The storm had blown itself out by the following morning,though the ceiling in the Great Hall was still gloomy; heavyclouds of pewter gray swirled overhead as Me and Zoe examined our new course schedules at breakfast. 

 "Today's not bad . . . outside all morning," said Zoe, who wasrunning her finger down the Monday column of her schedule. "Herbology with the Ravenclaws and Care of Magical Creatures . . .damn it, we're still with the . . . .Gryffindors...oh well, I'll see hermione." 

"Hey Ems"

I turned to see Harry, Ron and Hermione grinning at me. "Hey Zoe!" said Hermione. Hermione me and Zoe were great friends. Harry and Ron nodded at her. Fred passed them his schedule.

"Double Divination this afternoon," Harry groaned, lookingdown. Divination was his least favorite subject, apart from Potions.Professor Trelawney kept predicting Harry's death, which he foundextremely annoying

."You should have given it up like me, shouldn't you?" said Hermione, taking a bite of her toast. "Then you'd be doing something sensible like Arithmancy." 

"You're eating again, I notice," said Ron. Catching my raised eyebrow he explained "Hermione found out the food was cooked my elves, she didn't eat yesterday."

"How did you survive?" asked Zoe. Hermione rolled her eyes. 

"I've decided there are better ways of making a stand about elfrights," said Hermione haughtily. 

"Yeah . . . and you were hungry," said Zoe, grinning. 

There was a sudden rustling noise above them, and a hundredowls came soaring through the open windows carrying the morningmail. Instinctively, Harry and I looked up, but there was no sign of whiteamong the mass of brown and gray. The owls circled the tables, looking for the people to whom their letters and packages were addressed.

Trying to ignore the sinkingfeeling of disappointment in my stomach, I returned to my porridge. Was it possible that something had happened to Hedwig, andthat Sirius hadn't even got our letter?

 My preoccupation lasted all the way across the sodden vegetablepatch until we arrived in greenhouse three, but here I was distracted by Professor Sprout showing the class the ugliest plants I had ever seen. Indeed, they looked less like plants thanthick, black, giant slugs, protruding vertically out of the soil. Eachwas squirming slightly and had a number of large, shiny swellingsupon it, which appeared to be full of liquid.

 "Bubotubers," Professor Sprout told us briskly. "They needsqueezing. You will collect the pus —" 

"The what?" said Draco, sounding revolted.

 "Pus, Malfoy, pus," said Professor Sprout, "and it's extremelyvaluable, so don't waste it. You will collect the pus, I say, in thesebottles. Wear your dragon-hide gloves; it can do funny things tothe skin when undiluted, bubotuber pus." 

Squeezing the bubotubers was disgusting, but oddly satisfying.As each swelling was popped, a large amount of thick yellowishgreen liquid burst forth, which smelled strongly of petrol.We caught it in the bottles as Professor Sprout had indicated, and bythe 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 themore stubborn forms of acne, bubotuber pus. Should stop studentsresorting to desperate measures to rid themselves of pimples." 

"Like poor Eloise Midgen," said Padma Patil, a Ravenclaw,in a hushed voice. "She tried to curse hers off." 

"Silly girl," said Professor Sprout, shaking her head. "ButMadam 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; the Ravenclawss climbing the stone steps for Transfiguration, and the us heading in the other direction, down the sloping lawntoward Hagrid's small wooden cabin, which stood on the edge ofthe Forbidden Forest. 

The Gryffindors were already there. And Hagrid was saying "--"On'y jus' hatched,"  Hagrid was saying proudly, "so yeh'll be able terraise 'em yerselves! Thought we'd make a bit of a project of it!"

In the box were creatures..well, They looked like deformed, shell-less lobsters,horribly pale and slimy-looking, with legs sticking out in very oddplaces and no visible heads. There were about a hundred of them ineach crate, each about six inches long, crawling over one another,bumping blindly into the sides of the boxes. They were giving off avery powerful smell of rotting fish. Every now and then, sparkswould fly out of the end of a skrewt, and with a small phut, itwould be propelled forward several inches.

 "And why would we want to raise them?" said Draco.

Hagrid looked stumped at the question. 

"Hagrid...they seem..well, what do they do?"I asked. "What is the point ofthem?" 

Hagrid opened his mouth, apparently thinking hard; there was afew seconds' pause, then he said "Tha's next lesson, Emma. Yer jus' feedin' 'em today. Now, yeh'll wan' ter try 'em on a fewdiff'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 — justtry 'em out with a bit of each."

 "First pus and now this," muttered Nicholas. 

Nothing but deep affection for Hagrid could have mademe pick up squelchy handfuls of frog liver andlower them into the crates to tempt the Blast-Ended Skrewts. I couldn't suppress the suspicion that the whole thing was entirelypointless, because the skrewts didn't seem to have mouths.

 "Ouch!" yelled Dean Thomas after about ten minutes. "It gotme!" Hagrid hurried over to him, looking anxious."Its end exploded!" said Dean angrily, showing Hagrid a burnon his hand."Ah, yeah, that can happen when they blast off," said Hagrid,nodding. 

"Eurgh!" said Lavender Brown again. "Eurgh, Hagrid, what'sthat pointy thing on it?""Ah, some of 'em have got stings," said Hagrid enthusiastically(Lavender quickly withdrew her hand from the box). "I reckonthey're the males. . . . The females've got sorta sucker things ontheir bellies. . . . I think they might be ter suck blood." 

"Well, I can certainly see why we're trying to keep them alive,"said Draco sarcastically. "Who wouldn't want pets that can burn,sting, and bite all at once?" 

"Er..Hagrid?" Zoe asked "how quick do these...things grow?"

"Well, I suppose they'll be six feetlong."

A skewert attempted to lunge at me, I jumped back, and tripped on a rock and would have cracked my head on a trunk if Draco hadn't caught me. His arm securely wrapped around my waist as he pulled me towards him. I blushed at being so close to him. 

"why hello" he said chuckling, I could see his eyes smirk. 

"hi" I mumbled, quickly looking around to see who had seen. 

Most of the class had been preoccupied in their work, that is, trying not to get stung or burnt. Except for Harry, Ron and Hermione. Hermione and Ron seemed to be keeping Harry from lunging at Draco. Hermione was smiling, Ron looked like he wanted to laugh and Harry looked murderous. I pulled away. 

"You sure you don't want to come closer again?" asked Draco, turning on his full charm. 

I shot him a dirty look. He smirked "offer still stands"

"Hagrid!" I called "can the skewerts kill someone after they grow?"

"Er...maybe?"

"I have a candidate to test that theory" I growled, narrowing my eyes at Draco.

He just laughed.

---

After lunch, Hermione and I had Athrimancy. Professor Vecor was one of my favourite teachers. We left to see Harry and Ron coming down with woe-bogen expressions. 

"Lots of homework?" said Hermione brightly, catching up withthem. "Professor Vector didn't give us any at all!" 

"Well, bully for Professor Vector," said Ron moodily. We reached the entrance hall, which was packed with peoplequeuing for dinner. We had just joined the end of the line, whena loud voice rang out behind us.

 "Weasley! Hey, Weasley!" 

Me, Harry, Ron, and Hermione turned. Draco, Crabbe, and Goylewere standing there, each looking thoroughly pleased aboutsomething. 

"What?" said Ron shortly. I shot draco a warning look. 

 "Your dad's in the paper, Weasley!" said Malfoy, brandishing acopy of the Daily Prophet and speaking very loudly, so that everyone in the packed entrance hall could hear. "Listen to this! 

FURTHER MISTAKES AT THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC 

It seems as though the Ministry of Magic's troublesare not yet at an end, writes Rita Skeeter, SpecialCorrespondent. Recently under fire for its poor crowd control at the Quidditch World Cup, andstill unable to account for the disappearance of oneof its witches, the Ministry was plunged into freshembarrassment yesterday by the antics of ArnoldWeasley, of the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office." 

Draco looked up."Imagine them not even getting his name right, Weasley. It'salmost as though he's a complete nonentity, isn't it?" he crowed.Everyone in the entrance hall was listening now. Draco straightened the paper with a flourish and read on:

 Arnold Weasley, who was charged with possessionof a flying car two years ago, was yesterday involvedin a tussle with several Muggle law-keepers("policemen") over a number of highly aggressivedustbins. Mr. Weasley appears to have rushed tothe aid of "Mad-Eye" Moody, the aged ex-Aurorwho retired from the Ministry when no longer ableto tell the difference between a handshake and attempted murder. Unsurprisingly, Mr. Weasleyfound, upon arrival at Mr. Moody's heavilyguarded house, that Mr. Moody had once againraised a false alarm. Mr. Weasley was forced tomodify several memories before he could escapefrom the policemen, but refused to answer DailyProphet questions about why he had involved theMinistry in such an undignified and potentiallyembarrassing scene.

"Get stuffed, Malfoy," said Harry. "C'mon, Ron. . . ." 

"Oh yeah, you were staying with them this summer, weren't you,Potter?" sneered Draco "So tell me, is his mother really thatporky, or is it just the picture?"

 "You know your mother, Malfoy?" said Harry — both he andHermione had grabbed the back of Ron's robes to stop him fromlaunching himself at Malfoy — "that expression she's got, like she'sgot dung under her nose? Has she always looked like that, or was itjust because you were with her?" 

Draco's pale face went slightly pink. 

"Draco" I said "don't--"

"Don't you dare insult my mother, Potter." 

"Keep your fat mouth shut, then," said Harry, turning away. 

BANG!Several people screamed — Malfoy had struck Harry.

"Hey!" Pucey was calling "Malfoy don't--"

 "OH NO YOU DON'T, LADDIE!" 

Harry spun around. Professor Moody was limping down themarble staircase. His wand was out and it was pointing right at apure white ferret, which was shivering on the stone-flagged floor,exactly where Draco had been standing. 

There was a terrified silence in the entrance hall. Nobody butMoody was moving a muscle. Moody turned to look at Harry — at least, his normal eye was looking at Harry; the other one waspointing into the back of his head.

 "Did he get you?" Moody growled. His voice was low andgravelly. 

"No," said Harry, "missed."

"LEAVE IT!" Moody shouted. 

"Leave — what?" Harry said, bewildered. 

"Not you — him!" Moody growled, jerking his thumb over hisshoulder at Crabbe, who had just frozen, about to pick up thewhite ferret. It seemed that Moody's rolling eye was magical andcould see out of the back of his head. 

Moody started to limp toward Crabbe, Goyle, and the ferret,which gave a terrified squeak and took off, streaking toward thedungeons. 

"I don't think so!" roared Moody, pointing his wand at the ferretagain — it flew ten feet into the air, fell with a smack to the floor,and then bounced upward once more."I don't like people who attack when their opponent's back'sturned," growled Moody as the ferret bounced higher andhigher, squealing in pain. "Stinking, cowardly, scummy thing todo. . . ." 

The ferret flew through the air, its legs and tail flailing helplessly."Never — do — that — again —" said Moody, speaking eachword as the ferret hit the stone floor and bounced upward again. 

"Professor Moody!" said a shocked voice.Professor McGonagall was coming down the marble staircasewith her arms full of books. 

"Hello, Professor McGonagall," said Moody calmly, bouncingthe ferret still higher. 

What — what are you doing?" said Professor McGonagall, hereyes following the bouncing ferret's progress through the air.

 "Teaching," said Moody.

 "Teach — Moody, is that a student?" shrieked Professor McGonagall, the books spilling out of her arms.

 "Yep," said Moody. 

"No!" cried Professor McGonagall, running down the stairs andpulling out her wand; a moment later, with a loud snapping noise,Draco had reappeared, lying in a heap on the floor with hissleek blond hair all over his now brilliantly pink face. He got to hisfeet, wincing.

 "Moody, we never use Transfiguration as a punishment!" saidProfessor McGonagall weakly. "Surely Professor Dumbledore toldyou that?" 

"He might've mentioned it, yeah," said Moody, scratching hischin unconcernedly, "but I thought a good sharp shock —" 

"We give detentions, Moody! Or speak to the offender's Head ofHouse!"

 "I'll do that, then," said Moody, staring at Draco with greatdislike. Draco, whose pale eyes were still watering with pain and humiliation, looked malevolently up at Moody and muttered something in which the words "my father" were distinguishable. 

"Oh yeah?" said Moody quietly, limping forward a few steps, thedull clunk of his wooden leg echoing around the hall. "Well, Iknow your father of old, boy. . . . You tell him Moody's keeping aclose eye on his son . . . you tell him that from me. . . . Now, yourHead of House'll be Snape, will it?" 

"Yes," said Draco resentfully. 

"Another old friend," growled Moody. "I've been looking forward to a chat with old Snape. . . . Come on, you. . . ."

 And he seized Malfoy's upper arm and marched him off towardthe dungeons.

 Professor McGonagall stared anxiously after them for a few moments, then waved her wand at her fallen books, causing them tosoar up into the air and back into her arms.

That night Draco was ranting about Moody.

"--How dare he..I swear my father--He's utterly mad--"

"Something does feel off about him" I mumbled

"'Off?' He turned me into a ferret!"

"You deserved it" I snap "why did you go on starting something with Ron? And why did you attack my brother?"

"Are you telling me that they wouldn't have done the same?"

I bit my lip. Truth is, if they got some dirt on Draco, Harry and Ron would most probably do the same "just because they would do it doesn't mean you have to." I said

"Listen, Emma" growled Draco "it's how I was raised, I'm not changing for them. It's them or me."

"Are you honestly asking me to choose?"

"Yes!"

"No!" I said "Absolutely not! I'm not coming in the middle of this. I won't choose you..or them! I'd choose you all. Honestly though" I glared at the stars "you all need to grow up."