Percy Jackson and the Triwizard Tournament [Book 4]

35) Seamus < Pus and Skrewts

We walked across the vegetable patch to Herbology, Harry looking a little gloomy. Things changed when we got to greenhouse three, and were all distracted by Professor Sprout showing us the ugliest plants I had ever seen. They looked more like thick, black, giant slugs protruding vertically out of the soil than plants. Each one was squirming slightly (like many other plants did) and had a number of large, shiny swellings on it, which appeared to be full of liquid (like many other teenagers).

"Bubotubers," Sprout told us briskly. "They need squeezing. You will collect the pus —"

"The what?" Seamus interrupted, as if it were the most disgusting thing he'd ever had to do (trust me, it wasn't).

"Pus, Finnigan, pus," Sprout said, "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, much like a pimple. When each swelling was popped, a ton of thick yellowy-green pus came out, smelling strongly of petrol, which was not like a pimple. We caught it in the bottles, and by the end of the lesson had several pints.

"This'll keep Madam Pomfrey happy," Sprout stoppered the last bottle with a cork. "An excellent remedy for the more stubborn forms of acne, bobotuber pus. Should stop students resorting to desperate measures to rid themselves of pimples."

"The pimply plants' pimple pus protects people from pimply pouts," I whispered, and Justin gave me a look.

"Like poor Eloise Midgen," Hannah said, ignoring me completely. "She tried to curse hers off."

"Silly girl," Sprout shook her head. "But Madam Pomfrey fixed her nose back on in the end."

An echoing bell rang from the castle across the grounds, and we started down the sloping lawn towards Hagrid's cabin. Hagrid was standing outside of his hut, one hand on the collar of his massive black boarhound, Fang. There were several open wooden crates on the ground on his feet, and they rattled constantly, sometimes accompanied by the sound of small explosions. Fang was struggling against his collar, eager to investigate more closely. I was also eager to investigate.

"Mornin'!" Hagrid grinned at Harry, Ron, Hermione, and me. "Be'er wait fer the Slytherins (Pansy had thrown a fit and knocked one of the plants over, and they were staying behind to help clean it up), they won' want ter miss this — Blast-Ended Skrewts!"

"Come again?" Ron said.

Hagrid pointed into the crates.

"Eurgh!" Lavender Brown squealed.

"Eurgh" was right. They looked like deformed, shell-less lobsters, all pale and slimy, with legs sticking out in odd places and no visible head. There were about a hundred in each crate, each six inches long, crawling over one another and bumping blindly into the side of the box. They smelled strongly of rotting fish, which kind of made them a little off putting. Every once in a while, sparks would fly out of the skrewt's end, and it would rocket forward several inches.

"Seamus," I said, and my Gryffindor friend looked at me, "it's you."

"How so?" Seamus scowled.

"Ugly and explodes stuff."

He attempted to tackle me, but I just judo-flipped him.

"Ugh, my brothers have taught you well," Seamus groaned, blinking up at me.

"You don't have any brothers," Dean Thomas said.

"I have several brothers," Seamus said, an eyebrow raised. "And sisters. Sixteen in total, I believe. Not including me. I'm talking about Connor and Travis though, they've been teaching Percy some moves."

"Connor and Travis Stoll are your brothers?" Dean questioned.

"Yeah," Seamus nodded. "So is Luke Castellan, he used to be popular around here, right?"

"Wait, Wait, Luke had a squib for a brother, right?" Lavender Brown asked. "So you have a brother that's a squib?"

"Yeah," Seamus nodded slowly, looking pained. Most of us looked pained. "Liam."

Hagrid recognized the dreary mood, and motioned to the skrewts, "On'y jus' hatched, 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?"

Draco and the rest of the Slytherin's had appeared, and while I didn't agree with Draco's way of asking the question, I agreed with the question itself. Hagrid looked stumped.

"I mean, what do they do?" Draco asked. "What is the point of them?"

"What's the point of you?" I asked, but he ignored me.

Hagrid seemed to think about it for a long moment, then said, "Tha's next lesson, Malfoy. 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," Seamus muttered.

"Still not the grossest thing I've seen today," I grinned.

"What is, then?" Seamus questioned, and it amazed me how he still couldn't pick out when I was going to insult him.

"You, obviously."

I was playing Man of Medan, and I got my favorite character killed. Now I have to restart so I don't hate myself, because Conrad is my favorite forever. I love Conrad. Screw speedboats. Uhhhhh. Yesterday I had testing for ACT. I only have to take two of the tests because my principal is awesome sauce. Love her. Like both of my old principals were scary. Mrs. V was not afraid to span ya kid and have everyone hear it, and Mr. M was super threatening. But I think if M liked you, then you were good. Mrs. B, my new principal, gave me oranges once. God bless her for that. I had a few run ins with Mr. M. I was brought in there for a couple of problems at lunch. My friend group would toss food onto another person's plate if they weren't hungry, basically giving them the food without having to get up. We got in trouble for throwing food. I got out of it. Another time, we got in trouble for making fun of this vegan kid. I never actually made fun of him (I did try his vegan chicken, it wasn't as bad as I was expecting it to be), and I got out of that too. Another time, we got stuck in his office during a lockdown. He's got cameras set up in there, and we watched them the whole time. Whenever me and a friend got to help pick out the next superintendent, we stayed during our day off to do so. He was like, actually amazed. So now he likes us. I like him though, Mr. M is really chill if you're chill too. There were a few other occasions, but I can't immediately recall them.

Anyway, I hope you guys had a good Wednesday, and I'll see you on Friday. Love ya!