The storm had blown itself out by the following morning, though the ceiling in the Great Hall was still gloomy, matching Kirra's mood perfectly; heavy clouds of pewter grey swirled overhead as Jasper and Kirra examined their new course schedules at breakfast alone at the end of the Slytherin table.
"Today's not bad . . . outside all morning," said Jasper softly, who was running his finger down the Monday column of his schedule, sparing the girl frequent small glances who still hadn't put any food on her plate.
"Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures . . . you love those subjects," he hoped that this would brighten her mood a little bit, but from the look on her face, he could see that it hadn't.
"Double Divination this afternoon," Kirra groaned softly, looking down. Divination was her least favourite subject, apart from Potions. Professor Trelawney kept predicting Kirra and Harry's death, which she found extremely annoying; and it was going to be awkward now that Kirra had gone off at her last year.
"At least I joined Divination" said Jaspar, buttering some toast and putting Jam on it before placing it down on the Hufflepuff's plate. "I know you and Nott used to sit together but we can sit together now." he trailed off at the end, not knowing if it was the right thing to say.
"I noticed that you didn't eat anything last night, you should eat some breakfast, the Jam tastes really fresh today," said Jasper softly, watching the girl play with the hair tye on her wrist instead of eating the toast he had put on her plate.
"Thanks J, but I'm just not hungry at the moment," said Kirra, looking up to give him a small smile, but she failed miserably as he watched the tears pool in her eyes instantly.
"Hey, maybe we should skip the first two classes today and go do something fun... we could explore the castle or go to the forest and look for some cool animals..." said Jasper, trying desperately to do whatever he could to make her feel better, but she shook her head.
"No, we should j-"
There was a sudden rustling noise above them, and a hundred owls came soaring through the open windows carrying the morning mail. The owls circled the tables, looking for the people to whom their letters and packages were addressed.
A large tawny owl soared down to Jasper and deposited a parcel into his lap — and in the parcel had been some wizarding money from his father and a new suit that looked very very expensive. The Hufflepuff and Slytherin shared confused looks before Kirra's eyes widened slightly, "it must be for the yule ball."
"The what?" Jasper asked with furrowed eyebrows, closing the package and setting it on the table beside him.
"its a dance thing they do when the triwizard tournament is held," Kirra explained to him. He nodded his head and then something further down the table had caught their eyes.
Further down the Slytherin table, Draco Malfoy's eagle owl had landed on his shoulder, carrying what looked like his usual supply of sweets and cakes from home, there was one box for him and one for Mattheo.
Trying to ignore the sinking feeling of sadness and longing in her stomach that she got when she looked at Mattheo, Kirra just turned away from him and looked over at Jasper, the two of them starting up in small conversation once again.
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Professor Sprout stood in front of the class, showing the class the ugliest plants most of them had ever seen. Indeed, they looked less like plants than thick, black, giant slugs, protruding vertically out of the soil. Each was squirming slightly and had a number of large, shiny swellings upon it, which appeared to be full of liquid.
"Bubotubers," Professor Sprout told them briskly. "They need squeezing. You will collect the pus —"
"The what?" said Jasper from beside Kirra, sounding revolted.
"Pus, Rowle, pus," said Professor Sprout, "and it's extremely valuable, so don't waste it. You will collect the pus, I say, in these bottles. Wear your dragon-hide gloves; it can do funny things to the skin when undiluted, bubotuber pus."
Kirra felt disgusted over the fact that they were meant to be wearing dragon-hide gloves and decided against it, even if she would have to face serious consequences, so she pulled out her faux leather gloves and slipped them on.
Squeezing the bubotubers was disgusting, but oddly satisfying. As each swelling was popped, a large amount of thick yellowish green liquid burst forth, which smelled strongly of petrol. They caught it in the bottles as Professor Sprout had indicated, and by the end of the lesson had collected several pints.
"This'll keep Madam Pomfrey happy," said Professor Sprout, stoppering the last bottle with a cork. "An excellent remedy for the more stubborn forms of acne, bubotuber pus. Should stop students resorting to desperate measures to rid themselves of pimples."
"Like poor Eloise Midgen," said Hannah Abbott, a Hufflepuff, in a hushed voice. "She tried to curse hers off."
"Silly girl," said Professor Sprout, shaking her head. "But Madam Pomfrey fixed her nose back on in the end." A booming bell echoed from the castle across the wet grounds, signaling the end of the lesson, and the class separated down the sloping lawn toward Hagrid's small wooden cabin, which stood on the edge of the Forbidden Forest.
Hagrid was standing outside his hut, one hand on the collar of his enormous black boarhound, Fang. There were several open wooden crates on the ground at his feet, and Fang was whimpering and straining at his collar, apparently keen to investigate the contents more closely.
As they drew nearer, an odd rattling noise reached their ears, punctuated by what sounded like minor explosions. "Mornin'!" Hagrid said, grinning at the class. "you won' want ter miss this — Blast Ended Skrewts!"
"Come again?" said Jasper with a look of disgust on his face. Hagrid pointed down into the crates.
"Eurgh!" squealed Lavender Brown, jumping backward.
"Eurgh" just about summed up the Blast-Ended Skrewts in many peoples opinion, but Kirra Potter always seemed to find the beauty in all animals. Sure, they looked like deformed, shell-less lobsters, horribly pale and slimy-looking, with legs sticking out in very odd places and no visible heads; but Kirra saw the beauty in them.
There were about a hundred of them in each crate, each about six inches long, crawling over one another, bumping blindly into the sides of the boxes. They were giving off a very powerful smell of rotting fish.
Every now and then, sparks would fly out of the end of a skrewt, and with a small phut, it would be propelled forward several inches. "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. The rest of the Slytherins had arrived. The speaker was Mattheo Riddle. Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle were chuckling appreciatively at his words.
Hagrid looked stumped at the question. "Mattheo is right, I mean, what do they do?" asked Malfoy. "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 and Riddle. 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."
"First pus and now this," muttered Jasper, causing Kirra to elbow him softly with a small smile which had seemed to make Jaspers day. Kirra had a small look of disgust on her face as she beant down to pick up squelchy handfuls of frog liver and lower them into the crates to tempt the Blast-Ended Skrewts.
Kirra and Jasper couldn't suppress the suspicion that the whole thing was entirely pointless, because the skrewts didn't seem to have mouths.
"Ouch!" yelled Dean Thomas after about ten minutes. "It got me!" Hagrid hurried over to him, looking anxious. "Its end exploded!" said Dean angrily, showing Hagrid a burn on his hand.
"Ah, yeah, that can happen when they blast off," said Hagrid, nodding.
"Eurgh!" said Lavender Brown again. "Eurgh, Hagrid, what's that pointy thing on it?"
"Ah, some of 'em have got stings," said Hagrid enthusiastically (Lavender quickly withdrew 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."
"Well, I can certainly see why we're trying to keep them alive," said Malfoy sarcastically, causing Kirra to roll her eyes. "Who wouldn't want pets that can burn, sting, and bite all at once?"
"Just because you don't think that they are very pretty, it doesn't mean they're not useful," Kirra snapped.
Jasper nodded his head and spoke up, "Dragon blood's amazingly magical, but you wouldn't want a dragon for a pet, would you?"Mattheo had looked up at this, because he knew for a fact that Kirra would love to have a dragon as a pet; it was and always had been her favourite animal.
"I see someone forgot to brush their hair again huh Potter?" Mattheo spoke up as he looked over at the girl whose face had dropped even more than before. Her hands quickly went to her hair as she attempted to try and smooth it out before tying in into a pony tail.
Theodore watched in silence for a moment was this going to far? "Like that is going to help Potter, your hair looks like Whiskers used it as a blanket last night and then used it as a toilet this morning," Theodore choked out, his heart sinking to his stomach as he saw her face
Jasper had thrown his books down on the ground and then stormed over to the two Slytherins and then spoke in a low tone so that only they could hear him, "stop it. It's enough, she cant take it anymore, you are fucking destroying her."
"We are keeping her safe," Mattheo whispered back to him
"Are you?" Jasper snapped and looked back over to the girl one last time before turning back to the boys, "Because she hasn't eaten since she got here and by the looks of it, she hasn't eaten in days."
Mattheo and Theodore felt sick as they spared the girl a small glance. The two of them had already noticed that it looked like she had lost weight but they were too caught up in trying to make sure that she wouldn't get hurt instead of realising that they were the ones who were hurting her the most.
Jasper shoved them back slightly before storming back over to the Hufflepuff who had a concerned look on her face, "What happened? What did you tell them?" She asked him in worry and confusion
"Nothing, don't worry about it," He told her softly.
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"Well, at least the skrewts are small," said Jasper as they made their way back up to the castle for lunch an hour later.
"They are now," said Hermione in an exasperated voice, "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?" said Jasper, grinning slyly at her as he tried to get her to smile again. "
They sat down at the Hufflepuff table and Jasper helped himself to lamb chops and potatoes.
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When the bell rang to signal the start of afternoon lessons, Jasper and Kirra set off for North Tower where, at the top of a tightly spiraling staircase, a silver stepladder led to a circular trapdoor in the ceiling, and the room where Professor Trelawney lived.
The familiar sweet perfume spreading from the fire met their nostrils as they emerged at the top of the step ladder. As ever, the curtains were all closed; the circular room was bathed in a dim reddish light cast by the many lamps, which were all draped with scarves and shawls.
Kirra and Jasper walked through the mass of occupied chintz chairs and poufs that cluttered the room, and sat down at the same small circular table. "Good day," said the misty voice of Professor Trelawney right behind Jasper, making him jump.
A very thin woman with enormous glasses that made her eyes appear far too large for her face, Professor Trelawney was peering down at Kirra with the tragic expression she always wore whenever she saw her.
The usual large amount of beads, chains, and bangles glittered upon her person in the firelight. "You are preoccupied, my dear," she said mournfully to Kirra which surprised Kirra... especially after last year. "My inner eye sees past your brave face to the troubled soul within. And I regret to say that your worries are not baseless. I see difficult times ahead for you, alas . . . most difficult . . . I fear the thing you dread will indeed come to pass . . . and perhaps sooner than you think. . . ."
Her voice dropped almost to a whisper. Kirra rolled her eyes at Jasper, who looked stonily back. Professor Trelawney swept past them and seated herself in a large winged arm chair before the fire, facing the class.
Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil, who deeply admired Professor Trelawney, were sitting on poufs very close to her. "My dears, it is time for us to consider the stars," she said. "The movements of the planets and the mysterious portents they reveal only to those who understand the steps of the celestial dance. Human destiny may be deciphered by the planetary rays, which intermingle . . ."
But Kirra's thoughts had drifted. The perfumed fire always made her feel sleepy and dull-witted, and Professor Trelawney's rambling talks on fortune-telling never held her exactly spellbound — though she couldn't help thinking about what she had just said to her.
" 'I fear the thing you dread will indeed come to pass . . .' " But the thing she dreaded most was losing the people she cared about and she had just lost her boyfriend and her best friend, Professor Trelawney really was an old fraud and Kirra had always knew it.
She had long since come to the conclusion that her brand of fortune-telling was really no more than lucky guesswork and a spooky manner.