A Memorable Tale

39 | Unforgivable Until it's a Spider

"What in Merlin's name is that?"

I stared at what had to be the ugliest plants I had ever seen - and we planted mandrakes in second year. They looked remarkably like dung if dung could get acne and, even grosser, could move.

They were slimy and moving.

"Bubotobers," Professor Sprout told us. "They need squeezing. You will collect the puss-"

"The what?" Seamus was revolted, and frankly, I didn't blame him.

"Pus, Finnigan, pus," Professor Sprout repeated, "and it's extremely valuable, so don't waste it. Wear your dragon hide gloves; it can do funny things to the skin when undiluted."

In what had to be the most disgusting procedure we ever had to do, the bubotobers' pus was collected and put in little bottles.

I took off my gloves once we were finished, which greatly reminded me of Bill, and stepped away from the table.

"This'll keep Madam Pomfrey happy." Professor Sprout closed the last bottle. "An excellent remedy for the more stubborn forms of acne, bubotuber pus. Should stop students resorting to desperate measures to rid themselves of pimples."

Some people lit up, while others began to whisper. I couldn't help but feel sorry for whichever poor soul tried to magic their acne off and was suddenly the talk of the school.

Once the bell rang, we were off to Hagrid's class.

"Morning!" Hagrid said, grinning at Harry, Ron, and Hermione. "Today we'll be doing Blast Ended Skrewts!"

"Come again?" Ron questioned.

Hagrid pointed down into the crates and I nearly jumped back. They were unlike anything I had ever seen before - if lobsters didn't have shells and were stomped on for a little bit while also getting the blood drained from them, you'd probably get a Blast-Ended Skrewt.

And why was it slimy?

Why was everything we were working with slimy?

Ever so often, sparks would fly out its end and it would be propelled forward, which is... even better.

"Only just hatched," said Hagrid proudly, "so you'll be able to raise them yourselves! Thought we'd make a bit of a project of it!"

"That sounds lovely," I started in the gentlest voice I could muster. "But where on earth did you get these?"

"And why would we want to raise them?" said a cold voice that I'd recognize in a moment: Draco. "What's the point of them?"

"That's next lesson, Malfoy. You're just feeding them today. Now, you'll want to try them on a few different things — I've never had them before, not sure what they'll go for — I got ant eggs and frog livers and a bit o' grass snake — just try them out with a bit of each."

I watched Harry, Ron, and Hermione pick up a handful of frog livers and ultimately decided that there was no way I was touching it.

They were slimy too!

"Locomotor frog leg." A frog leg rose up and moved towards the crate, where I dropped it.

"Ouch!" Dean yelled out.

"Sorry!"

"No, not you!" He held his hand and Lisa rushed over, taking him by the wrist while Hagrid stood behind. A burn. "Aguamenti."

Dean sighed in relief. "That's better."

"Hagrid, what's that point thing on it?" Lavender squealed.

"Ah, some of them have got stings," Hagrid informed enthusiastically. "I reckon they're the males. The females've got sorta sucker things on their bellies. I think they might be to suck blood."