A little more excitement in this chapter! Haha, read and review, please! I beg of you, lol. Now that I'm done writing this chapter, I think I'm gonna go play some games. XD Hope you like it; enjoy! =)

By the way, I own nothing from the Harry Potter books, including the newspaper article from the Daily Prophet that I used in here. But no stealing Rayna! And don't take Jos either, who is my best friend Macie's character in this story. Is that it? Yeah, okay, bye!

3: That White Ferret

"Now class; I have a year-long project for yer. We're going ter be takin' care of these here creatures." Hagrid cracked open a crate full of the most repulsive creatures I'd ever seen, all piled on top of each other. They had pale bodies that oozed out some weird goo, and numerous legs that stuck out at awkward angles. "I call them Blast-Ended Skrewts. Bred 'em myself."

Suddenly, one of the Skrewts' ends shot fiery sparks and was instantly propelled forward. The whole class, made up of Slytherins and Gryffindors, simultaneously jumped backwards in alarm. "S'okay," aHa

Hagrid reassured, though not convincingly, "they do that quite often. Anyway, we're going ter be raisin' 'em through the year. There's not much ter do wit' them today except ter feed 'em."

"What do they eat?" Someone called out from the back.

"Not sure yet. But for now, we'll be givin' them lettuce to start with."

We all spread out and Hagrid gave us each a Skrewt and some leaves of lettuce. "Yer have to be careful of their stingers. Though they're young at this poin', it can still hurt ya."

I gave mine a disdainful look as it skittered around awkwardly, unable to balance on its crooked legs. Reluctantly, I held out a piece of lettuce. It automatically leapt up and grabbed the leaf viciously from me, ripping it up with its teeth that I had not noticed it before. It wasn't too long before somebody yelled, "Ow! It bit me!"

"Oh yeah, they bite too 'specially when they're real hungry." Hagrid added as he strolled around, checking up on everyone.

"These things are bloody disgusting," I murmured when Hagrid was out of earshot.

"Tell me about it." Draco answered back as he desperately tried to keep his fingers out of the creature's teeth from my side, "Wait until my father hears about what this oaf has us 'learning.' It's ridiculous."

"Oi!" The Skrewt, getting impatient with me, decided to take a bite out of the lettuce leaves I had been holding. Unfortunately, it also tore into the flesh on the side of my hand.

"Don' be gettin' distracted, Miss Alma," Hagrid said, coming to dislodge the monster from my skin. "Focus on feedin', now."

"What about my hand?" It had distinct bite marks on it that were leaking of blood.

"It's jus' a scratch."

"No, it's not!"

"I'm sure you'll be fine," Hagrid protested, but his voice held a brink of nervousness. I could tell he still remembered Buckbeak from last year.

Frustrated, I thrust the rest of the shredded leaves at the Skrewt and watched it devour them as I clutched my hand because it really did hurt.

Luckily, I did have a break after this class. I marched back up to the main castle, feeling irritable. A group of first and maybe second years were situated in the middle of the courtyard. "Move!" I said, and pushed them aside. There was a chorus of "ow's" as they were shoved into each other.

"Hey, you!" One bold girl yelled.

When I turned around, I realized it was that little girl from the carriage ride last night. She recognized me too and faltered in her words which were now spoken with less confidence, "That w-wasn't nice!"

"Look, little girl, leave me the hell alone or I will hex the daylights out of you." And she scattered, along with the rest of her friends.

"It's fun when you get all feisty."

"Okay, Draco, you always randomly appear from somewhere." I met his gaze from across the courtyard where he stood in the archway.

"I know." He replied, as I turned to keep on going, "Where are you going?"

"Hospital wing." I responded without stopping, leaving Draco behind. The infirmary was empty when I stepped in. I'd only been in once before in my first year when somebody broke my wrist while we were dueling; it had been some hex gone wrong. "Madam Pomfrey?"

She appeared out of her office, "What is it?"

"I was bitten by a Blast-Ended Skrewt."

"A what?"

I held out my hand and she examined it, "Some monster that Hagrid has bred for our Care of Magical Creatures class."

Madam Pomfrey drew out her wand and gently siphoned off the excess blood around the wound. After it was cleaned, two jagged lines appeared on the edge of my hand, one on either side. "It doesn't look too bad. I'll just wrap it up for now." After my hand was bandaged, she dismissed me, "Come back if it starts to hurt a lot. Now, off to class!"

Since my break wasn't over yet, I headed back to the Slytherin common room to try and get started on my History of Magic essay. It was abandoned and I enjoyed the extra peace and quiet.

The rest of the week passed without anything notably interesting happening. Actually, it wasn't until the week before Halloween did anything remotely entertaining occur.

Lunch was nearly over. I had finished early and was now talking with Jos who had come late from trying to catch up in all her prep work for her O.W.L.S.

After Jos swallowed the first gulp of her meal, she told me, "Sit down."

"I don't think sitting at the Gryffindor table when I'm a Slytherin works."

"Nobody will notice. The table's mostly empty anyways."

"True," So I took a seat on the bench, leaning my back against the table and sticking out my feet just in time to trip a first year Hufflepuff.

"Is it really that hard to be nice once in a while?" Jos asked, taking note of my behavior.

"I'm not all bad; these are just little trivial things that we'll look back at and laugh about later on. And you can be mean sometimes too."

"Well…I guess I can be." Jos admitted, and then dug right back into her food. "But still, it wouldn't hurt to be nice once in a while…"

I was intent on tripping more people until I heard the oh-so-familiar voice of Draco, "Hey Weasel-be! See the paper today?"

Ron, Hermione, and Harry had been heading towards the courtyard but stopped in their tracks, looking pretty peeved. "What, Malfoy?" Ron yelled back.

"What's in the paper today?" I asked Jos.

"Don't know but this is going to get ugly." She replied.

Draco unfolded a copy of The Daily Prophet in his hand, and held it up in front of himself dramatically. He cleared his throat in one obnoxious noise and then started to read, "The Ministry, recently under fire for the 'Dark Mark' incident at the Quidditch World Cup, plunged into deeper blunders with the antics of Arnold Weasley, of the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts office. Yesterday, he was found to be involved in a tussle with several Muggle law-keepers over a number of highly aggressive dustbins. Mr. Weasley appears to have rushed to the aid of 'Mad-Eye' Moody, the aged ex-Auror who retired from the Ministry when no longer able to tell the difference between a handshake and attempted murder. Unsurprisingly, Mr. Weasley found, upon his arrival at Mr. Moody's heavily guarded house, that Mr. Moody had once again raised a false alarm. Mr. Weasley was forced to modify several memories before he could escape from the policemen, but refused to answer Daily Prophet questions about why he had involved the Ministry in such an undignified and potentially embarrassing scene."

I watched Ron continually clench and unclench his fists in anger the whole time Draco was reading. Harry and Hermione looked extremely upset as well.

I saw Ron subtly reach into his robes and pull out his wand. Draco didn't notice this as he was too busy insulting the trio with Crabbe and Goyle. Quickly, Ron raised his wand to hex him. In that same instant, Hermione yelled, "Don't!" while I whipped out my own wand. "Expelliarmus!" I said, pointing it at Ron's hand and successfully disarming him.

"Rayna!" Jos cried, shooting out of her own seat. "Those are my friends!"

I defended myself, "Sorry, force of habit!"

Suddenly, wands were out everywhere. I felt something hot graze the side of my arm. I was about to shoot a curse back at Ron who had recovered his wand, but another hex flew past behind him. A snowy-white ferret appeared right where Draco had once been standing. My jaw dropped, "Draco!"

"He get you?" It was the voice of Mad-Eye Moody.

"Uhm, no, Professor." Harry said.

"Leave him!" Moody's voice was back up to full volume. By now, it felt like half the school had gathered around us.

"Leave what?" Harry asked.

"Not you! Him!" He gestured towards Crabbe who had inched towards the white ferret.

Moody flourished his wand again and pointed it at the ferret, "I hate people like you. You scummy, filthy, bloody little coward! How dare you attack someone when their back is turned?"

The ferret squeaked in terror and tried to scurry away, "Oh no you don't!" Moody shouted and raised his wand, the ferret going up with it, "Never – do – that – again!" With every word, he brought the ferret crashing down to the floor and then back up abruptly. It squealed in pain and terror.

I finally broke through my silence and demanded, "Stop it! You're hurting him!"

Before Moody could respond or transfigure me into some other animal, another voice came from behind the crowd, "Professor Moody, what-what are you doing?" The students parted to reveal Professor McGonagall.

"Teaching," He raised his wand once more and swung it in my general direction, "Here, if you care about him so much." With one flick of his wrist, Moody deposited the ferret into my hands. I could feel it shivering against me. It felt so weird and disturbing, knowing I was holding Draco Malfoy in ferret form.

"Is-is that a student?" Professor McGonagall asked, finally catching on. I bent down and let the ferret slink out of my hands onto the stone floor. Then, I stood back as Professor McGonagall waved her wand. There was a loud BANG and a heap of Draco reappeared on the ground, pink in the face with his signature blond hair a mess. "We never use Transfiguration as a punishment!" Professor McGonagall managed weakly, "Surely Dumbledore must've mentioned that…"
"It might've slipped my mind," Moody replied, scratching his chin sheepishly, "I just thought that a good, sharp shock would-"

"We give detentions, or talk to their Head of House!"

"Fine then; I'll do just that." Moody pointed at me and Draco, "Two detentions; Thursday and Saturday! Arrive promptly at 8PM."

For a second, I thought I'd heard him wrong, "Wait, me? I did nothing wrong."

"Leave it," Jos hissed in my ear, knowing that I'd probably get myself into more trouble.

"From what I saw, Miss Alma, you started quite a ruckus when you first disarmed this young lad," Moody gestured to Ron who was standing there with a smirk on his face. "causing everybody to break out their own wands."

"You started quite a ruckus when you turned Draco into a ferret," The words were out my mouth before I could even think about it.

"That's enough, Miss Alma," Moody snarled, "I'll give you and Malfoy detention for another week if you keep it up."
I didn't want to give it a rest though. Mad-Eye Moody has no authority over me, "But-"

"Shut up, Rayna!" Draco spat. "Don't get us in any more trouble."

"Fine." I whirled around and stalked off towards the dungeon, seething about Mad-Eye Moody. Soon after, I felt Draco following me. The first thing he said to me once he caught up, "My father will hear about this!"