Chapter V
Kneazles and House-Elves
The rest of the week was full of the same dreary weather. That meant that by the next Tuesday, the spirits of the students at Hogwarts were greatly lifted when the sun started shining over the castle.
Karida's highlight of the past relatively uneventful week was definitely seeing Malfoy's arm almost get snatched off by a Venomous Tentacula branch in Herbology… Meaning the worst part was definitely seeing Pansy and Daphne coo over him.
Her first class on Tuesday was Double Transfiguration, so all throughout breakfast, Karida was determinedly poking her piece of toast to make it Vanish. The only effect was that it seemed to be much less filling when she finally gave up and just ate it. The Vanishing spell had caused her much frustration and hair-tugging all week.
Even Malfoy looked paler than usual on the way to the classroom, where many Hufflepuffs were already in their seats for the lesson. A few birds chirped from their cages before McGonagall strode out of her office, perfectly on time.
"Good morning," she said, in her usual grim tone. "Today you will all show me how you've been working on your Vanishing spells. I expect you to keep practicing until it is your turn. Do you understand, Mr. Malfoy?"
Malfoy raised his head up far too quickly to be discreet – he had been reading a note Pansy passed him.
As soon as she saw he was paying attention, McGonagall resumed. "Since we have a double period today, I will have time at the end of class to demonstrate the proper way –" she pulled a piece of parchment out of her desk, " – To turn any object, liquid or solid –" with an elaborate flourish-and-flick motion of her wand, the thin parchment McGonagall had been holding turned slate grey, "– Into stone."
She allowed the class a moment to marvel at her handiwork before going on. "Today I will grade you on your performance as if you were taking your practical O.W.L. examination. Some of you will not preform nearly as well as you would have thought, so please bear with me through these first few weeks as you get used to this routine."
McGonagall seemed tired and more agitated than usual, so Karida tried to make sure she wouldn't do anything to push her buttons.
Her attempts didn't make a difference in what had become a regular occurrence in Transfiguration class.
Karida hoped McGonagall would start on the Hufflepuff side of the room first so she had more time to practice; she was disappointed when she stopped next to Crabbe to start.
Looking back over her shoulder anxiously every few minutes, Karida attempted to Vanish her snail from different angles, but to no avail. After one particularly desperate swipe, Karida heard someone clearing their throat behind her, and she jumped.
McGonagall did not look pleased. "Remember, Miss Talon, we are not trying to poke anyone's eye out… Are you ready?" She said, peering over the rims over her spectacles, and holding a clipboard.
Karida looked up from her snail carefully. "Er… I guess…"
"Whenever you're ready," McGonagall said sharply.
Karida took a deep breath and attempted the motion that would make the fully-formed snail in front of her Vanish. Nothing happened. The creature even poked its head out of its shell as if it were in no danger at all.
McGonagall raised her eyebrows as Karida tried again and again, each attempt causing her to get more and more frustrated. "Thank you, Miss Talon, for showing me how much effort you put into this class. Obviously, you have neglected to practice over the entire last week."
It was all Karida could do to not insult her already biased professor. "I did…" she mumbled.
"Please inform me when you are ready to take this class seriously." McGonagall said grimly, passing over Karida's desk after making a mark on the clipboard that looked suspiciously like a zero.
Karida stood up indignantly while McGonagall's back was turned, but sat back down before she was seen. No, it wasn't worth it… She'd talk to her about it eventually.
The next desk McGonagall stopped at happened to be Ernie MacMillan's. Karida watched with her arms crossed as the haughty Hufflepuff hardly did better than she had, but earned his house five points for 'perservering'.
By the end of class, Karida hadn't made any progress in making her parchment turn to stone. Grumbling, she pushed her way out of the classroom to get to Herbology.
Since she was flustered and frustrated, Karida was barely paying attention to what she was doing. This resulted in a Fanged Geranium almost biting her left hand, and its teeth looked quite sharp. She quickly put its pot back on the table, and grabbed another one to feed.
Luckily for Karida's well-being, Malfoy happened to pick up the ill-mannered flower next. When he neglected to make sure no water touched its leaves, the plant dug its teeth through Malfoy's silver dragon-hide gloves, causing him (and Pansy) to yelp. Karida hid her smirk behind the leaves of the well-mannered sprout she was tending.
Professor Sprout had left the greenhouse to fetch some more slug repellant, but she came back in time to see Malfoy upend the Geranium's pot, sending it crashing to the packed dirt floor. It didn't seem discouraged however, and was moving forward to retaliate, so he smashed the pot on top of it as well.
Professor Sprout stood in shocked silence before deducting twenty points from Slytherin, the baubles on her hat shaking violently. Pansy automatically volunteered when Sprout begrudgingly told Malfoy he'd better get to the Hospital Wing.
Although he was treating it like his famous Hippogriff injury, Malfoy's bite was healed in no time and he was in Care of Magical Creatures with the rest of his class very shortly after the class started.
"Thank you for joining us, Mr. Malfoy, Miss Parkinson," Professor Grubbly-Plank said sharply. "Anyone want to catch these two up on what I've been telling you all?"
Daphne's hand shot up. "Pansy-she-was-teling-us-about-these-cats-that-are-really-loyal-and-can-find-disloyalty," she spurted in one breath, not waiting to be called on. She looked impressively at Malfoy.
"They are loyal and have a knack for finding distrustful people, yes. But they're not just cats, Miss Greengrass; does anyone remember what they are called?" Professor Grubbly-Plank asked, picking up the speckled half-Kneazle that had been weaving her legs. Karida knew not to sound like she was one-upping Daphne, so she stayed silent. When no one else offered, Professor Grubbly-Plank turned to her. "Miss… Talon, is it? Can you tell Mr. Malfoy what Harold here is?" She asked, scratching the purring creature behind his ears.
"He's a half-Kneazle," Karida said cautiously.
"Why did I get a half-Kneazle, though? Why not buy a purebred?"
"They're an XXX classification by the Ministry, so they're illegal unless inbred with cats." Karida unwillingly added, not missing that Daphne gave a haughty huff in response.
"Good girl. Take ten points."
The next part of the class included each student going up to pet Harold, which wasn't easy – it wouldn't stray 5 feet from Professor Grubbly-Plank and kept disappearing beneath her robes.
Near the end of the period, everyone was assigned a short six-inch essay on the differences of cats, and cats inbred with Kneazles. She gave them awhile to start so they could ask questions about it if they needed to. This wasn't very necessary, as Fantastic Beasts and Where to find them was an extremely easy read.
While she was crossing off a badly written sentence and cursing about her lack of self-correcting ink, Harold pounced on top of Karida's parchment and started hissing and spitting, glaring at Goyle.
Professor Grubbly-Plank rushed over. Goyle had indeed been copying Karida's sentences, resulting in a five-point deduction from Slytherin's hourglass.
Karida groaned inaudibly. The dent she had made in repairing Malfoy's little temper tantrum was half gone.
When Professor Grubbly-Plank dismissed the class to head to dinner, Karida packed up her things and trudged through the still-muddy grounds. Pansy was making a show of lagging behind to walk with Malfoy, which made Daphne giggle too loudly in an unconvincing falsetto tone.
Karida was hesitant to go to eat in the Great Hall with everyone else. It got tiring feeling like a loner, and it was only the second full week.
As she was following the crowd filtering toward the feast, Karida got an idea. It was ironic, as it came from a memory of one of the people she was trying to avoid.
The kitchens. How could she be so stupid? She could go down to the kitchens, nick some food from the house elves, and eat in the Common Room in peace.
This spark of inspiration seemed to get better and better as she walked down the corridor. She needed to finish a History of Magic essay, write the Kneazle paragraph, and practice her Transfiguration by the end of the night. Not to mention she had to be at the Astronomy tower until far past nightfall, and Karida knew from experience that she did her worst work while half asleep.
Karida passed quite a few Hufflepuffs on her way through the opposite basement corridor toward the kitchens.
Remembering how Malfoy had gotten in in third year, Karida tickled the pear on the still-life she had approached. When the portrait swung open, Karida stepped in apprehensively.
House elves. House elves, everywhere. The kitchen had a similar setting to the Great Hall directly upstairs, but instead of impatient students waiting to eat, there were house elves hustling to add the finishing touches to the feast before them. Their faces were frantic as they shuffled past each other, adding the sauce to a piece of chicken or putting another bowl of pudding on the Ravenclaw table.
Just as she was almost starting to back out of the door, all thought of stealing food from the hard-working creatures forgotten, an elf with very large eyes and wearing an oversized holiday sweater bobbed through the crowd to meet her. The other elves regarded him with almost haughty looks as he got in their way.
"Mistress!" The elf squeaked, bowing so his nose brushed the floor, "what is it that you need? How can Dobby be helping you, miss?"
Karida's eyes widened. So this was the elf that used to live with the Malfoys… No wonder it looked so happy to be working in the cramped space.
"Um… I was just wond-"
"Can Dobby get you some food, miss? Will you be missing dinner?"
Karida stopped holding her breath, relieved. "Yeah, actually… Er, lots of homework, you know…" She lied.
The elf before her practically quivered with excitement. "Yes! Yes! Of course! Very smart, miss! Dobby will be right back, miss!" Dobby shouted, running into the crowd behind him.
Karida stood there awkwardly, clutching at her bag and pretending to be extremely interested in the shape of her shoe.
Dobby rushed back surprisingly fast for a creature with such small legs, holding a small platter of turkey sandwiches, a pitcher of pumpkin juice, and a few cookies.
Karida took the food from him gratefully, and arranged her bag so that she could lay the tray flat without it spilling, so she could hold the pitcher safely in two hands.
Dobby was absolutely beaming.
"Er… Thanks," she said, smiling at the elf.
"Oh, Dobby is always happy to help, miss. Dobby hopes you will enjoy your food!" He bobbed along behind her and swung the door open. He gave a flamboyant wave after she stepped out and shut the kitchen door.
Karida smiled to herself, thinking of how kind Dobby had been – it was only when she turned around and had half of the pumpkin juice dumped down her front that she realized who she had run into.
Fred (or was it George?) Weasley started clapping very slowly, while his brother scoured the sticky substance off of himself.
"Smooth," George (?) said, grinning as he dried Karida's robes off as well. "Real smooth. These must be the side effects of hanging around Crabbe and Goyle for too long."
Karida tried her best to grin back. She didn't want to look stupid… Oh, what would be the right reaction? What would they think of her?
Fred eyed her admittedly bulging bag. "Well, George, I guess there's no point in nicking food now that she's taken enough for our shares as well… Leave some for the rest of the school, would you?" He teased, brushing past Karida to stand next to the kitchen's portrait hole.
George stayed put, seeming to tower over Karida. "Please excuse my dear brother's flagrant disregard of how to treat a lady," He said.
"A lady? George, listen to yourself… She's a Slytherin, she spends all her time with Parkinson and Bulstrode!"
Kara couldn't help herself – she laughed out loud. "You're quite right, about that…" she said, stumbling over her words after not having a real conversation in so long. "Pansy's snoring… Honestly, you'd think Goyle was in our dormitory!"
George raised his eyebrows and looked surprised, which made Karida feel more comfortable standing in a deserted corridor with two seventh-year Gryffindors that she should have hated. She had a nice feeling of belonging, like she didn't really have to do anything to prove herself to the twins.
"Really though! It's difficult to get any sleep, I almost need those Mandrake earmuffs," she continued, glad for any reason to blow off steam at Pansy.
While George snickered at Pansy's expense, Fred held it back and squinted in Karida's direction. "The way you're talking about her, that's not how most people talk about their friends, is it?"
George regained his composure and nodded. "Right you are, brother! Careful now, Pansy could be hiding anywhere, don't let her saying any of that…"
"She's actually… Not my friend," Karida exhaled. "I can't stand her anymore. We used to be pretty close, I guess, but… I'm not remorseful." Karida stated, then smirked at George. "And Pansy, hiding? That's impossible."
He looked confused. "She's not that large… Although I could see her having a spot of trouble hiding behind those tapestries," George said, pointing out an elaborately embroidered banner of a wizard duel.
"Well, she's not… But she's never seen without Millicent or Daphne, is she?"
George started piecing it together, a smile breaking across his lips. "And she follows Mouth-Boy like a sick puppy, and he has those two trolls with him… You'd catch her a mile away, wouldn't you?"
"Exactly what I was thinking," Karida said, trying and failing to hide the fact that she was grinning like an idiot.
Even Fred stopped looking wary of her as he agreed.
"So, why are you down here, anyways?" George asked.
"Oh, er… I have a lot of homework, and…"
George just smirked knowingly. "Right. Well, toodle-pip." He said, making to step through the door after Fred.
"Wait…" Karida started. "Why aren't you two at the feast, then?"
George turned around and Fred poked his head back out of the portrait hole. "Hooomework!" They drawled in unison. George winked at Karida, and disappeared into the portrait hole, leaving her to look as if the banana on the bottom corner of the painting had called her pretty.
THAT LAST PART HAS BEEN SITTING IN MY NOTEBOOK (not to mention my BRAAAAIN) FOR A LONG TIME! So happy I finally got to use it!
Just a little note; I DO think it's a bit cheezy to use Dobby, but think about it: The house-elves kind of shun him, right? So I think they'd give him a job he couldn't POSSIBLY mess up, like giving food to antisocial students xD
Thank you again for reading, I'm glad that I could supply you with a chapter of almost ALL my own writing and not another one of a lot of JK's :P
Please please please review though! :D
I cannot thank you guys enough for the support 3