Raven and Draco reached the Entrance Hall and stopped dead at the sight before them. The huge wooden doors were wide open and the grounds of Hogwarts were covered in a small layer of white, fluffy snow. It must have started falling earlier that morning when they had been in their first class of the day. A huge grin spread across Raven's face. She loved the snow.
Draco turned towards his sister and asked, "What lesson do you have next?"
"Care of Magical Creatures I think," Raven answered after taking a second to think back to what was on her timetable for the day.
"Why don't we meet up afterwards and we can go for a walk in the snow during lunch?"
Raven nodded eagerly, more excited at the thought of walking through the cold snow than she had been in a while.
Her favourite weather had always been snow. Every year since she could remember, it had snowed at Malfoy Manor. Every year, except one. That year, Raven had sulked for weeks on end. Draco and her parents tried numerous times to change her foul mood, but nothing seemed to bring her out of it. The only thing that eventually managed to cheer her up was when Snape, who often stayed at Malfoy Manor during the Christmas holidays, took Draco and her into the forest near the Malfoy estate to collect potions ingredients. He had been running low on Lobalug venom and Horklump juice and, even though the seven-year-old twins had no idea what those were, they were excited at the opportunity to go further into the forest than they were usually allowed.
When the three had reached the lake where they would find a Lobalug to extract venom from, Raven had completely forgotten about the lack of snow and was grinning like an idiot. Draco had lost interest in collecting potions ingredients and had started chasing some flying thing around the lake, but Raven remained at Snape's side, watching eagerly as he drew a vial out of his robes and knelt down by the edge of the water, shaking the vial so a cloud of smoke erupted out of it. At the confused look on Raven's face, he explained that it was to attract the Lobalug to the surface, ergo making it easier for him to extract the venom.
A moment after he said that, in the corner of her eye, Raven saw ripples start to form on the water's surface. Snape reached into his robes again and held out an empty vial to Raven. She took it in both her tiny hands and unstoppered it. At lightning speed, Snape dipped his hand into the icy water and withdrew a small, yellow creature with a long rubbery spout and a venom sac that was decorated with dozens of blue circles.
The Potions Master instructed her to hold out the vial, and she did, trying with a great effort to keep her hands from shaking with excitement. Snape extracted the Labolug venom into the vial and hastily placed the creature back in the water. He stood up and saw Raven admiring the now-stoppered vial of venom. A small smile tugged at the corner of his lips and he gently patted her head, taking the vial from her before calling Draco over to them so they could go search for the Horklump juice.
Draco's voice drew Raven out of her reverie.
"I have to get to Arithmancy, but I'll see you later Rae,"
Raven watched her brother as he headed up a set of stairs to his next class, before she walked outside, over the grounds of Hogwarts and towards the spot where her Care of Magical Creatures lesson was being held.
It was bitterly cold out in the snow. Raven wrapped her robe tighter around her and cast a warming charm on herself in an attempt to stop her shivering body.
Just in time, she reached the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest where the class was gathered, waiting for the lesson to start. Nellie instantly spotted her and rushed over, holding a thick robe and a Ravenclaw scarf out to Raven.
"You're here!" The brown-haired girl exclaimed. "For a second, I thought you weren't going to show up!"
Raven gave Nellie a weak smile.
"Put these on, you must be freezing!" Nellie pushed the robe and scarf into the blonde girl's hands and Raven quickly did as she was told, taking off her current robe and shrinking it so she could place it inside the pocket of the thicker robe that she threw around her shoulders.
Just as Raven was wrapping the scarf around her neck, Professor Grubby-Plank appeared at the front of the crowd of students. She was an older witch with short grey hair and she wore a worn, brown cloak, with her wand, and several other tools used to take care of magical creatures, in the numerous pockets patched onto the sides of her robes. Her last Care of Magical Creatures Professor, Professor Burkell, has similar robes except her's had been pristine and always in top condition.
"Hello class, I hope you are all wrapped up because today we will be heading into the Forbidden Forest to study Bowtruckles."
Raven's eyes lit up. Bowtruckles had fascinated her ever since she first read about them in Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them. She had always wanted to see one, but it was very rare to find them in southern France. For a moment, Raven was so grateful that she had been expelled from Beauxbatons because now, she was going to see one of her favourite animals in real life, rather than just a drawing of them in a textbook.
This was exactly what she needed after her eventful morning. She couldn't have been happier. She was also pretty sure Nellie was confused, and probably thought she was very odd, because she was practically jumping up and down in excitement. Raven gave her fellow Ravenclaw a huge grin and pulled her along as the class headed into the Forest.
As they were walking, Professor Grubby-Plank began to explain about Bowtruckles: what they looked like, where they lived and how to properly approach them. Of course, Raven already knew all of that, but she still listened intently. It was nice to hear someone else talk about the creatures instead of just reading about them in a book.
"Bowtruckles are immensely difficult to spot; they have a general appearance of a flat-faced stick figure, made of bark and twigs, which serves particularly well as camouflage in its natural habitat of trees."
Professor Grubby-Plank took out her wand and created an image of a Bowtruckle above her head for the students to see what she meant.
"They are generally peaceful creatures, however, they may attempt to gouge out an attacker's eyes with its twig-like fingers if anything threatened its tree or itself, which is why they must be handled with caution."
The class stopped in front of a cluster of trees and Raven's eyes wandered to a tree branch where a group of hand-sized Bowtruckles were staring at the crowd of students. She gasped excitedly and Nellie looked at her, still utterly confused.
"What are you looking at?" Nellie asked curiously.
Raven pointed to the branch of Bowtruckles and heard Nellie gasp in surprise.
"Wow! They're so small!" Nellie whispered and Raven beamed at her in delight.
"The adult Bowtruckle only grows to about eight inches tall. Their size helps them stay hidden from predators." The blonde Ravenclaw replied quietly.
Nellie gave her a questioning look.
"Bowtruckles are one of my favourite creatures," She explained.
Before Nellie could reply, Professor Grubby-Plank began to wander around whilst the students stayed put.
"Now, can anyone tell me what the name Bowtruckle means?"
Raven slowly raised her hand.
"Yes, Miss...?"
"Malfoy, Professor."
"Of course! You must be our new student." The elderly witch said and gestured for Raven to continue.
"In old Scottish dialect, the word 'bow' means 'dwelling' and, in old English dialect, 'truckle' means 'limb of a tree'," She said confidently.
"Well done, Miss Malfoy! That is correct! 10 points to..." Professor Grubby-Plank's eyes flicked to the scarf wrapped tightly around Raven's neck. "... Ravenclaw!"
Raven grinned at Nellie and the brown-haired girl squeezed her arm in reply.
"So, today's task for you all is to attempt to find a group of Bowtruckles and befriend them. But be warned, you will have to be quick to defend yourself if they do not take a liking to you." The professor said and the class dispersed into the trees, searching for the tiny magical creatures.
Nellie and Raven headed straight for the tree where Raven had spotted some Bowtruckles earlier.
"How did you see them so quickly before?" Nellie asked.
"I don't know. I guess I just had an instinct and it turned out that I was right." Raven said, coming to a halt about a metre and a half in front of the tree.
Nellie stopped beside her and pulled out her wand.
"Just to be safe." She said. "I really don't want my eyes gorged out by twenty Bowtruckles."
Raven let out a small laugh and slowly stepped towards the Bowtruckles, holding her hands out in front of her so they could see that she meant no harm. Nellie waited behind her; Raven guessed she wanted to take it in turns in case something went wrong and they needed to protect themselves.
As she neared the tree, Raven heard a small murmur of voices, so quiet that she almost missed it. She realised the noise was coming from the Bowtruckles and she had to stop herself from squealing. Raven could not believe that she was about to see her favourite creatures up close. Tentatively, she held her arm up, the palm of her hand facing upwards, and touched the branch of the tree merely centimetre away from the group of Bowtruckles. Surprisingly, none of the tiny creatures ran away, although none of them came closer either.
After a few minutes, Raven sighed in defeat and made to take her hand away when one of the Bowtruckles inched forward slightly.
Her eyes lit up but she didn't dare move in case she scared it away. All Raven could hear was her heavy breathing as she waited for the Bowtruckle to near. Seconds later, it stepped onto her hand, albeit extremely cautiously, climbed up her arm onto her shoulder and she felt a wave of relief run through her entire body.
Raven turned to Nellie in delight.
"I did it!" She exclaimed and Nellie looked at her in awe.
The Bowtruckle on Raven's shoulder touched her ear with one of its fingers, careful not to hurt or pierce her skin, and whispered to her with the most delicate voice Raven had ever heard.
"What did it say?" Nellie asked.
"Her name is Pix. She says she... trusts me."
"I honestly have no idea how you just did that, Raven." Nellie laughed.
"Me either."
Professor Grubby-Plank walked over to the two Ravenclaws a few moments later with a huge smile on her ageing face.
"Well done, Miss Malfoy! I must say this is a first. I have never seen a Bowtruckle trust a student so quickly, and I've been teaching this subject for quite a long time!" She said. A curious look passed over her face.
The professor opened her mouth as though she was going to ask Raven something, but closed it a second later, and instead awarded Ravenclaw twenty points.
For the rest of the lesson, Raven and Nellie chatted to Pix. The tiny, magical being told her about her 'branch' of Bowtruckles. Apparently, Pix was one of the younger Bowtruckles and the older ones were not so trusting because they had spent many years protecting their tree from people who wanted to chop it down for wood.
Raven introduced Pix to Nellie, and whilst the Bowtruckle didn't shy away from the other Ravenclaw, Pix wasn't willing to climb onto her hand.
When the lesson was over, Raven tried to place Pix back onto the tree but she kept clinging onto her cloak and running across her shoulders. Even Nellie attempted to help but Pix did not want to let go.
"Pix! You have to go back to your branch!" Raven laughed and Pix made what she presumed was a 'humph' sound.
Professor Grubby-Plank saw the two girls struggling to pry the Bowtruckle from Raven's shoulders and approached them with a laugh.
"Having trouble, girls? Bowtruckles can tend to be quite attached to people that they trust. It's still so surprising that this one trusted you almost instantly, it usually takes weeks of interaction before they feel comfortable with humans." The older woman said.
Raven glanced down at Pix, who was gripping her shirt collar and looking up at her with huge brown eyes.
"Professor, you don't suppose I could keep Pix for a while? She doesn't want to leave me and I promise I'll bring her back to her tree whenever she wants to return." Raven asked hopefully.
Professor Grubby-Plank contemplated it for a while then clapped her hands together.
"Yes, I don't see why not. Just make sure you look after her and that she is fed and taken good care of." The professor said and strolled off to another group of students who looked like they were about to start a fight.
"Didn't Newt Scamander have a Bowtruckle that he carried around in his pocket?" Nellie asked.
Raven nodded and petted Pix lightly on her head with one of her fingers.
"Come on let's go back up to the castle, it's almost time for lunch," said Nellie and Raven followed her out of the Forbidden Forest and up the pathway towards Hogwarts Castle.
Raven's smile didn't leave her face the whole walk back.
A/N Reviews, Follows and Favourites are very much appreciated and I'd love to hear how you think I can improve my story!