Teacher's Pet | Severus Snape

Chapter 17 - Nasty Rodents

Occasionally, I liked spending my free time riding a broom stick, flying over the castle grounds, looking for unknown places and adventures. Luckily, the area around Hogwarts was full of them. Though, as the final school year had proven to be rather demanding, I hadn't had the chances yet for some explorations. Therefore, I was genuinely tempted as Valeryia asked me during our Herbology class to ditch the Study Hall this afternoon and head outside with her on our brooms instead.
"Come on, you're already done with all your parchments for the week, I know. Also, after so many weeks of hard work, we have earned ourselves a little treat!", she pleaded.
After a brief consideration I agreed, and we arranged to meet at the Pendulum after our last classes for the day.

"G'Morning class!", Hagrid beamed, as he greeted us for our afternoon class in Care of Magical Creatures.
He was such a good soul, and during the years, I grew very fond of his classes – despite the few ups and downs that we encountered. At least it was never boring, and we got to see beasts, no other students got to see in school. Hagrid was standing next to a mid-sized cage, that he had – for dramatic purposes, covered with an old blanket. From underneath the blanket soft caws and rustlings emerged. We stood around the cage curiously, and some took their usually safety-step backwards, as you never knew with Hagrid.
"Good morning, Professor!", I smiley at him.
It was cute, he never seemed to get quite used to him being addressed as 'professor', he always blushed and then, as the pride kicked in, grew even taller than he already was. Fang was drooling happily next to him. I offered him my hand, and the giant hound cheerfully sniffed it and drenched it in drool. I chuckled and wiped my hand dry on my cloak.
"Ah, I have something special fer yeh!", Hagrid was clearly over thrilled. He gave the blanket a soft pad.
"Came all th' way from Japan, she did. A friend o' mine sent 'er. Now, who wants ter 'ave a guess what's underneath this blanket?"
"Nothing dangerous, I sure hope so!", a Ravenclaw girl said under her breath.
"Nah, promise. She's a cutey!", Hagrid reassured her.
The girl looked semi-convinced, as we all knew Hagrid's understanding of the word 'harmless' could slightly differ from the norm. The animal inside gave out a little purr-like sound. At least she did sound calm.
As no one was keen enough for some serious guesses, Hagrid gave us a few more hints.
"Now, listen 'ere, as I already said, she's a peaceful beast, she is. Herbivorous. Usually lives in the Far East. If she gets in trouble, she can turn 'erself invisible!"
He paused and looked at us with an optimistic look upon his face. But so far, the penny didn't seem to have dropped, yet. Hagrid quickly frowned as he was raking his brains for another clue.
"Ay! Yeh need ter be a right skill-full wizard or witch to capture one o' these creatures, y'see. 'Cause they can foreseen what yeh are about ter do."
Living in the Far East, herbivorous, friendly, can turn invisible, can foresee the future...
I gasped: "A Demiguise!"
Hagrid beamed: "10 points ter Slytherin!" and he lifted the blanket.
In the cage there sat a creature, that could best be described as a mixture between a sloth and a large ape. She had long, almost goofy looking arms and was covered with a coat of silky, silver fur. She had large, black eyes and they were fixed upon the crowd on the other side of the cage. She looked perfectly at ease and somehow, she exuded an aura of calm and knowledge. Before Hagrid had opened the cage, she had already started to crawl towards the door. She climbed onto his arms, and he held her like a toddler as he explained us more about her.
She had lived in Hogwarts before a couple of years ago. She had stolen sweets from the area around Hogwarts and Hogsmeade and had been captured with great effort by four men, one of them being Jules Egwu, who later went to Japan with her. Jules took great care of her and had managed to domesticate her, that's why Hagrid was now able to casually hold her, without her trying to run for it.
"'Ere, she can even do some tricks!", Hagrid announced proudly and sat her down on the cage.
He handed a small ball to a Hufflepuff boy, who was standing in the back of the Demiguise and told him to throw it right at her. The boy threw with everything he had, aiming for the beats head. But before the ball had even left his hand, the Demiguise's eyes had turned blue and she had ducked the ball without even looking at it; as if she had known exactly, where it would go. The class gave out a impressed awe. One very courageous Slytherin girl, walked up to the Demiguise and reached out her hand. In the blink of an eye, the beast was gone. Vanished into thin air. Another awe went through the class.
Hagrid chuckled, as the Demiguise reformed in his arms again. She had crawled back to him for safety. "'Ere's the task for ya'all today: In groups of two, try ter capture 'er!"
The Demiguise slowly crawled back onto the cage. She seemed as if she was keen to start playing with us.
"Oh, and one more thing! Demiguises have a keen sense of empathy, so treat 'em kindly and with care. Show 'em that yeh mean no harm, and they might just cooperate with yeh."

With that the class started their mission. A few of us darted right onto the poor beast, trying to catch her of guard. But she swiftly dodged all the hands. Some simply tried to run after her, which ended in a scene that resembled a mother running after her toddler without reaching it. Some tried using props, such as their coats and tried throwing it over her. But every cloak just landed on the grass. Two tried to outsmart her by running towards her from opposite directions. They smashed into each other and spent the rest of the lesson, scratching their throbbing heads.
Hagrid was having the time of his life, watching us getting dismantled by this sloth-ape-crossbreed.
"Catchin' a Demiguise ain't for the faint-hearted, but with patience, a steady hand, and a bit of luck, yeh might just be able to get 'er. Good luck, mate!", he said, as me and Caitlin started our try.
I whispered something into Caitlin's ear, and she giggled and nodded. Then we sat down on a bench facing other and Caitlin took out her golden hair clip and laid it between us. We started talking about the weather. I showed her some birds that were flying in the sky. We talked about how much we were looking forward to starting our Apparition classes after Christmas holidays. We chatted for a couple of minutes. Now and then one of our classmates would try to interrupt our 'catch attempt', because they got bored, but Hagrid shushed them all and let us go on. After another couple of moments, my eyes caught a movement between the both of us and without interrupting our chatting, I simply put my hand mindlessly down onto the bench, where the golden hair clip was lying. Between my hand and the clip, I felt the soft paw of the Demiguise and grabbed it gently. She looked at me with widened-surprised eyes and I smiled at the beast gently and whispered:
"Got 'cha."
"That's how it's done, Gwendolyn! Well done, Caitlin!", Hagrid roared. Apparently the Demiguise was used to hearing Hagrid's loud voice, because she didn't even flicker as it had cut through the silence. She still sat between me and Caitlin, her paw in my hand.
"Patience, a steady hand, a bit of luck, and somethin' shiny always does the trick, it does!"
"Thank you, Professor. I remembered you mentioning she had been caught steeling sweets, so I thought maybe she could be tempted by something shiny as well", I explained.
"Well, now, look 'ere! That was some clever thinking, it was! Well done, lass! Yer mind's as sharp as a Hippogriff's claw, it is!"
With that Hagrid ended the class and I rushed to the broom storage room, to grab my broom and meet with Valeryia.

Valeryia had already been waiting for me at the Pendulum. She threw her broom ever her head, waving it, as she saw me approaching and grinned happily. We hopped onto our broomsticks and headed it off. As we were flying aimlessly over the castle, I told her about the Demiguise, and she told me about some Arithmancy lesson she had had. It felt great being back on my broom after such a long time. The chilly Mid-November air was caressing my skin and got caught under my cloak. We flew over the green houses and waved at Professor Sprout, who was battling with some Chinese Chomping Cabbages that were chomping on what seemed to be her hat – or what was left of it. We crossed the lake and kept an eye out for mermaids and kelpies. As we were reaching the borders to the Forbidden Forest, we made sure to stay on our side, for it was highly forbidden to enter or even fly over the woods. The forest lied there, dark and gloomy as always. It radiated evil and mischief, yet somehow it was still fascinating and alluring. Neither Valeryia nor I wanted to be too near for too long as we feared, the forest could tempt us to enter it.

"No, come back! Mom will kill me!", I heard someone scream as we had just decided to leave the borders of the Forbidden Forest.
I searched the ground and saw a red-haired boy running towards the woods. He seemed to be running after something, chasing it. Something rather small, as he was crouched down while running. Valeryia and I glanced at each other and gave each other a nod, indicating that we both wanted to find out, what was going on there. We landed shortly ahead of where the first trees of the Forbidden Forest started and waited for the boy. He was fixated on whatever he was chasing after and didn't see us standing there. He darted right between us towards the Forbidden Forest and just as he was about to enter it, I held him back by his cloak.
"Are you mad? We're not allowed in there!", I shouted at him.
"Scabbers!", he screamed and reached for the woods.
"What's the matter with you? What are you chasing after?", Valeryia asked the boy.
"My pet rat!", the boy stuttered, eyes still fixed on the woods, "He bit my finger and took off!"
He showed us a bloody finger.
"Blimey! Mum will kill me! He's been in our family for twelve years."
"Curiously long life for a common garden rat, isn't it?", I said mockingly.
He gave me a disapproving look before turning his gaze back towards the forest ground, looking for his missing pet. Only then I noticed his rather shabby looking cloak. Everything he wore looked, as if it had been worn by others before. I noticed the red and gold embedded lion badge on his school uniform and couldn't help but twisting my face in contempt at its sight. I should have let him run into the forest.
"You're the one with the liquorice-like potion! Professor Snape was rather pissed", Valeryia recognized him, and the boy's ears turned reddish.
"Snape hates me", he muttered trying to sound indifferent, eyes still locked onto the forest ground.
"Ever tried paying attention during his classes?", I hissed.
Another disapproving glance from the Gryffindor brat.
"Stop teasing him. We all know, Snape can be harsh sometimes", Valeryia deescalated the situation and gave me a penetrating look, rising her eyebrows. I crossed my arms and snorted.
"Anyways", I continued, "Your rat has long since vanished into the forest by now. It's probably already somewhere deep under some roots or some of the wild beats that roam the forest are having a decent snack right now. You'll never find it again. You can wave and kiss it goodbye."
The ginger glared at me: "Bloody hell. You're a true ray of sunshine, aren't you, mate?"
"Sorry, her... boyfriend is giving her a hard time. It's complicated. She's not quite herself right now. We're sorry for your lost pet", Valeryia intervened.
"Well, I am sorry for her boyfriend. Seems like the usual Slytherin git to me", he grunted, "Anyways, thanks for not helping me with my rat and letting him escape into certain death. Truly appreciate it. I'll head back to the castle and send an owl to my mum to make my day even worse."
With that he freed himself from my hand that was still gripping onto his hand-me-down cloak and he stomped off.
"Ungrateful Gryffindor punk", I muttered.
"As if you had given him any good reason to treat you nicely, Gwen!", Valeryia scolded me. I didn't like Gryffindors.

We decided it was time to head back to the castle and get ourselves ready for dinner. As we walked up to our usual places, we passed the Gryffindor ginger again. He was talking to some curly haired girl, that seemingly was concerned about the state of his finger. As she put a band aid on it, I could hear a fragment of their conversation:
"Ron, that finger looks awful, you have to go check with Madame Pomfrey! Also, what were you thinking, running after that rat right into the forest! What if you had been caught by a beast or even a prefect! You could have been killed – or worse, expelled!"
While I was eating dinner, I remembered my harsh words about the rat already being eaten by beasts and felt a little lump in my stomach. I like animals – very much. Usually more than people, definitely more than Gryffindors. I hoped the rat was okay and had found a save place to live.