The Big Dipper

Mad-Eye Moody

After Professor Moody chewed out Draco in front of Professor Snape, earning Draco a week's detention and thirty points from Slytherin, Ursula gave him another talking-to about why he had to stop making fun of other people's families. All in all, they were rather late to dinner that night.

Ursula had a busy weekend, filled with a heavy amount of homework, but she made time for a bit of Quidditch on Sunday afternoon. Just because there was no tournament didn't mean they couldn't practice, so she, Adrian, and Cassius scrimmaged for an hour or two once their homework was finished.

On Monday morning, Ursula's friends were quite pleased to start the day with a free period. Cassius and Adrian gloated incessantly about all of the free time they had that day, with the former only having three classes and the latter having two, none of which started until after lunch. Ursula said she'd see the girls in double Herbology, then hurried off to first period Care of Magical Creatures at eight o'clock.

As expected, hardly anyone had continued onto NEWT Care of Magical Creatures. Ursula was the first one to arrive, but soon she saw three figures picking their way down the muddy hill towards her.

One was Fred, the other George, both exchanging cheerful banter as they walked. They had ditched their cloaks and their ties were askew. In between them was Rue, who's height difference meant the Weasley twins towered over her. She laughed at something Fred said and tucked a strand of hair, which was dyed a shocking blue, behind her ear. Her laughter died, however, as she and the Weasleys reached Ursula.

"Hey Black," said Fred, waving as he and the others came to a stop. George grinned at her but Rue's face went cold and she looked at her feet.

"Hello boys," said Ursula. She nodded slightly to the shorter girl. "Hello Rumina."

"Call me Rue," said Rue stiffly.

They were saved from any more awkwardness by the arrival of Hagrid, who stepped out of his hut to greet them.

"Mornin! There yeh are!" he said, waving them closer. "Glad ter see yeh. I've go' a real treat."

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.

"Blast-Ended Skrewts!" said Hagrid happily, gesturing to the crates at his feet.

The Blast-Ended Skrewts looked like deformed, shell-less lobsters, pale and slimy-looking, with legs sticking out in very odd places and no visible heads. 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. Ursula thought they were marvelous.

"Since they've on'y jus' hatched, I thought yer firs' project would be ter raise 'em!" continued Hagrid. "Today yeh'll jus' be feeding 'em, ter figure out what they like. I've ne'er had 'em before, yeh see, so why don' yeh try eggs an' frog livers an' this bit o' grass snake."

Ursula picked up a bit of grass snake and, quite fearlessly, stuck her hand into one of the crates. The other three were a bit more hesitant and a bit more grossed out.

"Are you sure you can handle this?" murmured Rue to Ursula.

"I'm not the one you should be worried about," shot back Ursula.