Natsu Dragneel and the Goblet of Fire

Mad-Eye Bull

The storm had blown itself out by the following morning, though the ceiling in the Great Hall was still gloomy; heavy clouds of pewter gray swirled overhead as Natsu, Gray, and Lucy examined their new course schedules at breakfast. A few seats along, Erza, Mira, and Richard Buchanan were discussing magical methods of aging themselves and bluffing their way into the Triwizard Tournament.

"Today's not bad... outside all morning," said Gray, who was running his finger down the Monday column of his schedule. "Herbology with the Hufflepuffs and Care of Magical Creatures... damn it, we're still with the Slytherins..."

"Double Divination this afternoon," Natsu groaned, looking down. Divination was his least favorite subject, apart from Potions. Professor Conbolt kept predicting Natsu's death, which he found extremely annoying.

"You should have given it up like me, shouldn't you?" said Lucy briskly, buttering herself some toast. "Then you'd be doing something sensible like Arithmancy."

"You're eating again, I notice," said Gray, watching Lucy adding liberal amounts of jam to her toast too.

"I've decided there are better ways of making a stand about elf rights," said Lucy haughtily.

"Yeah... and you were hungry," said Gajeel, sitting down beside her and grinning.

There was a sudden rustling noise above them, and a hundred owls came soaring through the open windows carrying the morning mail. Instinctively, Natsu looked up, but there was no sign of white among the mass of brown and gray. The owls circled the tables, looking for the people to whom their letters and packages were addressed. A large tawny owl soared down to Gajeel and deposited a parcel into his lap - Gajeel almost alway forgot to pack something. On the other side of the Hall Minerva Orland's eagle owl had landed on his shoulder, carrying what looked like her usual supply of sweets and cakes from home. Trying to ignore the sinking feeling of disappointment in his stomach, Natsu returned to his porridge. Was it possible that something had happened to Happy, and that Weiss hadn't even got his letter?

His preoccupation lasted all the way across the sodden vegetable patch until they arrived in greenhouse three, but here he was distracted by Professor Lasaro showing the class the ugliest plants Natsu had ever seen. Indeed, they looked less like plants than thick, black, giant slugs, protruding vertically out of the soil. Each was squirming slightly and had a number of large, shiny swellings upon it, which appeared to be full of liquid.

"Bubotubers," Professor Lasaro told them briskly. "They need squeezing. You will collect the pus -"

"The what?" said Wally Buchanan, sounding revolted.

"Pus, Buchanan, pus," said Professor Lasaro, "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."

Squeezing the bubotubers was disgusting, but oddly satisfying. As each swelling was popped, a large amount of thick yellowish-green liquid burst forth, which smelled strongly of petrol. They caught it in the bottles as Professor Lasaro had indicated, and by the end of the lesson had collected several pints. "This'll keep Madam Porlyusica happy," said Professor Lasaro, stoppering the last bottle with a cork. "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 Kinana," said Laki Olietta, a Hufflepuff, in a hushed voice. "She tried to curse hers off."

"Silly girl," said Professor Lasaro, shaking his head. "But Madam Porlyusica fixed her nose back on in the end."

A booming bell echoed from the castle across the wet grounds, signaling the end of the lesson, and the class separated; the Hufflepuffs climbing the stone steps for Transfiguration, and the Gryffindors heading in the other direction, down the sloping lawn toward Gildarts' small wooden cabin, which stood on the edge of the Forbidden Forest.