The Marauders: Year One | #Wattys2016

Care of Magical Creatures

Care of Magical Creatures

Professor Kettleburn was waiting for them on the grounds after lunch. He was an interesting sight, with frizzy white hair that stood out off his head as though he'd been struck by a high voltage of electricity, and an oddly excited expression on his face, even when there wasn't anything going on. Kettleburn was a bit of a joke with the elder students - James and the others already knew this because they'd heard Bilius and Derek laugh about him so many times in the past. The Care of Magical Creatures teacher had a very low threshold for fear, rather he seemed drawn to the higher rated creatures on the M.O.M. scale, and he had paid dearly for it. It was possible Kettleburn was a handsome wizard in his day - they'd heard tell that he was - but by this point so many creatures had taken nips and chunks out of him that he was a big irregular. There were scars and niches all over him. He stood on one regular leg and one wooden one, with an alarming amount of bandages that were ever present. Today, he had a bright blue bandage across his cheek that only mostly covered a scratch that was there and several layers of gauze wrapped up his arm.

Sirius's eyes widened at the sight of him - Kettleburn was quite an alarming sight. "Bloody hell, he's worse up close than you'd think seeing him from the staff table," he muttered under his breath to James.

James nodded.

"Note to self, don't become a Care of Magical Creatures teacher," Sirius murmured, "I don't fancy looking like that."

Even Lily Evans seemed put off by the appearance of the teacher when she arrived, stopping short with Marlene McKinnon, the Ravenclaw, who had come across the grounds with her to class. They'd come to a stop at the back of the crowd where James, Remus, Sirius, and Peter were standing. "Couldn't Pomfrey have fixed him up?" whispered Lily, alarmed.

"Magical wounds are harder to heal," whispered Remus, knowledgeable on the subject.

"Oh," Lily looked surprised.

Sirius absently ran his hand over the scars on his arm from the night he'd been scratched trying to give Remus blankets and he hoped Remus hadn't heard his prior conversation with James.

Professor Kettleburn started the class off by clapping his hands to get their attention, then looked them over and shouted, "Alright everybody! Welcome to Care of Magical Creatures, which happens to be my specialty. What are some of your favorite magical creatures?" he asked, looking about.

A Hufflepuff boy called out, "Phoenix."

"Oooh a good one!" Kettleburn said excitedly. "Have any of you lot ever seen Fawkes, the Headmaster's Phoenix?"

"I have," Remus said, "He's incredible!" Most of the students had never been to the Headmaster's office before, so a good lot of them had never seen Fawkes and Remus was among the only ones that responded.

Kettleburn smiled, "Yes, yes, he is very incredible, a very intelligent bird, the phoenix. Very intelligent. We'll learn about the phoenix at one point and I'll borrow Fawkes from Dumbledore for the occasion. What else, what other creatures do you lot fancy?"

"Unicorns!" cried Lily and Marlene at exactly the same time. They giggled at having yelled it in unison.

"Ah yes, unicorns are positively mesmerizing, too. We'll also cover those and I have a couple that may be willing to visit us when we get to that point." Kettleburn said, "What else?"

"Dragons!"

The voice that shouted that one was much deeper than any of the students' voices would be and Sirius turned 'round to see Hagrid was standing behind them, holding a very large spade in his hands and a bag of seeds slung over his shoulder. He'd stopped on his way off to the gardens to tend to some planting that needed doing, caught up by the temptation to listen in on his favorite topic.