Miss Gryffindor || h. potter (re-writting)

37

"On'y jus' hatched," said Hagrid proudly, "so yeh'll be able ter raise 'em yerselves! Thought we'd make a bit of a project of it!"
"And why would we want to raise them?" said a cold voice causing Aria to immediately roll her eyes in response as the Slytherins arrived.

Hagrid looked stumped at the question causing Aria to frown as she saw her friend's excitement diminish. 

"I mean, what do they do?" Draco asked "What is the point of them?" 
Hagrid opened his mouth, apparently thinking hard; there was a few seconds' pause, then he said roughly, "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." 

Aria and her friends went to feed the strange creatures and as the girl picked up handfuls of frog livers she cringed at the texture in her hands before walking over and lowering them into the crates. 

"Ouch!" Dean Thomas exclaimed after about ten minutes "it got me!" 
Hagrid hurried over to him, looking anxious.
"Its end exploded!" Dean exclaimed angrily showing Hagrid a burn on his hand. 
"Ah, yeah, that can happen when they blast off." Hagrid stated with a nod causing Aria to raise a surprised eyebrow in response. 

"Eurgh!" Lavender exclaimed once again "Eurgh, Hagrid, what's that point thing on it?" 
"Ah, some of 'em have got stings," Hagrid responded enthusiastically causing Lavender to quickly withdraw her hand from the box. 
"I reckon they're the males. . . . The females've got sorta sucker things on their bellies. . . . I think they might be ter suck blood" Hagrid informed the group 
"Well, I can certainly see why we're trying to keep them alive" Draco commented sarcasm laced in his voice. "Who wouldn't want pets that can burn, sting, and bite all at once?"

"Just because they're not very pretty, it doesn't mean they're not useful." Aria snapped at the boy becoming fed up with his unneeded commentary. 
"Aria's right. Dragon blood's amazingly magical, but you wouldn't want a dragon for a pet, would you?" Hermione added on

About an hour later the four friends made their way back up to the castle for lunch.

"Well, at least the skrewts are small" Ron acknowledged
"They are now." Hermione exasperated "but once Hagrid's found out what they eat, I expect they'll be six feet long."
"Well, that won't matter if they turn out to cure seasickness or something, will it?" Ron grinned slyly at the her. 
"You know perfectly well Aria and I only said those things to shut Malfoy up." Hermione informed causing Aria to nod 
"It's true, I really do hate the sound of his voice." 

This caused Harry to grin at her reply as Hermione continued, "As a matter of fact I think he's right. The best thing to do would be to stamp on the lot of them before they start attacking us all." 

The group managed to make their way into the great hall where they sat down at the Gryffindor table. Aria immediately began to help herself to the lamb chops and potatoes that were laid out in front of her. When she suddenly noticed Hermione shoving her food into her mouth at lighting speed which was so unusual for her that even Ron and Harry stared at her shocked. 
"Er — is this the new stand on elf rights? You're going to make yourself puke instead?" Ron questioned 

"No," Hermione shook her head in reply "I just want to get to the library." 
"What?" Ron asked in disbelief "Hermione — it's the first day back! We haven't even got homework yet!"
Hermione only shrugged in response and continued to shovel down her food. Then in seconds she leapt to her feet and exclaimed, "See you at dinner!" before darting off at high speed. This caused Aria to raise an eyebrow at her friends actions causing her to chuckle. 

For the rest of lunch Aria and her friends talked and shared stories until it was time to go to their next class. The boys headed to Divination and Aria headed to Arithmancy. Professor Mcgonagall and Professor Dumbledore has both made the exception of allowing Hermione and Aria to drop Divination if they were willing to replace it with one of the following classes Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, or Muggle Studies. Hermione had convinced the girl to switch to Arithmancy with her so she'd have someone to study with and so of course, Aria agreed.

After they finished their Arithmancy class, the two girls headed down the hallway to the Great Hall for dinner. They chatted about their classes until Hermione spotted the boys and she grabbed the girls hand and the two ran to catch up to them.