𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝚃𝚆𝙸𝙽 𝚆𝙷𝙾 𝙺𝙽𝙴𝚆

046

The Hufflepuffs, who were usually on excellent terms with both Slytherins and Gryffindors, had turned remarkably cold toward the whole lot of us. One Herbology lesson was enough to demonstrate this.

It was plain that the Hufflepuffs felt that Harry and I had stolen their champion’s glory; a feeling exacerbated, perhaps, by the fact that Hufflepuff House very rarely got any glory.

Somehow even Professor Sprout seemed
distant with us — but then, she was Head of Hufflepuff House.

Sitting under a tree, Harry and I were waiting for Hagrid to arrive because honestly no one were talking to us.

Astoria seemed angry that I did not come back to the common room yesterday and she waited the whole night for me to come and talk to them.

Draco seemed to be angry because he felt like he atleast deserved an explanation.

The only person who was talking to me was Theo. But, I could very well see how he wanted to ask me what happened.

Harry wasn't in a better condition either and I could tell because he was more clingy than usual. 

Hagrid emerged from the back of his cabin balancing a teetering tower of crates, each containing a very large
Blast-Ended Skrewt. To the class’s horror, Hagrid proceeded to explain that the reason the skrewts had been killing one another was an excess of pent-up energy, and that the solution would be for each student to fix a leash on a skrewt and take it for a short walk.

“Take this thing for a walk?” Draco repeated in disgust, staring into
one of the boxes. “And where exactly are we supposed to fix the leash? Around the sting, the blasting end, or the sucker?”

“Roun’ the middle,” said Hagrid, demonstrating. “Er — yeh might want ter put on yer dragon-hide gloves, jus’ as an extra precaution, like. Harry, Lia — you come here an’ help me with this big one. . . .”

I snorted at Theo's horrified face as Hagrid proceeded to take Harry and I

' you can't leave me with this thing alone ' he mouthed to me and I shrugged

Hagrid’s real intention, however, was to talk to Harry and I away from the rest of the class. He waited until everyone else had set off with their skrewts, then turned to us and said, very seriously,

“So — yer competin’, Harry, Lia. In the tournament. School champion.”

“One of the champions,” Harry corrected him. Hagrid’s beetle-black eyes looked very anxious under his wild eyebrows.

“No idea who put yeh in fer it?”

“You believe we didn’t do it, then?” said Harry, concealing with difficulty the rush of gratitude he felt at Hagrid’s words.

“ ’Course I do,” Hagrid grunted. “Yeh say it wasn’ you, an’ I be- lieve yeh — an’ Dumbledore believes yer, an’ all.”

“Wish I knew who did do it,” said Harry bitterly.

" I wish everyone believed we didn't put our names " I sighed

The three of us looked out over the lawn; the class was widely scattered now, and all in great difficulty. The skrewts were now over three feet long, and extremely powerful. No longer shell-less and
colorless, they had developed a kind of thick, grayish, shiny armor.

They looked like a cross between giant scorpions and elongated crabs — but still without recognizable heads or eyes. They had become immensely strong and very hard to control.

“Look like they’re havin’ fun, don’ they?” Hagrid said happily.

I assumed he was talking about the skrewts, because my classmates certainly weren’t; every now and then, with an alarming bang, one of the skrewts’ ends would explode, causing it to shoot forward several yards, and more than one person was being dragged along on their stomach, trying desperately to get back on their feet.