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***
"I cannot believe we are being forced to take a class we did not even sign up for," Alaira whispered to Hazel, who hummed in agreement as our Etiquette class walked down the steep hill towards the woods on the Hogwarts grounds. Most people were moaning the whole trip down because they did not want to take part in Care of Magical Creatures, but they knew if they weren't to clean up their act, then Headmistress Maxime would make them clean the entire carriage for a week.
Once we rounded a selection of trees, we were in view of the Hogwarts class. Alaira stopped complaining, and everyone fixed their posture to resemble how we looked at our first time in the British school. All the Hogwarts pupils gawked at us as Maxime led us to the side to get a good view of Professor Grubly-Plank. A few students whispered, and many had puzzled looks across their faces.
"Alright, everyone," Grubly-Plank called to the group, and everyone looked back to her. "Today, we have a group of guests joining our class today. Madame Maxime and her students from Beauxbatons. Many were curious about this subject, and so they are here to have a class with us."
"Let's begin, shall we?" she clapped her hands together and turned around. She began searching through her bag until she pulled out a giant lizard. It was the length of a small tree branch, and its sharp claws would've cut through Grubly-Plank's hand if it wasn't for her protective dragonskin gloves. It was lime green in color, and the scales looked as rough as bark, but the thing that stuck out the most was its beady yellow eyes.
Many Hogwarts students didn't seem impressed, but the Beauxbatons students all grimaced. Fleur hated lizards like many of her friends, but I found them fascinating. "This everyone is a moke. Mokes are lizards with the ability to shrink at will," Grubly-Plank said, and I raised my eyebrows.
"Now, I brought a dozen mokes with me today, so you all will have to go in groups of three to see if you can get the moke to shrink. You can group with Beauxbatons students if you'd like as well. You will find some incentives in your books on page 478. You may all begin," the Professor says, and everyone breaks into pairs. Fleur grabs my hand and tries to drag me over to Alaira, but I pull her the other way where I had seen George standing expectantly for me.
"Come on, Fleur. Just this once, will you talk to my friends?" I pleaded, and she sighed.
"Fine. But --"
I cut her off by tugging her over to George. Fred, Lee, and Angelina had gone in their own group, expecting George to group with me. The redhead grinned at me as he saw me forcing Fleur past the swarming Hogwarts students. He already had his book under his arm and a moke lying across his gloved hand.
"Told you I'd get them here," I bragged, gesturing to the slowly separating group of Beauxbatons students. George chuckled and led Fleur and me over to a collection of large trees; our spot was closer to the flourishing garden outside the caretaker's house than any other group.
George sat down on the grass, leaning against one of the trees as I followed him, making sure my dress robes wouldn't rise from the breezy Thursday air. Fleur remained standing.
"Sit down, Fleur," I hissed, trying not to gain Headmistress Maxime's attention.
"I'd rather stand. I do not want to go the rest of the day with dirty robes," Fleur argued under her breath, trying to hide her words from George, but he heard anyway, and I could tell he was trying not to laugh.
"We'll wash them. Now sit," I snapped, and she huffed. She looked at the ground with a look of dread across her face. She cautiously sat next to me, trying to get any part of her dress off the ground. George let a laugh slip, and Fleur glared at him.
"Fleur, this is George Weasley," I told Fleur, who was still glaring at my friend. "George, you know my sister Fleur," George nodded, his lips curving into a slight smirk.
"Why don't we get started, shall we?" George said and placed the moke on the ground while opening up his book. Fleur flinched away once the lizard raced towards us. George glanced up from finding the page Grubly-Plank had told us to look for and snickered.
I put on my dragonskin gloves before picking up the moke and examining it; Fleur moved an inch away from me. I brushed my finger along its scaly back and smiled as it blinked its wide yellow eyes. George found the page number and placed the book on the ground for all of us to see.
"Okay, so it says: Some causes for mokes to shrink other than self-command is a threat of danger, loud noises, bright lights, or a muggle's presence," he read with a shrug.
"Muggle?" Fleur asked.
"Non-magique," I clarified, and she nodded. "So all we have to do is frighten it with some sort of overwhelm of a moke's senses," I added, and George agreed.
Fleur pulled out her wand and asked, "may I try?" We were quick to let her. I slipped the moke into her protected hand, and she tensed but still kept ahold of the creature. She raised her wand and muttered, "Lumos Maxima." A blinding light came from the tip of her wand, and it made me, and George shut our eyes. As the light went out, we opened our eyes to see the large moke gone. In replace of it was a tiny version of the same lizard we had just seen seconds ago. It scurried around Fleur's palm before growing back to its normal size.
Fleur smiled in success, and George and I looked at each other in shock. Fleur squealed in excitement, and I took the moke from her. Wanting to try some of my ideas.
***
By the end of the class, almost all groups could shrink their moke at least twice. George, Fleur, and I were able to shrink it six different times in total, unlike Alaira, Hazel, and another one of their friends, who could hardly touch it by the end of the class. That made me laugh to myself.
When everyone was heading up to the school, Fleur had made her way back to her friends, but not before saying goodbye to George. I'm glad she was getting along with George now. I stuck with my Gryffindor friends, having Fred, Lee, and Angelina join us. Lee was ranting about how he lost their moke once it shrunk for the third time and how Grubly-Plank gave Lee detention for it.
Angelina asked me how I felt about the class while Fred occasionally chimed in to tease some of the Beauxbatons students. I couldn't blame him, so I added to his jokes. By the time we had gotten to the courtyard for our break, we had gotten all our mocks and laughs out.
After our break, in which I played gobstones with Angelina, she taught me since we didn't have such games in France. My friends had Divination while I had Potions down in the dungeons. I didn't like going down there by myself, but since the Divination classroom was on the very top floor and the spare classroom we used for Potions was in the dungeons, I didn't have much of a choice.
***
Once I finished Potions, we had lunch, and I met my friends again at the Gryffindor table. I sat down, and they all greeted me with dulled tones. "Was Divination that boring?" I asked, and Fred groaned.
"Yes!" He exclaimed, and I laughed.
"How was Potions?" George asked.
I shrugged. "We moved on to Amortentia because we finally figured out the Memory Potion."
"Did you finish it?" he continued.
"No, I'm loosey at potions. But I am determined to finish it by next class."
"Okay, well, make sure to tell me what you smell. We should be doing that potion next week if Snape doesn't make us write another essay."
"Why? You want to take notes?" I teased, and he rolled his eyes.
