Smashes, Thrashes, and Flattend Creatures
A storm had started in the middle of the night and the ceiling of the Great Hall was grey and dreary the next morning at breakfast. While the rain had stopped for a bit, it looked as if it would start again at any moment. It seemed to Harry like a rather dismal sign for his first day of classes.
"Wonderful," Ron muttered darkly, as he studied his schedule of classes. "We're outside for the morning. We're going to get soaked."
"Yeah," Harry agreed, checking his own schedule. "Herbology with the Hufflepuffs. Hopefully, we'll be in the greenhouse."
"Yeah, but then we have Magical Creatures with the Slytherins and that's definitely going to be outdoors," Hermione said, with an unusually sour expression. Normally, Hermione couldn't wait for classes to begin, but even her enthusiasm didn't quite extend to getting soaking wet while dealing with (knowing Hagrid) dangerous magical creatures and Slytherins. "Oh well, at least I have my heavy cloak."
"Double Divinations this afternoon," Ron went on and looked over at Harry. "I wonder how you're going to die this year."
"Very funny, Ron," Harry muttered, as he spread jam on another piece of toast. Next to Potions, Divinations was his least favorite class. If Professor Trelawney wasn't predicting his death, she was at least predicting terrible misfortune. Dealing with Trelawney and her overly warm, overly-incensed classroom was the last thing Harry needed on a rainy day.
"I've got a class in ketchup," Goku announced cheerfully, as he helped himself to more eggs. "I wonder what that's all about? Do you think they'll give me some burgers to go with the ketchup? I'd even settle for hot dogs."
Hermione leaned over to look at his schedule. "Catch. Up," she said, pronouncing each word clearly and separately. "I'm assuming that instead of taking some of the optional classes that we're taking, you're going for special help so you can catch up with the rest of us."
"Oh," Goku looked disappointed for a moment, then shrugged and began shoveling sausage in his mouth. "Well, maybe that will be fun."
"Mmm," Hermione murmured. "This year isn't going to be easy on you, Goku. I'll help you as much as I can."
"Fanks!" Goku exclaimed, spraying Hermione with bits of his breakfast. "Oofs!" He chewed faster and swallowed quickly, then drank down half his glass of milk to clear his mouth. "Sorry 'bout that."
"It's okay," Hermione said, as she wiped away the crumbs with a napkin. "Uh, no harm done."
Harry and Ron tried not to laugh. "When do we have Defense Against the Dark Arts?" Harry asked, changing the subject.
Ron looked over his schedule and groaned. "Wednesday."
"That's not so bad," Hermione said.
"It's not the day, it's who," Ron said, groaning again. "We're with the Slytherins this year."
"What?" Harry picked up his own schedule and looked at it. What he saw puzzled him even more, a tiny S, H, R, and G, 4th year. "We're with more than just with the Slytherins, we're with all four houses!"
"Yeah," Ron muttered, his frown deepening. "I wonder why that is. I've never heard of all the houses having a class together. Is this a fourth year thing?"
"Not as far as I know," Fred said, holding out his own schedule. "Look! George and I got the same thing with us too."
Checking around the table, they discovered that all the Defense Against the Dark Arts classes were to take place with all the students from each year in every class. Something none of them had ever heard of happening before. However, the four of them had little time to ponder the situation before they had to hurry up and get to Herbology, where they spent the class squeezing pus from bubotubers, which would be used to make an acne cure for Madam Pomfrey, the school nurse to use for students. Squeezing the bubotubers was both satisfying (when they squished) and disgusting (after all it was foul-smelling pus) at the same time.
"Gross!" Goku cried out, as some of the thick-ish yellow liquid splashed onto his hands. "Professor Sprout, this won't hurt me, will it?"
Professor Sprout tossed him a cloth. "No, it won't hurt you," she said. "But you should wipe it off. And try not to waste it. Bubotuber pus is very valuable around here, what with so many students going to drastic measures to rid themselves of pimples."
"Two summers ago, Fred tried to turn a zit into a ladybug," Ron whispered to Harry. "He figured then he could just pick it off and let it fly away. The problem was he had a ladybug embedded under the skin on his cheek. That was a fun mess, let me tell you. He ended up with a big, round cut on his face and Mom wouldn't let him heal it. Told him it would teach him a lesson to let it heal by itself."
While Harry tried not to laugh, a small chuckle escaped his lips. "Is something funny, Mr. Potter?" Professor Sprout asked, looking at Ron and him with a raised brow.
"Uhm, no," Harry began, only to be interrupted by Goku.
"Ron was just telling Harry how one of his brothers once turned a zit into a ladybug," he said clearly. Obviously, Goku had better hearing than the average person, because he was sitting behind Ron and Harry, and they had been barely whispering. "He ended up with a big cut on his face."
Harry and Ron looked at each other and winced, waiting to see what would happen now and wishing that sometimes Goku wouldn't be so cheerfully honest. But Professor Sprout merely nodded. "It's amazing what some people will go through, just for vanity. Well, thanks to the Bubotubers, we shouldn't have those problems this year."
Professor Sprout's attitude about Ron's story inspired others to tell various tales of acne disasters. Professor Sprout didn't seem to mind if they talked, as long as they continued to collect the pus. Except for the peculiar smell of the Bubotuber pus (It rather reminded Harry of petrol) it was pleasant with everyone talking pleasantly, telling humorous stories. He was almost able to ignore the rain that had started again and was beating against the walls of greenhouse three. Inside the glass greenhouse, it was an almost soothing noise.
The rain stopped being pleasant when class was over and the Gryffindors knew their next class would be outside, with Hagrid. They made their way across the wet yard, down to Hagrid's hut. As his cottage came into view, Harry could see Howard chained to a tree across the yard, straining like mad to get free. Even though the creature was soaking wet, he still looked large and formidable, unlike many other furry animals that seemed to shrink when they were wet.
Hagrid was standing outside, looking positively delighted as they approached. Lying on the grass nearby, were various crates. Inside his cottage, Harry could hear Fang, the boarhound, howling indignantly to be let out.
"Gather 'round!" Hagrid called out, "I've got a real treat for yer! Be'er wait fer th'Slytherins."
The "treat" turned out to be Blast Ended Skrewts, which everyone quickly regarded about as far from a "treat" as you could get. They were ugly creatures that resembled shell-less lobsters. And if that wasn't enough fun, they had an annoying tendency to explode when you came near them.
"Has Hagrid finally gone crazy?" Malfoy squawked, as he observed the creatures. "Why in the world would we want anything to do with these?"
As Hermione spoke up to give her advice, something green and furry came running up to the group, tromping over the boxes at tremendous speed, as he ran towards his goal - Hagrid.
"'Oward!" Hagrid exclaimed, as the dragedon leapt on top of him, his paws resting on his lower chest. "'Ow did ya break y'chain this time?" He looked both proud and annoyed. Annoyed that Howard had once again broken his chains, but proud that his "baby" was so strong.
Howard paid no attention, just wagged his enormous tail, knocking over a couple more crates. The class leapt backwards to avoid being attacked by the Skrewts, which seemed quite angry at having been overturned. As he moved out of the way to avoid one of the creatures, Malfoy slipped in the wet grass and fell flat on his rear end on another crate, which broke under the impact.
"What!" Malfoy roared, as he leapt to his feet as fast as possible. He followed his exclamation with a nice string of swear words, but no one was paying much attention. They were too busy trying to avoid the Blast-Ended Skrewts and Howard, who had decided that since Hagrid wouldn't pet him, he should instead run from student to student and see if any of them would pet him instead.
Howard dashed over to Harry, tromping on several Skrewts along the way. The Skrewts also seemed to have stingers as well as bangers, but none of these things phased Howard in the least. He caught up to Harry, leaping up, putting his huge, front paws on Harry's chest, which sent him falling straight on his back.
"'Oward, ya big brute!" Hagrid shouted, running over to haul him off of Harry. "Listen' t'yer daddy an' stop it, now!"
Howard paid no attention, because he was too busy trying to wash Harry's face with his enormous tongue that had a texture much like course sandpaper. "Howard!" Harry sputtered, as he tried to move away from the huge dragon-dog, which was impossible, because his front paws had Harry firmly anchored to the ground. Harry could feel the mud and water seeping in through his cloak, getting into his hair and everything.
Finally, Howard seemed to notice Harry's glasses, and snapped them up in his mouth, then leapt off Harry and began running around with them.
"Harry, are yea all right?" Hagrid asked, hauling him to his feet as if Harry were a toddler who had tripped and fallen. "Yea ain't hurt, are ya?"
Harry wobbled a bit shakily. Ron and Hermione were rushing over, attempting to wipe the worst of the mud and grass off of his back. "My glasses!" Harry moaned. "That creature has my glasses!"
They all looked over at Howard, who was still running around the students, trampling on Skrewts, left and right. Harry's glasses were in the creature's mouth and he looked as if he had no intention of surrendering them to anyone.
"'Oward!" Hagrid bellowed, trying to get the animal's attention, to no avail.
"I'll get him!" Goku shouted enthusiastically, and ran after Howard. "C'mon Howard, come to me!"
Howard looked over at Goku, pausing for a brief second to check out this creature who actually seemed to want his attention. He ran over and leapt on Goku, who held his ground. "Good doggie-dragon!" Goku said, reaching over to pet the creature's enormous muzzle.
Meanwhile, the rest of the class was in a panic between trying to avoid Howard and the Skrewts, who were looking quite worse for the wear for having been trampled on. Only one person looked as if this wasn't bothering him, and that was Vegeta. He was standing off to the side, his arms crossed over his chest, looking at the situation as if the whole thing was both a terrible and deliberate waste of his time, as well as an insult to his immense dignity.
"Oh no," Hagrid moaned, looking at several of the creatures, who were for the most part, squished flat. "I don' think I can replace these!"
"Who cares?" Malfoy snapped and for once, Harry whole-heartedly agreed with him, although he would never say it out loud. By now, Malfoy was on his feet - barely - as Crabbe and Goyle were trying to knock the mud off his back and almost sending him flying forward this time. "Disgusting creatures are better off dead."
Hagrid looked hurt by Malfoy's comment but didn't say anything to him, because he was watching Goku with Howard.
Goku was trying to get Howard to surrender Harry's glasses, but Howard was having no part of that. As far as the Dragedon was concerned, this was a game now, and he had no intention of losing. "C'mon, Howard," Goku cried, as he gripped one end of the glasses and tried to draw them out of the creature's mouth. "Give them up, they aren't yours, they're Harry's!"
"He's gonna crush them to bits," Harry moaned, having visions of being unable to see for the entire year. He figured the chances of the Dursleys replacing them were slim to none. "It's your own fault for going to that school!" would be their attitude.
"Let me help!" Hermione rushed towards Goku and Howard, her wand out. Howard looked over towards her, and seemed to recognize what was coming, because he whipped his head back, still holding the glasses, and jumped down from Goku, and started running around the yard again.
"Oh bother, why can't he just stand still for a moment!" Hermione cried in frustration, still holding her wand. "I can't aim if he keeps moving like that!"
"Git back 'ere, 'oward!" Hagrid shouted at the beast.
"Don't worry, Professor Hagrid," Goku said. "I'll get him!" And he began running after Howard again.
Harry was convinced his glasses were gone. It didn't help the situation that he could barely see what was going on and Ron was standing next to him, trying not to laugh. Some friend, Harry thought bitterly, even though he knew deep down that had the situation been reversed, he would be having a hard time containing his own laughter.
Although he couldn't see clearly without his glasses and the driving rain, Harry was able to make out Howard trying to make a break from the group with Harry's glasses. Goku was tearing after him. Howard was just about to rush past Vegeta, who was still just standing, watching the whole situation with a look of boredom, when Goku leapt on top of Howard, trying to pin him to the ground. Suddenly, it looked like Vegeta raised his hand and a blast of yellow and white light came from his palm. It shot from him, straight over to Goku, who let out a roar of pain but held on tightly to Howard, fixing his arms around the creature's neck. Howard let out a noise that rested somewhere between a bark and a howl, and the glasses fell out of his mouth.
Hagrid, who had caught up to Howard and Goku, quickly scooped up the glasses. "'Ere!" he shouted, tossing them to Hermione, who caught them in her hand and held them up, triumphantly.
"Got them!" she cried.
Vegeta's hand was still raised. He sent out another blast, this one knocking Goku off of Howard, and onto the ground. "Cut it out!" Goku yelled.
"Stop that!" Hagrid shouted, with a roar that was probably heard inside the Hogwarts castle. "Why are you attacking the boy?"
"I wasn't attacking Kakarotto!" Vegeta snarled, motioning to Howard. "I was attacking this stupid beast."
Goku rolled over on the ground and stood up, looking shaky. "W-well," he sputtered, looking a bit angry. "You missed!"
"Sorry." Vegeta shrugged, as if he was merely saying the word as a formality and didn't mean it at all. "But you have to admit, the way you and the creature were moving, it was an easy mistake to make."
"Yeah, right," Goku sputtered. "And my name is Goku!"
Vegeta shrugged, indicating it didn't much matter to him what Goku said his name was. He crossed his arms over his chest again, indicating that as far as he was concerned, the incident was over.
Hagrid looked at Goku, who was covered with water, mud, and green fur. "Are ya all right, Goku?"
Goku nodded, but reached up and touched his shoulder, where one of the blasts had hit him and winced. His robe was smoking and there was a large hole in it, which seemed to have burned through to his very skin. "I-I'm okay."
"Well, maybe ya better go t'the nurse," Hagrid said. He looked around until he saw Dean, who had seemed to come out of this whole tussle unscathed. "Can ya take him t'see Madam Pomfrey?"
Dean nodded and walked over to Goku. "Are you okay to walk?" Goku nodded and the both of them left the area.
Meanwhile, Howard had gone back to running around, trampling more of the Skrewts. Everyone had backed off a fair distance. Hagrid caught up to Howard and grabbed him by the scruff. "C'mon ya blasted brute!" He hauled him off, and back over to the tree where he'd been tied up before class. "I can't believe ya interrupted th'class like that! I oughta-"
Howard started dragging at his hand, his paws digging into the ground. He looked up at Hagrid with enormously round, sad, green eyes. Hagrid quieted his rampage immediately. "Suppose I gotta expect thin's like this," he muttered instead, reaching down to pat the top of Howard's large, furry, head. "Yer jess' a baby, after all."
Hermione looked at Harry's glasses and sighed. The lenses were cracked and the frame was bent. She pulled out her wand. "Reparo!" she said, and tapped the glasses. Then she frowned and tapped the wand on the glasses again. "Immaculata!" When she handed them back to Harry, they were not only fixed, but they were spotlessly clean.
"Thanks," Harry said, as he put them back on. When his eyes adjusted and everything came back into focus, he was almost sorry he could see again. The yard was a mess, as were most of the students in the class. But he probably looked the worst, thanks to his fall in the mud. Most of the others looked cold and miserable with the rain pouring on them, surrounded by broken crates and dead blast-ended Skrewts.
"Yikes," Seamus said, as he shook his head. "I feel sorry for Hagrid, but I'm not too miserable at seeing these things put out of action."
"That creature is dangerous!" Malfoy sputtered, as he tried to wipe off some of the mud covering him with his hands. "I can't believe they're allowing Hagrid to keep a monster like that with students around. Wait till-"
"-Your father hears about this, yeah, we all know that one," Ron interrupted angrily.
"Watch it, Weasley," Malfoy snapped. "Just cause your father is a nobody and mine has a real voice in the magic community, don't take it out on me."
"Dragedons are perfectly legal to own," Hermione spoke up, defending Hagrid. "And Howard didn't really hurt anyone, except the Skrewts, which you were saying earlier you hated anyway."
"Quit defending Hagrid, Granger," Malfoy's voice was cold. "Just cause you happen to like the freak, doesn't mean-"
"Tha's enough," Hagrid interrupted. He had finished chaining Howard up and returned, just in time to hear Malfoy's last statement. Malfoy closed his mouth, but stared at Hagrid furiously. Hagrid ignored the stare and turned to the rest of the class.
"Under the circumstances, I'll let ya go early. Some of ya might wan' t'get int'some dry clothes before lunch."
"Best idea I've heard all day," Vegeta stated, his voice carrying over the driving rain. Without waiting for a response, he started walking across the lawn, away from the hut. The other students were quick to follow suit, until only Ron, Hermione, and Harry were left with Hagrid.
"Professor Dumbledore ain't gonna like this one bit," Hagrid said glumly. "I 'ope Goku's okay."
"He'll be fine," Ron assured him. "I've been living with the kid since the beginning of summer and he's tough. Besides, it wasn't your fault or Howard's that he got hurt. It was that... whatever it was that Vegeta did."
Hermione nodded in agreement and added, "I wonder what that was. I don't think it was magic, or at least not normal magic. But it had to be, no one could just make... energy shoot from their hands without using some magic. I didn't see him use a wand, though."
"Professor Daikon used energy and no wand, when he destroyed that vampire owl," Harry reminded her. "And whatever it was Vegeta used, it was pretty effective,"
"He's just got to learn to aim it better," Ron said. "He said was trying for Howard, but he hit Goku twice. We're lucky the poor kid isn't toast."
Harry was wondering about that himself, especially remembering the looks Vegeta had been giving Goku at dinner the night before. Howard was a big animal, bigger than Goku. It seemed hard to imagine Vegeta being able to miss a large target like Howard. And why did Vegeta call him Kakarotto? No matter how hard of hearing someone was, it was hard to mistake a name like Goku for Kakarotto.
"Doesn' matter what it was," Hagrid said, still looking morose. "If 'oward 'adn't gotten loose, none o'this would o' 'appened."
"Don't worry about it, what's done is done," Ron said.
"I suppose." Hagrid's comment was followed by a long sigh. Then he blinked and looked at the three of them. "Yea better be getting' t' yer rooms t'change. It'll be lunch soon, an' if yer stay in those wet clothes, you'll catch a cold. Tha's all I need t' 'appen on top o' everthin' else."
As they made their way to the castle, Harry hoped that Divinations would go more like his first class of the day, rather than his second. Then he remembered Professor Trelawney and his skeptical side took over. Normally, he rather enjoyed his first day back to school, but he had a feeling this time would be different.
Half an hour later, wearing clean, dry clothing, the three met in the Great Hall to eat lunch. Goku joined them just as the serving plates were refilling themselves for second helpings. He had changed into clean, burn-free clothing and was looking his usual self. "Hey guys!" he called out, as he slid into a seat next to Harry.
"Goku, are you okay?" Harry asked, along with most of the Gryffindors. Even the ones who weren't in their year knew the story by now. The grapevine of Hogwarts was notoriously fast, if not always perfectly reliable.
"Yup, I'm fine!" Goku said, his tail wagging enthusiastically. "That Madam Pomfrey is good. She put some ucky smelling stuff on my shoulder and side and now I'm fine! My cloak isn't so lucky though."
"I'll look at it later," Hermione offered. "Maybe I can fix it."
"Thanks!" Goku began grabbing serving plates and piling his own plate high with food. "Looks like your glasses are fine," he commented to Harry, as he piled up a huge number of roast beef slices and covered them with a thick, brown, gravy.
"Yeah," Harry said, nodding. "Hermione fixed them for me."
"Can't even tell that less than an hour ago, they were covered with Dragedon drool," Ron chimed in.
"Good, I was worried," Goku, said, as he piled more mashed potatoes on his plate. When his plate was as full as he could get it, without toppling over, he paused to admire his handy-work. "This looks great!" he exclaimed. "I'm starving!" Before anyone could say another word, he set to demolishing the plate as fast as he had filled it.
"Boy, Goku sure likes to eat!" Dennis Creevey exclaimed in a high, squeaky voice. "Look, Col," he nudged his brother to get his attention, "look at him eat!"
Goku grinned over to Dennis. "Eating is fun! Eating is about the best thing you can do, besides fighting." He looked at Dennis's plate, which was still half full, then at Dennis, who was a very skinny little boy. "You should eat more too," he said, then turned his attention back to his plate.
Dennis grinned, picked up his fork and dug in again.
The owl delivery came at lunch that day, probably due to the bad weather. Harry watched as several owls swooped in through the windows, dropping packages. Malfoy got his usual package from home, which he opened slowly and obviously, to show everyone he had received lots of goodies, looking over towards Harry and Ron to make sure they saw. I have to write Sirius, Harry thought. Sirius would be unlikely to send him letters at Hogwarts unless he sent one first, so he could use Hedwig to send a return reply. A large, colorful, tropical bird would bring a lot of attention to Harry at the school. He had sent a thank-you note when he got his birthday present, but Harry should have realized he'd have to start the letters again once he was back in school.
A large barn owl dropped a letter down in front of Vegeta, and then swooped off as if it knew Vegeta wasn't going to share any of his lunch with him. Vegeta looked at the envelope, shrugged, and stuffed it in his pocket.
"Did your dad write you?" Vincent Crabbe asked, holding up a letter that he had received from his family.
"None of your business," Vegeta said coldly. "I don't ask about your mail, do I?"
"Gesh, is he ever friendly?" Ron muttered, having also heard the exchange. "Crabbe is his cousin and he won't even give him the time of day."
"I know," Harry agreed softly.
"Stop it," Hermione suddenly said. Ron and Harry turned to look at her, shocked at this statement.
"What?" Ron shook his head, as if doing that would make it so her words made more sense to him. "What are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about the way you're badmouthing him," Hermione said, looking briefly over in Vegeta's direction then quickly away. "He's cold, I grant you that, but he's really done nothing to us. The both of you are just prepared to hate him because he's related to Vincent Crabbe. That's not his fault, that's merely an accident of birth."
"Hermione, have you gone nuts?" Ron asked, tipping his head to one side and studying her. "When he came here yesterday, he acted like he was better than everyone else in the place. He got mad when the members of his own house greeted him. He blasted Goku twice in Hagrid's class." He held up his fingers, ticking them off to mark all the things Vegeta had done so far to make him seem less friendly. "And now his cousin asked him a simple question and he was just rude to him. What else does the guy have to do to convince you he's a jerk, burn the school to the ground?"
"He claimed he was trying to hit Howard, not Goku. Since I've never seen anyone use magic of his type before, I don't know, maybe it's more difficult to control. As for the other things, there could be some perfectly reasonable explanations for how he's behaving," Hermione carefully said. "Remember what we overheard Crabbe saying on the train. His mother died, and he probably didn't even know who his father was till she was gone and from what I gathered, that wasn't too long ago. That would put a damper on anyone's spirit, don't you think?"
Harry had been but a baby when his own mother had been killed to protect him, but he still nodded, imagining how he would feel if Sirius or Dumbledore were to die. Ron hesitated, obviously thinking of how he would feel if his mother passed on, and then nodded as well.
"And," she continued. "Maybe he really doesn't even want to be a Slytherin."
"What?" Ron scoffed. "That's crazy. If he hadn't wanted to be a Slytherin, the hat probably wouldn't have put him there."
"We don't know that for fact," Hermione said. "Maybe he feels he has to be a Slytherin, because his father is one and will be disappointed if he isn't as well. He lost his mother; he might be scared if he doesn't get into Slytherin, he'll lose his father as well. But, maybe, deep down, he doesn't like what Slytherin represents."
"Sure Hermione," Ron said, rolling his eyes. "Deep down, he wants to be a Hufflepuff."
"Maybe he does!" Goku spoke up suddenly as he finished swallowing his last mouthful. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were a bit surprised, because Goku hadn't shown any indication before that he was listening to their talk. "It sounds a lot nicer than Slytherin," he continued. "Slytherin sounds like a cross between sly or slithery. But Hufflepuff sounds nice, and warm, like a bubble bath or something. Huuuuuflepuuuuuuuf," he drew out the house name slowly. "I mean, I sure am glad I'm in Gryfffindor, but, if I had to pick between the two of them, I'd much rather be a Huuuuufflepuff than Ssssslytherin."
Both Ron and Harry turned their heads away from Goku for a moment, knowing that if they looked into his eyes, they would burst out laughing. Some of the Hufflepuffs had heard Goku's pronunciation of their house name and were staring at him with open curiosity. Goku saw them looking and grinned. "Your house has a great name. Huuuuuuflepuff!"
Cedric Digdory, the captain of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team, was frowning at first but then realized that Goku's comment, while a bit strange, was meant as a compliment. He grinned and snickered. "I never really thought of it that way."
"Well, maybe you should." Goku shrugged. "The hat almost put me in Hufflepuff."
"I know," Cedric said, his grin turning to a soft smile that made Harry think perhaps he was a bit sorry the hat had changed its mind and put Goku in Gryfffindor.
"Well, I don't know if he wanted to be a Hufflepuff or not," Hermione said, going back to the original conversation, defending Vegeta. "But that doesn't mean he wants to be a Slytherin either." She kept her voice low, in case anyone was listening.
Harry shook his head slowly, remembering the conversation he had overheard. "I don't think so," he finally murmured. "There are things... that you guys don't know. Things I overheard."
"Really?" Hermione and Ron turned to look at him, their eyes lighting up.
"What?" Ron asked.
Harry shook his head. "It's almost time for classes. We'll talk later."
Hermione and Ron nodded, understanding that later was really a code word for, 'when we're alone.' That was all right anyway, because it was time for them all to get to their next class.
"See you after catch-up!" Goku called cheerfully. He grabbed one last cookie from a plate, before it disappeared and stuffed it in his mouth. Then he leaped from the table, his tail swishing happily, and ran off.
"That boy must have the most amazingly high metabolism," Hermione said, as they left the Great Hall together. "No one eats like him."
"Not quite no one," Ron said. "Did you see how much Vegeta and Professor Daikon eat? Their manners are a little better, but they eat almost as much as Goku does."
End Chapter Eight.
Author's notes: There is a wonderful illustration to this story, which was done by Sabrebabe. (sabrebabe@chartermi.net) It can be found here: http://doghouse.la.ca.us/~darqstar/otherfandoms/hpdbz/graphics/howard.html Check it out. If you like it, email the artist and let her know, okay? I want to encourage her.