𝐒𝐊𝐈𝐍 - 𝐡.𝐩.

24 | The Chase Of Skeeter And The Skrewt

"Out of words?" Gemini taunted Draco, who hadn't said anything back, "I'd ask you to read a dictionary to find more but since you're obviously illiterate, why don't you run along to Daddy dear and cry to him about how Gemini Delmar was mean to you?" She pinched his cheek to add insult to injury.

Draco's pale ears turned red. He didn't say anything for a while; then, his eyes glittering scornfully, he replied, "At least I have a father."

Everyone gave a collective startled gasp. A deep silence of fearful anticipation hung over them. They were quite sure that Gemini was about to explode any minute now, but she was unpredictable as ever as she allowed her features to relax into an emotionless expression.

"The world doesn't run on assumptions, it runs on proof." was all she said as she became aware of Hagrid's thumping footsteps arriving.

"Sorry fer bein' a little late," he grunted to them, bringing along with him the skrewts. He was oblivious to the tension in the atmosphere as he started explaining what they were to do today. "I'm not sure whether they hibernate or not," he told the shivering class in the windy pumpkin patch. "Thought we'd jus' try an' see if they fancied a kip... we'll jus' settle 'em down in these boxes...."

There were now only ten skrewts left; apparently their desire to kill one another had not been exercised out of them. Each of them was now approaching six feet in length. Their thick gray armor; their powerful, scuttling legs; their fire-blasting ends; their stings and their suckers, combined to make the skrewts rather repulsive, even in Gemini's opinion.

The fact that Hagrid was keeping Madame Maxime's horses well provided with their preferred drink of single-malt whiskey was unhelpful; the fumes wafting from the trough in the corner of their paddock was enough to make the entire Care of Magical Creatures class light-headed.

Everyone looked dispiritedly at the enormous boxes Hagrid had brought out, all lined with pillows and fluffy blankets.

Gemini thought it was an absolute treat, though. "Look closely, Draco..." she spoke in Draco's ear, "there must be one for you too." Draco launched himself at her furiously before she'd even finished, but Blaise caught him by the robes at once. She took a step back and smirked.

"We'll jus' lead 'em in here," Hagrid said, "an' put the lids on, and we'll see what happens."

Gemini quickly spoke up, "But Hagrid, don't you think it's a bit impractical to put such active creatures in such a small enclosure?"

"Tha' is what we're testin'," he said joyfully.

But the skrewts, it transpired, did not hibernate, and did not appreciate being forced into pillow-lined boxes and nailed in. Hagrid was soon yelling, "Don' panic, now, don' panic!" while the skrewts rampaged around the pumpkin patch, now strewn with the smoldering wreckage of the boxes.

Gemini found herself sniggering at Draco's girlish screams as she borrowed some ropes from Hagrid and tried to catch the skrewts. Most of the class — Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle in the lead — fled into Hagrid's cabin through the back door and barricaded themselves in; she and a handful of Gryffindors, however, were among those few who remained outside trying to help Hagrid.

Gemini thought the best place to keep the skrewts was to tie their ropes individually around trees or similar supports, that is, one skrewt to each structure. She was careful not to keep the rope too long and chose structures that were at least two metres away from each other in order to prevent any interaction between the skrewts.

Together they all managed to restrain and tie up nine of the skrewts, though at the cost of numerous burns and cuts; finally, only one skrewt was left.

"Don' frighten him, now!" Hagrid shouted as Weasley and Potter used their wands to shoot jets of fiery sparks at the skrewt, which was advancing menacingly on them, its sting arched, quivering, over its back. "Jus' try an' slip the rope 'round his sting, so he won' hurt any o' the others!"