Care of Magical Creatures
Chapter 10
Hermione grimaced as the scene in front of her: a dozen skrewts running around the courtyard near the forbidden forest. Care of Magical Creatures was a class that Hermione was definitely not looking forward to. Truthfully, she felt blasphemous for even thinking that (she firmly believed all knowledge was useful and should be learned eagerly, except divination) but the set up of the class was just so… unorganized. And she loved Hagrid, she really did, but just not as a professor. It was obvious he didn’t really have any idea what he was doing and just made up lesson plans as he went. This irritated Hermione to no end. How was she supposed to study and prepare for the next class if she didn’t know what the next class was supposed to be? Not to mention, this was the only class she had with no friends. She grimaced even more as Hagrid explained they had to leash the Skrewts and take them on a walk as if they were a couple of cute dogs, when really they were nasty little creatures.
“Er — yeh might want ter put on yer dragon-hide gloves, jus’ as an extra precaution. All righ’, split inta pairs o two, cuz there's one skrewt per two.”
Hermione looked around for someone to pair up with, but it seemed like everyone already had a partner in mind.
“All righ’, raise yer hand if you don’t gotta partner.” Hagrid Ordered.
Hermione raised her hand feeling embarrassed, at the other end of the class, Daphne Greengrass did the same.
“Great! Greengrass, yeh can pair up with 'Mione over here. Now geh to work yeh lot!”
Great. You have to be joking me. She's bloody everywhere. Hermione thought, getting more irritated by the second. The girls walked over to each other awkwardly then wordlessly grabbed a leash. In the past, Hermione had been rather indifferent to the slytherin, with only passing thoughts of disapproval due to her company, but now she found her to be quite a thorn in her side. Honestly, Hermione was quite confused by the girl. They were quite friendly in potions, so she felt inclined to help her keep her perfect position (and keep Malfoy from getting it), but then Greengrass got mad at her for it? Really she should have been kissing the ground Hermione walked on to thank her. And then when she found her bloody apple watch she wanted to learn more about it? Hermione rolled her eyes, so she wants to learn about muggle technology but doesn’t respect muggles enough to stand up for them.
Greengrass was the first to break the silence, “So, um, which skrewt do you want?” It seemed after their row during rounds, Hermione wasn’t the only one feeling awkward. But it was obvious they weren’t going to talk about it.
They picked one near the edge of the courtyard. To her surprise, Greengrass was quite skilled with the leash and got it on the skrewt almost instantly. She must have seen Hermione’s face because she apparently felt inclined to explain. “My family had a skrewt infestation at our manor a few years ago. I helped my dad get rid of them since my mom was too grossed out and Astoria was too little.” Hermione just nodded in response, but she was quite pleased with Greengrass's efficiency, with the leash already on they were ahead of most of the class.
Not that it was hard. It seemed no one could focus on their schoolwork since all anyone was talking about was how the champions for the triwizard tournament were meant to be announced that night.
“All right, now let’s walk it around.” Hermione was about to take the leash when Greengrass moved it out of her reach.
“Oh come on, Hagrid’s too busy helping everyone else and it’s not like he can really check if we walked it. We can just walk it a little at the end of class and say that we finished. Come on, let’s talk about something more interesting right now, like who’d you reckon the champions will be?”
Hermione's face turned to a scowl and she was about to lecture Greengrass on how very slytherin that was of her, but suddenly their skrewt sneezed, causing it to shoot forward several yards, and dragged Greengrass along on her stomach as she tried desperately to get back on her feet.
“FUCK.” Hermione heard Greengrass exclaim as she sprinted after her. Finally, she caught up to the other girl, but they were now quite separated from the rest of the class, near the edge of the forbidden forest.
Hermione picked Greengrass up to her feet, helping her brush off, ironically, the green grass and dirt that was now stuck to her front. “Christ, are you alright?”
“Fuck. My clothes are all ruined.” Greengrass whined, trying to clean them up along with Hermione.
Hermione let out a laugh. The whole situation was honestly amusing for her and she found it funny how after everything, Greengrass was worried about her clothes. “It’s all right, nothing a cleaning charm can’t fix. You should feel lucky it didn’t pull you into the forest. Bound to be worse things than skrewts in there.”
Greengrass looked up with a small smile, which was quickly interrupted by another voice. “No way. Is this why you were so put off the other day?” Hermione looked up to see an older Slytherin girl peering down from the tree she was in before she jumped down, along with a couple other of her friends. Hermione didn’t know her, but she definitely recognized her. She was always hanging around the quidditch pitch when Hermione went to go see Harry and Ron. It seemed like Greengrass definitely knew her though.
“Hey Kimura.” She said feebly. Hermione’s eyebrows shot up skeptically as she looked over at Greengrass, who somehow looked even paler than normal. Hermione couldn’t ever recall seeing the girl look this scared.
Kimura’s face went from amused to malicious, “Got yourself a mudblood girlfriend now?” One of the other older girls then chimed in, “Explains why she suddenly wanted to play hero, doesn’t it?”, making them all laugh.
Hermione was offended by the slur, but even more caught off guard by whatever the hell Kimura had just insinuated. Girlfriend? It seems that Greengrass was as well because Hermione had never seen anyone so red in the face, not even Ron. Greengrass was scrambling to find the words, well more like any words because apparently she couldn't get a sentence out. “She's not, we’re not- It’s just class-” Greengrass turned to face Hermione, and the only thing stressing her out more than the insinuation and the slur was the fear in Greengrass's eyes. “I don’t-” But it seemed anything past that point had her tongue tied.
The older slytherins were still laughing at Greengrass's plight. “What's wrong? Not feeling so brave anymore? Would have thought more of that gryffindor courage rubbed off on you by now.”
Hermione, despite all her issues with the blonde, felt a bit protective over her at that moment and felt the need to intervene. “You’re all supposed to be in class right now.” She asserted confidently. “I’m a head girl and Greengrass is a prefect. We can give you detention for skipping and taking away house points.” It seemed this had no effect on any of the girls, which made Hermione falter a bit. “So, um, I suggest you go find your classes right now!”
Although they swapped their laughter for anger, they hardly even acknowledged Hermione and just turned their attention back to Greengrass. “If you let her do that, we’ll make sure every girl in slytherin hates you by tomorrow.” Kimura said sharply.
Hermione was about to retaliate, but Greengrass grabbed her arm and spoke before her. “Relax, I’ll make sure she doesn't.” She pulled Hermione along back to class.
“What the hell was that? I was trying to help you!”
Greengrass’ face was still a bit red. “Look, I don’t want to talk about it. Just let it go alright.”
“They were obviously being cruel to you, they should be punished.” Hermione stated firmly, deciding to omit discussing the snide comments. “I'm going to tell McGonagall about them later today.”
Greengrass turned around sharply. “No the HELL you’re not! Trust me Granger, however cruel they were right now, if we punish them, they’ll become ten times worse. To BOTH of us. It’s not your bloody business so stay out of it.” She warned.
Hermione remembered Kimura’s last comment. “We'll make sure every girl in slytherin hates you by tomorrow.” What had she meant by that? “What could she possibly do to you that’s ten times worse? Is that how she’ll make every girl in your house hate you?” She snorted, “Slytherins aren’t big on house loyalty huh?”
Suddenly, Hermione stopped, remembering how Kimura had called her Greengrass's “mudblood girlfriend” and suddenly, it made a lot more sense. “Greengrass?” she inquired carefully. “Er, why’d she call us girlfriends? Is that how-” But after seeing Greengrass's dejected face she decided to stop. They were silent for a second before Hermione spoke up again. “You know one of my secrets, with the watch and everything. If I know one of yours that really just makes us even.” She said lightheartedly, trying to be funny, that usually helped with Ron and Harry.
Greengrass sighed. “Well, it sounds like you’ve put it together already anyways.” She said dryly. “She would tell every girl in slytherin I fancy girls… make them all think I’m weird and all.”
“Do you fancy girls?”
Greengrass nodded sheepishly. “I reckon you’ve put that part together as well.” She admitted, trying to look anywhere but Hermione. “You can’t tell anyone alright.”
“What? Of course I won’t. I would never-”
“Pinky promise it then.” She stated, looking very serious. Her pinky was already out and Hermione couldn’t help but smile at it. Greengrass, however, got very defensive over that and started lowering her hand. “Why are you laughing? Is this not something you do? I thought it was a muggle thing, Tracey taught me-”
Hermione got the sense she was going to keep rambling, so she interrupted. “No, no I know what it is. It’s just typically something primary school girls do with their close friends. I haven’t done one in ages.”
Greengrass turned red again, “Oh, didn’t know that, never mind then. I guess we don’t have to do that.”
Hermione reached for her hand and interlocked their pinkies, and shook them firmly. “I pinky promise that I won’t tell anyone.”
"Good, because if you ever do, I'll go straight to Dumbledore and tell him about your muggle watch." Hermione rolled her eyes and Greengrass smirked, “So does this mean we're friends now Granger?”
“Nope, just means we’re even.” but even she couldn’t help her smile. “So how did Kimura know about your secret anyway?”
Greengrass turned sheepish again, “Oh, er, we shagged. A lot.” she stated quickly. Hermione’s jaw fell open.
“Her!? But she's so foul- ”
“Yeah well I obviously regret it now.” Greengrass added sharply.
“Wait, if she fancies girls too, why didn’t you just threaten her back?” Hermione asked curiously.
“Because, that’s not something I threaten people with.”
Hermione was about to comment on how un-slytherin that was of her, but Hagrid noticed them first.
“Girls! There yer are. Where’s yeh skrewt?”
They both looked at each other with wide eyes. They had lost it in all the commotion. So much for being ahead of the class, Hermione thought to herself.