Hermione Granger and the Goblet Of Fire (Completed)

Chapter 11 - Draco the Ferret

Hermione woke up the next morning and stayed in bed, wondering what she should do about house elves. Throwing warming pans out of windows and going on hunger strikes wouldn't cut it, she needed to do something big. She needed to find some way of telling the world about the problem

Hermione was glad to see that the storm had gone when she entered the Great Hall with Ron and Harry. They sat beside Fred, George and Lee, who were discussing methods of Magical ageing so as to get themselves into the tournament
"Today's not bad... outside all morning" said Ron, looking down his timetable "Herbology with the Hufflepuffs and Care of Magical Creatures... damn it, we're still with the Slytherins..."
"Double Divination this afternoon" Harry grumbled
"You should have given it up like me, shouldn't you?" said Hermione "Then you'd be doing something sensible like Arithmancy"

"You're eating again, I notice" said Ron, as Hermione put jam on her toast
"I've decided there are better ways of making a stand about elf rights" said Hermione
"Yeah... and you were hungry" said Ron, just as the post came

Harry seemed very preoccupied all the way down to Herbology, but he seemed to snap back into reality when Professor Sprout showed us the plans they were studying. They looked liked ugly, pulsating slugs, burrowing into the soil
"Bubotubers" Professor Sprout said "They need squeezing. You will collect the pus-"
"The what?" said Seamus
"Pus, Finnigan, pus" said Professor Sprout briskly "and it's extremely valuable, so don't waste it. You will collect the pus, I say, in these bottles. Wear your dragon-hide gloves; it can do funny things to the skin when undiluted, bubotuber pus"

It was a disgusting hour, and Hermione finished covered in yellow, foul smelling liquid. However, it was very enjoyable, as squeezing the odd plants as very stress relieving
"This'll keep Madam Pomfrey happy" said Professor Sprout "An excellent remedy for the more stubborn forms of acne, bubotuber pus. Should stop students resorting to desperate measures to rid themselves of pimples"
"Like poor Eloise Midgen" whispered Hannah Abbott "She tried to curse hers off"
"Silly girl" sighed Professor Sprout "But Madam Pomfrey fixed her nose back on in the end"

The Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs parted and the Gryffindors headed down the path to Hagrid's hut. There was a large crate by Hagrid's side, and it was shaking rather violently
"Mornin'!" said Hagrid, beaming at them "Be'er wait fer the Slytherins, they won' want ter miss this - Blast- Ended Skrewts!"
"Come again?" said Ron blankly
Hagrid pointed at the crates.
"Eurgh!" screamed Lavender Brown. For once, Hermione agreed with Lavender's opinion. The Blast-Ended Skrewts looked like pale prawns on steroids, with legs sprouting out in odd places. There looked like there were over one hundred of them, crawling over each other. Every so often one of them would fart flames and would be propelled forward several centimetres with a quiet phut

"On'y jus' hatched" said Hagrid eagerly "so yeh'll be able ter raise 'em yerselves! Thought we'd make a bit of a project of it!"
"And why would we want to raise them?" said Malfoy, who was heading the group of Slytherins coming down the hill
"I mean, what do they do?" drawled Malfoy coldly "What is the point of them?"
There was a short pause, while Hagrid thought
"Tha's next lesson, Malfoy" said Hagrid firmly "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"
"First pus and now this" said Seamus darkly under his breath

It was absolutely revolting, picking up handfuls of frog spawn and miscellaneous goop and trying to get the skrewts to eat them, but Hermione didn't want to disappoint Hagrid, so she gritted her teeth did it. After about ten minutes, Dean yelped and quickly withdrew his hand from a crate. There was an angry red burn mark on his hand
"Ouch!" he exclaimed "It got me! Its end exploded!"
"Ah, yeah, that can happen when they blast off" said Hagrid, not noticing Dean's ugly look