Magic? || Years 1-5

Taunts Through The Daily Prophet: Year 4

Using smelly pus, which would probably be less horrid after it had been diluted, seemed far more appealing than losing a nose.

After the bell rang to announce the end of class, the Hufflepuffs headed up to the castle for Transfiguration and the Gryffindors went down the sloping lawn to Hagrid's cabin.

He was waiting outside, hand curled around Fang's collar and wooden crates lying open at his feet. Amisty jumped suddenly.

The crates were emitting rattling noises and... explosions?

"Mornin'! Be'er wait fer the Slytherins, they won' want ter miss this -- Blast-Ended Skrewts!" Hagrid grinned.

"Come again?" Ron asked. Hagrid just pointed at the crates.

"Eurgh!" Lavender leaped backward, her voice squeaky and high-pitched and hands flying to her mouth.

Her reaction was justified.

The Blast-Ended Skrewts looked like slimy, shell-less lobsters who didn't know what lobsters without shells were supposed to look like.

They had legs sticking out in strange places and Amisty couldn't even discover where their heads were. About half a foot long, crawling over each other, and smelling of rotten fish.

It didn't help that occasionally the back (?) of the skrewt would spark and it would shoot forward a few inches.

"On'y jus' hatched, so yeh'll be able ter raise 'em yerselves! Thought we'd make a bit of a project of it!" Hagrid replied proudly.

"And why would we want to raise them?" Draco asked, heading the group of Slytherins while Crabbe and Goyle laughed.

Hagrid didn't seem to have a proper answer.

"I mean, what do they do? What is the point of them?" Draco continued, raising his eyebrows.

Hagrid paused, his voice rough when he replied, "Tha's next lesson, Malfoy. Yer jus' feedin' 'em today. Now, yeh'll wan' ter try 'em on a few diff'rent things -- I've never had 'em before, not sure what they'll go fer -- I got ant eggs an' frog livers an' a bit o' grass snake -- just try 'em out with a bit of each."

"Fire pus and now this," Seamus muttered, not looking very happy at all.

So, that's what they did. Amisty hated it with a passion, found it rather useless as the skrewts didn't seem to have mouths, but she still did it for Hagrid.

Ten minutes later, Dean's hand shot out of the crates as he yelled, "Ouch! It got me!"

Hagrid hurried over to him, looking concerned. It wouldn't be the first time someone got hurt in one of Hagrid's classes.

Amisty believed he would like for the injuries to stay... slightly less extreme than the one Draco had stupidly gotten in third year.

Even if it was entirely Draco's fault, Hagrid had almost lost his job.

"Its end exploded!" Dean exclaimed angrily, showing Hagrid a rather big burn on his hand.

"Ah, yeah, that can happen when they blast off," Hagrid nodded.

"Eurgh!" Lavender squirmed, wincing as she looked into one of the boxes. "Eurgh, Hagrid, what's that pointy thing on it?"

"Ah, some of 'em have got stings," Hagrid explained brightly. Everyone very quickly took their hands out of the boxes if they hadn't already. "I reckon they're the males... the females've got sorta sucker things on their bellies... I think they might be ter suck blood."