Chapter 10

Herbology was my first class the next morning. I enjoyed Herbology, but I still didn't want to wake up. Early mornings weren't really my thing, but I stayed awake because the dark's not taking prisoners tonight. I got dressed, put my glasses on, grabbed my copy of Flesh-Eating Trees of the World, and went down to breakfast.

Other than Teddy asking me far too many questions about the first year curriculum, breakfast was fairly uneventful. I ate my toast and eggs fairly quickly and then guzzled down my pumpkin juice before heading off to the greenhouse for Herbology.

I ran into Pete on the way to the greenhouse. "Trick!" he exclaimed. "What class are you headed to?"

"Herbology," I said. "What about you?"

"Care of Magical Creatures." He sighed and said, "I really hope my book doesn't attack me again."

"Just stroke the spine, remember?" I said.

"I hope I remember that," Pete said. He looked over at my Herbology textbook. "There's some parchment sticking out of your textbook," he observed.

I opened up the textbook and pulled out the parchment. Sure enough, it was the same sheet of parchment that Gerard had given me as a gift. "Gerard gave this to me," I told Pete. "He told me to 'remember to say Mischief Managed when you're finished and take this to your grave,' but I don't even know what that means."

"It must have some magical properties, although I don't know what kind of magical properties a blank sheet of parchment could have. Maybe there's some hidden message on it," Pete said. He took out his wand and tapped it on the parchment. "Aparecium!"

All of a sudden, some writing appeared on the parchment.

Mr Moony would like to inform Peter Lewis Kingston Wentz III that he is already late for class, and should stop poking around in his boyfriend's personal business if he has any desire whatsoever to make it to his lesson.

Mr Prongs agrees wholeheartedly with Mr Moony, and would like to add that Mr Wentz is emo trash.

"Why thank you!" Pete exclaimed, but more writing appeared.

Mr Padfoot is shocked that this meme-watching moron even made it to seventh year.

Mr Wormtail bids Mr Wentz good day, and would like to inform him that he looks like a walking advertisement for Hot Topic right now. What a loser.

The parchment suddenly went blank again, while Pete shuddered and backed away from the parchment. "There's clearly some Dark magic in there, Trick," he said. "You should get rid of it."

"Gerard wouldn't give me something that he knew was cursed," I argued.

"I doubt it, but we might as well be careful," Pete said. "Do you know who those blokes are? I've never heard of any of them."

"Me neither," I said. "You're right though. I should get rid of this, but class starts in three minutes, and I have to go all the way to the greenhouse."

"You're right," Pete said. "I have to go to class too. See you soon, Sophomore Stump!" I rolled my eyes as I walked towards the greenhouse. Most of the other students were already there when I arrived.

"Hello everyone!" Professor Longbottom exclaimed. "Welcome back for your sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I hope you all had an excellent summer. Let's start by opening up Flesh-Eating Trees of the World to page 923. We will be learning about Venomous Tentaculas today."

I opened my book to page 923 and saw an illustration of a large, fearsome tree with twisted branches and long, deadly spikes. This is what we're dealing with on the first day of NEWT level Herbology? I thought.

Professor Longbottom continued to talk about the Venomous Tentaculas and how they expelled venom from their shoots. I really liked Professor Longbottom, and it didn't hurt that Herbology was one of my favorite subjects. After a while, Professor Longbottom announced that we would be working with the Tentaculas in partners. He paired me with Spencer Smith, which I was okay with. Spencer was nice, even if he was a member of Brendon's group of testosterone boys and harlequin girls. I put on a pair of dragon hide gloves and started to inspect our Venomous Tentacula.

I realised that we had forgotten to get a quill for taking notes, so I left to get one. Suddenly, I heard a scream. "PATRICK! THE TENTACULA'S GOT ME!"

I ran back over to our spot, and saw that the tree had indeed seized Spencer. I ran over to him and pulled out my wand. "Diffindo!" I shouted, careful to ensure that the Severing Charm wouldn't hit Spencer. The vine that had grabbed Spencer fell off of the tree, and Spencer was able to untangle himself.

"Thanks Patrick," he said. "I'll be more careful next time."

The rest of the lesson passed by relatively quickly, and thankfully, our plant behaved a little bit better, although both Spencer and I had to perform the Severing Charm several more times. I left class feeling satisfied, if a little confused over what exactly Gerard's gift was. I figured that it was a mystery that I would solve another day.