𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝘁𝗼𝗰𝗸, harry potter

˗ˋ 41

CHAPTER FORTY ONE
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-: fifth year :-

── IN WHICH BOWTRUCKLES AWAIT

. . .

Aviana wasn't surprised by the looks she got when she walked through the halls the next morning, making her way from the Common Room the the Great Hall for breakfast. Before they had just been about the imprisonment of her father - the bunch of hypocrites, half of their family was probably right in there with him and had done plenty of bad things to muggles - but now it was joined with wonder of why she would get a week's worth of detention with Umbridge on her first week.

She drowned any upsets that she felt towards it (there wasn't a lot, just anger directed to everyone who dared mumble about it close to her) in coffee and buttered toast, listening patiently as Montague, the newly appointed Quidditchh captain, explained that her, Blaise and Draco's places on the team were secure, but they had a small set of tryouts during the second week of term to fill the Marcus Flint sized hole in the set of Chasers.

And as Chasers, Blaise and Aviana were necessary for these tryouts. So, Montague practically begged Aviana not to get any more detention so she could attend. Begged was overstatement of the century, the Rosier girl decided it just sounded a lot better than being threatened to get kicked off of the team.

Then, following the discussion about Quidditch over the breakfast of strong black coffee with far too much sugar in and no milk - the absolute worst sounded combination for anyone, but for Aviana it sounded like staying awake their next day of lessons and keep her alert for the detention that evening.

Their first few lessons consisted of double Transfiguration and then double Charms, both Flitwick and McGonagall spending the time of one lesson explaining about their O.W.L.s and the importance of them all. 

McGonagall had sternly told them that if they put in enough work they could easily achieve the O.W.L and then spent the rest of the time on Vanishing charms, and trying to get rid of some snails. Of which Aviana was rather afraid and spent more time trying to get away from them than magicking them away - because then she wouldn't know where they are, seeing as they would be invisible - and had ended up getting homework to practise the spell. 

Flitwick had then spent the rest of the lesson focusing on the Summoning charm, reviewing pages upon pages of content before practising them, dumping the class of Slytherins with what could quite possibly be called a mountain of homework.

They spent their lunch simultaneously trying to do homework whilst eating their sandwiches, and following that they had Care of Magical Creatures. 

The weather had turned dull and grey, the occasional drop of rain hitting the top of their heads as they made their way down to Hagrid's hut. "Thank Salazar that oaf hasn't appeared overnight. Although, I suppose he would wake the entire castle the noise he makes." Draco's nose wrinkled. "I bet Granger is absolutely beside herself that her favourite half-giant can't make it to class."

The group around Draco burst into snickers and hardly concealed laughter as they reached Hagrid's hut, in which Grubbly-Plank was stood in front of, a table of what looked like sticks before her. 

The group already around the table turned back to look at them, Hermione shaking her head and muttering something to herself as she turned around. Ron rolled his eyes and Harry continued to glance back at them. Each time, Aviana refused to meet his gaze, knowing he was thinking about what she had done the afternoon before.

"Everyone here?" Professor Grubbly-Plank barked, once all the Slytherins and Gryffindors had arrived. "Let's crack on then - who can tell me what these things are called?" 

They were Bowtruckles. Aviana had found a tree trunk of them and been obsessed with them for a few months. Then, after one of the gardners ended up hurt because of them, her father had had them removed.

In front of them, Hermione's hand shot up into the air. Besides Aviana, Draco did a buck-toothed imitation of her jumping up and down in eagerness to answer a question and Pansy shrieked with laughter, but it quickly turned to a scream as the twigs on the table leapt into the air and revealed themselves to be what looked like tiny pixieish creatures made of wood, eachwith knobbly brown arms and legs, two twig like fingers at the end of each hand, and a funny, flat, barklike face in which a pair of beetle-brown eyes glittered.

Aviana allowed herself to giggle at that.

"Kindly keep your voices down, girls!" ProfessorGrubbly-Plank instructed sharply, scattering a handful of what looked like brown rice among the stick-creatures, who immediately fell upon the food. "So - anyone know the names of these creatures? Miss Granger?" 

"Bowtruckles," Hermione answered. "They're tree-guardians,usually live in wand-trees."

 "Five points for Gryffindor," Professor Grubbly-Plank said."Yes, these are bowtruckles and, as Miss Granger rightly says, they generally live in trees whose wood is of wand quality. Anybody know what they eat?" 

"Woodlice." Aviana cut Hermione off before she could even attempt to answer, her arms folded over her chest . She had gone collecting them after doing her research. "Or fairy eggs, but they're harder to come by and even harder to get once finding them."

"Five points to Slytherin." Grubbly-Plank didn't seem as happy to award the points, Hermione twisting around to see her competition. It had been like this for years, only getting even worse as time went by. 

"So whenever you need leaves or wood from a tree in which a bowtruckle lodges, it is wise to have a gift of wood lice ready to distract or placate it." Grubbly-Plank was continuing. "They may not look dangerous, but if angered they will gouge out human eyes with their fingers, which, as you can see, are very sharp and not at all desirable near the eyeballs. So if you'd like to gather closer, take a few wood lice and a bowtruckle - I have enough here for one between three - you can study them more closely. I want a sketch from each of you with all body parts labeled by the end of the lesson." 

Draco, Blaise and Aviana nodded at each other, ignoring Pansy's pout as she turned towards Theo. But just like always, that didn't really bother them.

Nothing much did, and even if they did grow annoyed at something, Aviana could take care of it. She was just a little bit scarier than Draco.

And she prided herself on it.

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