The weekend passed by way too quickly for their liking. But then so did the next few weeks. Before they knew it, it was the beginning of October.
Monday came and went without much excitement – none of the four had yet managed perfect Vanishing spells in Transfiguration; a bag of Bouncing Bulbs escaped onto the grounds in Herbology, so half of the lesson was spent rounding them up; they were learning about Hinkypunks and Kappas in Defence Against the Dark Arts; and Tee and Rose had moved onto sports in Muggle Studies.
They had Care of Magical Creatures first thing on the Tuesday morning, so once they'd eaten breakfast they all traipsed down to Hagrid's hut. No one was really sure whether they liked Care of Magical Creatures or not. Sure, Hagrid was a nice enough person and teacher, but he had a liking for monstrous creatures and seemed to be blind to their dangers. So whereas the lessons were interesting enough, you always had to be very alert. Plus they had these lessons with the Slytherins. That was never a good thing.
"Alrigh' everyone," greeted Hagrid, once everyone was there. "If yeh'd like teh follow me..."
The class followed him round to the back of his hut where there was usually a pumpkin patch. Today, however, it was just an unbroken spread of earth. Up against the side of Hagrid's hut were several boxes. Hagrid went over to open one and pulled out a black furry creature with scrabbling paws and a long snout.
"This is a Niffler," he announced, holding it up for everyone to see.
Everyone in the class was surprised. It wasn't usual for Hagrid to be showing them something that was cute and fluffy. Normally, he only liked a creature if it had fangs, a vicious nature or the ability to breathe fire.
"Now they're righ' useful, Nifflers are," explained Hagrid. "They like shiny objects, so they're good fer huntin' treasure. Now what I've done here is buried abou' hundred gold coins. So if yeh all wanna come pick a Niffler... I've got a prize fer whoever gets the most coins."
Hagrid passed the Niffler to one of the Gryffindor girls closest to him, then went round and opened up the rest of the boxes.
"Oh by the way, yeh might wanna take off any jewellery or watches," he advised. "Cause the Nifflers'll go fer them."
Tee and Rose both took out their earrings and Rose also slid two silver rings off her fingers. The twins took off their matching watches and stowed them away in their robes. The four of them joined the queue to get Nifflers.
"Now no one let yeh Nifflers go jus' yet," said Hagrid. "Jus' wait till yeh've all got one, then yeh can start at the same time."
"Do we have to let them go?" asked Rose wistfully, cuddling the Niffler she'd gotten. "They're so cute; I wanna keep mine."
"I know! Look how tiny mine is," said Tee, stroking the fur of a rather small Niffler.
"It's like you," grinned Fred. Tee aimed a kick at his shin, but he skipped away from her.
"Enjoying your little dance, Weasley?" jeered one of the Slytherins, a burly boy called Montague.
Fred didn't bother saying anything in response; he just gestured rudely towards him with one hand, clutching his Niffler with the other.
"Alrigh' everyone, calm down," said Hagrid hurriedly, as Montague and some of his friends started to shout back. "Has everyone got a Niffler? Yeah? Alrigh'... On yeh marks, get set, go!"
Everyone set their Nifflers down and they immediately began diving in and out of the pumpkin patch, producing gold coins and bringing them back to their temporary owners.
"Now there's no good tryin' teh steal any of the coins," Hagrid added, noticing two Slytherins sneaking some of the coins into their pockets. "It's leprechaun gold, so it'll vanish after a few hours."
The two Slytherins scowled and tipped the coins back out onto the ground again.
"I think that should be all the coins by now," said Hagrid near the end of the lesson. "Come on, let's count 'em all up..."
After counting through everyone's coins, the winner turned out to be one of Katie Bell's friends. For the prize, Hagrid gave her a big bar of some of the best chocolate from Honeydukes, the famous sweet shop in Hogsmeade. Whilst he was putting the Nifflers back in their boxes, Montague and his friends were starting to taunt Fred and George again.
"So, Weasleys... You upset that's only leprechaun gold? Bet that would have seemed like a fortune compared to what you're used to," taunted Montague.
"Just ignore them," Tee said loudly to the twins. "They've obviously got no lives if they've got nothing better to do than to try and goad people."
"You keep your mouth shut, Mudblood," said Montague.
Tee rolled her eyes. "Oh, really original. How long did..."
But she didn't get to say anymore, because Fred and George had both shouted out angry remarks and started towards Montague. Rose managed to grab the back of George's robes and pull him back, but Fred got past before either she or Tee could stop him and punched Montague straight in the face.
Before they knew it, Fred and Montague were throwing punches at each other. The Slytherins were cheering Montague on, Tee was desperately trying to get in between them and Rose was digging her heels into the ground in her efforts to stop George from joining in too.
"Fred! Just leave it; he's not worth it!" shouted Tee, grabbing Fred's arm and trying to pull him away.
"Alrigh'... Break it up, you two!" Hagrid had suddenly pushed his way through the group of Slytherins crowding round. He shoved Montague away roughly, grabbed Fred by the neck of his robes and pulled him back with such force that his feet left the floor. "You lot, get back up teh the castle now!" he said angrily to the Slytherins. "Or I'll be talkin' teh Professor Snape abou' this."
The Slytherins grumbled to one another and all slouched off in the direction of the castle, Montague in the lead.
"Err... Hagrid?" Tee pulled at his sleeve. He didn't seem to have realised he was still holding Fred up in the air. "You can put him down now."
"Oh righ'," said Hagrid, calm once again. "Sorry, Fred..." He put Fred back down on the ground again.
"It's okay," said Fred, readjusting his robes. "I can't believe you let him get away with that though. You could have at least gave him detention."
"If I'd have given him detention, I would've had teh give you detention as well," said Hagrid. "What the ruddy hell were you fightin' him fer anyway?"
"He called Tee a Mudblood," said Fred angrily.
Hagrid sighed. "Listen, I know it's not nice... I can't stand it meself. But yeh can't let 'em provoke yeh just fer that."
Fred started to say something back, but Tee cut across him. "I said just ignore them. I don't give a damn what they call me."
"But it's a really horrible thing to call someone who's Muggle born," said George.
Tee shrugged. "I don't care; it's just a word. I've heard worse. Just drop it, okay?" she said to Fred, who'd opened his mouth to protest. "I don't want you guys to get into trouble just because people are calling me names."
