawny worked herself into something of a hysterical mess while the other students tried to calm her down...
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Deep within the bowels of the castle dungeons, where the fresh air and sunlight from above never penetrated, Ginny Weasley sat next to Colin Creevey in their potions class wondering just when the phrase 'bowels' first started being used to describe places like the dungeons. That led to another thought which caused Ginny to giggle and her face to turn bright red at the idea of anything being able to penetrate bowels that were lorded over by Snape. This didn't help her any and she almost fell out of her chair with a little shriek when Snape's place in that thought moved to another, dirtier part of the situation.
"What is wrong with you, Ginny?" Colin nudged her, hoping she would collect herself before Snape came into the classroom. "Cool it before Snape gets here!"
Colin never would find out what he had said that caused Ginny to fall out of her chair in fit of giggles.
It took three students and half a calming draught to get Ginny under control and back in her seat. As it was, they had only just taken their own seats when Snape swooped out of his private lab and into the classroom. Halfway to the front of the room, Snape paused and stared hard at Ginny before visibly shaking off some thought or another and continuing to the front.
"Today we will be brewing the base of the Polyjuice potion. This should be a simple enough task for a group of fourth years, as Miss Weasley was kind enough to demonstrate. These bases will be used in forming an antidote for your beastly classmates, so I suggest making certain you don't brew a poison..." Snape gave a wave of his wand toward the blackboard, the ingredients being revealed and, with a final glare at the students, he sat down at his desk.
Blushing slightly at being singled out, Ginny rose with the rest of her classmates and gathered the necessary ingredients for making a Polyjuice base. As she had all year, she was working with Colin and both diligently prepared the ingredients.
Nose twitching slightly, Ginny couldn't help it that making potions reminded her of watching her mother cook back at The Burrow. In fact, she was so involved in her little daydream about sitting back at home that, thirty minutes later as Colin was preparing to add the dead lacewings, Ginny did something she would never have done under normal circumstances...
"Ginny!" Colin's disgusted voice was drowned out by Professor Snape's disbelieving bellow of, "Miss Weasley! What are you doing!"
Ginny turned to look at Colin and Professor Snape, her expression filled with confusion at their shouts.
"Miss Weasley, while I am well aware that potions is like cooking..." Professor Snape stalked over from his desk and pulled the stirring spoon from Ginny's mouth. "Would you i please /i refrain from eating the leeches?"
Judging from the look of horror that quickly grew on Ginny's face, she really hadn't noticed what she had done. With very little prompting after having her actions pointed out to her, Ginny almost instantly threw up the contents of her stomach onto the front of Snape's robes.
Professor Snape stood, his blank expression marred by the twitching of a muscle in his cheek. "Mr Creevey, please escort Miss Weasley to the Hospital Wing... NOW!"
Colin snatched Ginny's hand and dragged her from the classroom before Snape could remember to deduct points or issue detentions. The rest of the class wasn't as lucky.
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While George and Fred were learning the dangers of the Divinations classroom and Ginny learned that potions really shouldn't be compared to cookingduring class; Harry, Ron, Hermione and Draco were learning yet another lesson that would need to be passed on to the other altered students. That lesson was something they really should have seen coming a mile away, but for some reason they all had overlooked that minor detail of Hogwarts... They had forgotten that Hagrid had a strange obsession with curious creatures and that they were now classified as curious creatures!
"Come on, Harry! I've been wanting a pegasus since the Tournament last year! I know you could call some over here if you tried hard enough!"
Harry had actually resorted to running around the clearing during class to fend off the overzealous Care of Magical Creatures Professor. Hermione had been chased up a tree earlier in class and was snarling at anyone that came within twenty feet of her retreat. Ron had managed to takeoff when Hagrid had turned his attentions toward the now identified eagle of the group and Draco was whining as he hid behind the other fifth year Slytherins, his tail tucked between his legs. Their classmates were no help at all as they were too busy laughing over the situation to assist.
"Even if I could call them, Hagrid... I don't think any are close enough to hear, or you'd have found them by now!" Harry was torn between wanting to follor Ron's example and not wanting to hurt his friend's feelings.
Hagrid paused. "Well I know then! Why don't you come to all my classes tomorrow! I'll write you a note! You can be the Pegasus example for the students!"
"Argh! I have enough people staring at me already, Hagrid!" Then, seeing Hagrid's face fall, Harry started to feel guilty. "Well... Maybe next time you teach the first years?" His offer was made in a tiny voice as if afraid of Hagrid's reaction... And with good reason!
"That'll be wonderful!" Hagrid immediately targetted Harry for a bonecrushing hug and Harry's screams could be heard for quite a while as he discovered just how fast he could run, fleeing further into the Forest between the trees with Hagrid right on his hooves!
Once Hagrid was gone, the Slytherins waited perhaps two whole minutes before deciding that the lesson was over and heading back to the castle. It took the Gryffindors another fifteen minutes to come to the same conclusion. Draco had remained behind before reluctantly giving in to his pack instincts and helping what his senses told him was the pack's Alpha Female out of the tree. His reward was being sent to the hospital wing with a bruised tail before Hermione controlled herself.
As it was, Hagrid eventually caught Harry and gave him a bonecrushing hug which almost literally crushed Harry's wings. He ended up being several hours late back to the castle, barely catching the end of dinner where Ron and Hermione were waiting.
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No one was very surprised when some men from St Mungo's came later that night to take away Professor Trelawny for a much needed vacation in a padded room as she raved about The Grim taking students right from beneath her ever watchful eye...
A/N: Eh, this one had a rather weak ending, but in all it amused me. I hope everyone is still enjoying the tale. Let me know! Oh yeah, don't for a minute think I'm going to attempt Hagrid's accent when typing. Enough people botch it as it is! The next one will be out within the next couple of days. I spent most of the last week offline thanks to phone line troubles and dialup, so I spent quite a bit of time writing.