The Forgotten Twin

Chapter 11

The next morning Delilah learned that the password was Parseltongue. The storm had cleared itself out by morning, but the sky was still gloomy; the heavy clouds swirled overhead as Draco and Delilah examined their new schedules over breakfast.

"Today won't be bad," Delilah commented. "Charms with the Ravenclaws and then Care of Magical Creatures with the Gryffindors."

"And then double Alchemy this afternoon," Draco said with a grin.

"Oh! That probably means we'll be making something which will be interesting."

"I hope it's better than last time, that was disgusting."

Delilah had to agree. Making extra potent fertilizer doesn't sound that bad, but they had to use disgusting ingredients such as dragon dung. She shuddered at the memory.

Then there was a sudden rustling noise above them, and a hundred owls came soaring through the open windows carrying the morning mail. Delilah instinctively looked up, but as usual there was nothing for her.

The owls circled the tables, looking for the people to whom their letters and packages were addressed. Draco's eagle owl landed on his shoulder, carrying his usual supply of sweets and cakes from home. Delilah grinned as he offered her some before they headed off for Charms.

Charms class was boring. It was just a review of what they had learned over the past three years as well as what they were going to learn this year, which was slightly more interesting.

Finally the bell rang, signaling the end of the lesson, and the class separated, most of the Slytherins heading towards the grounds and down the sloping lawn to the Care of Magical Creatures lesson.

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.

As Delilah saw what was in the crates, she almost stopped. The creatures looked like deformed, shell-less lobsters, horribly 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.

"On'y jus' hatched," said Hagrid proudly as the Slytherins came to a stop just behind the Gryffindors, "so yeh'll be able ter raise 'em yerselves! Thought we'd make a bit of a project of it!"

Delilah couldn't personally see why anyone would want to raise them. They looked like ugly mutants.

Draco muttered, "But why would we want to?"

Even though he had said it relatively quietly, the Gryffindors, and Hagrid, heard. Hagrid in particular looked stumped.

Delilah elbowed him as his mouth opened again. He closed it. Blaise however, did not.

"What do they even do?" he asked. "What's the point of them?"

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