Chapter 44 Nifflers

"These're nifflers. Yeh find 'em down mines mostly. They like sparkly stuff. . . . There yeh go, look." Hagrid told our Care of Magical Creatures class as he gestured towards a group of large open crates. The class crammed around the crates and cautiously looked inside. The crates held furry black creatures with long snouts. Their front paws were flat and they blinked up at us with puzzled expressions. They were surprisingly cute, it made me wonder what was wrong with them for Hagrid to like them so much. I didn't have to wonder much further when one of the nifflers leapt up and tried to bite off Pansy Parkinson's watch.

"Useful little treasure detectors." Hagrid continued his lesson. "Thought we'd have some fun with 'em today. See over there?" He pointed to a patch of freshly dug ground. "I've buried some gold coins, I've got a prize for whoever picks the niffler that digs the most . Just take off all yer valuables an' choose a niffler an' get ready ter set 'em loose!" Following Hagrid's instructions I removed the few pieces of jewelry I was wearing and tucked them away in my bag. Reaching down I picked up the niffler who recently attacked Parkinson for her watch. It put its long snout in my hair and began to sniff excitedly. I nearly asked Hagrid to let me keep it.

"Well Hermione, Emily, Harry, Ron…what are you waiting for?" I asked them taking my niffler to Hagrid's dirt patch. Once at the dirt patch Hagrid instructed us to let our nifflers go. The nifflers dove into the dirt patch and would resurface with a coin. They would adorably scurry back to the student that released it before spitting the gold into our hands. Most of us sat cross-legged and waited for our coins.

"Can you buy these as pets, Hagrid?" Ron asked excitedly as his niffler dived back into the soil.

"Yer mum wouldn' be happy, Ron," Hagrid grinned. "They wreck houses, nifflers. I reckon they've nearly got the lot, now," he added walking around the perimeter of the patch. "I on'y buried a hundred coins. Well, let's check how yeh've done! Count yer coins! An' there's no point tryin' ter steal any, Goyle, It's leprechaun gold. Vanishes after a few hours." I looked across the patch in time to see Goyle emptying his pockets. Ron had been the most successful, with his Niffler bringing in almost twenty-five coins, so Hagrid gave him an enormous slab of Honeydukes chocolate for a prize.

"What yeh done ter your hands, Hermione?" Hagrid asked her concerned. For the first time I noticed that her hands were heavily wrapped in medical gauze. Hermione waved him off telling him she had received some hate mail because of the article in Witch Weekly

"Aaah, don worry, I got some o' those letters an all, after Rita Skeeter wrote abou me mum. 'Yeh're a monster an' yeh should be put down.' 'Yer mother killed innocent people an' if you had any decency you'd jump in a lake.'"

"No!" Hermione gasped, looking horrified.

"Yeah, They're jus' nutters, Hermione. Don' open 'em if yeh get any more. Chuck 'em straigh' in the fire."

"Thanks Hagrid." She smiled.

"We best be heading off before we miss lunch!" Emily chirped. After waving good-bye to Hagrid we walked up to the castle.

"Why didn't you tell me about the gold?" Ron asked Harry. Harry stared back at his best friend confused.

"What gold?"

"The gold I gave you at the Quidditch World Cup. The leprechaun gold I gave you in the Top Box. Why didn't you tell me it disappeared?" There was a long pause as Harry seemed to be thinking back to the World Cup.

"Oh . . ." he said the memory coming back to him at last. "I dunno ... I never noticed it had gone. I was more worried about my wand, wasn't I?"

"Must be nice to have so much money you don't notice if a pocketful of Galleons goes missing." Ron mumbled. I exchanged looks with the girls as we sensed tension building between the two boys.

"Listen, I had other stuff on my mind that night! We all did, remember?" Harry seemed exasperated.

"I didn't know leprechaun gold vanishes. I thought I was paying you back. You shouldn't've given me that Chudley Cannon hat for Christmas." Ron looked at the floor downcast.

"Forget it, all right?" Harry seemed to beg.

"I hate being poor." Ron admitted to us. Emily, Hermione, Harry and I exchanged a long meaningful look. None of us knew what to say. "It's rubbish." Ron continued. "I don't blame Fred and George for trying to make some extra money. Wish I could. Wish I had a niffler." He kicked at the ground as he walked. We were edging closer to the front steps of the castle.

"Well, we know what to get you next Christmas." Emily said brightly. Ron was still sulking as we made our way to the Entrance Hall.

"Come on Ron it could be worse. At least your fingers aren't full of pus." Hermione told him willing to take a joke at his own expense. "I hate that Skeeter woman!" Hermione burst, now equally as frustrated as Ron. "I'll get her back for this if it's the last thing I do!" She waved her first threateningly. Sending Harry a sympathetic look, I gladly lead Emily to the Slytherin table and left him with his depressed best friends. Hate mail continued to arrive for Hermione over the following week, and although she followed Hagrid's advice and stopped opening it, several of her ill-wishers sent Howlers, which exploded at the Gryffindor table and shrieked insults at her for the whole Hall to hear. Even those people who didn't read Witch Weekly knew all about the supposed Harry-Krum-Hermione triangle now. I could tell Harry was getting sick of telling people that Hermione wasn't his girlfriend.

"It'll die down, though," He told Hermione confidently as we walked together to Charms. "If we just ignore it, people got bored with that stuff she wrote about me last time."

"I want to know how she's listening into private conversations when she's supposed to be banned from the grounds!" Hermione thought aloud.

"Hermione, is there any point in telling you to drop this?" Ron asked as we turned a corner.

"No!" Hermione shook her head, sending her bushy hair everywhere. "I want to know how she heard me talking to Viktor! And how she found out about Hagrids mum!"

"Maybe she had you bugged," Harry suggested.

"Bugged? What she fleas on her or something?" Emily asked looking confused.

"No." I told her. "I learned about this is muggle studies. Muggles will sometimes hide microphones or other recording stuff so that they can, well record other people's conversations. But Harry that wouldn't work." Hermione nodded her head in agreement while the boys still looked confused.

"Aren't you two ever going to read Hogwarts, A History?"

"What's the point? You know it by heart, we can just ask you." Ron retorted as we entered the Charms classroom.

"All those substitutes for magic that Muggles use - electricity, computers, and radar, and all those things, they all go haywire around Hogwarts, there's too much magic in the air. No, Rita's using magic to eavesdrop, she must be. .. If I could just find out what it is... ooh, if it's illegal, I'll have her ..."

"Haven't we got enough to worry about? Do we have to start a vendetta against Rita Skeeter as well?" Ron questioned.

"I'm not asking you to help!" Hermione snapped. "I'll do it on my own!" She marched off into the classroom and wouldn't speak to Ron through the rest of the lesson. In the weeks that followed Hermione didn't ask us to help her pursue her new vendetta against Rita Skeeter, which for us was great news because the Easter holidays were approaching and all the professors had once again increased our work load.

"Mail's here!" Emily called up to the ceiling of the Great Hall. We were sitting with Harry, Ron and Hermione at the Gryffindor table celebrating the beginning of our holiday break.

"Percy's letter is finally here!" Ron said snatching his letter from the beak of his tiny little owl.

"As I am constantly telling the Daily Prophet, Mr. Crouch is taking a well-deserved break. He is sending in regular owls with instructions. No, I haven't actually seen him, but I think I can be trusted to know my own superior's handwriting. I have quite enough to do at the moment without trying tos quash these ridiculous rumors. Please don't bother me again unless it's something important. Happy Easter."

"Ron." I said looking over at him very seriously. "Percy's a git."

"Tell me about it!" He chuckled.