Rose Dursley: The Girl Who Lived

9. Caring for Magical Creatures

Hagrid was busy getting the food ready for some bowtruckles, when he saw Rose, Ron, and Hermione walking towards him.

"Hello there, my little Rosie," said Hagrid with his big cheerful voice. "Hi Ron, hi Hermione."

Rose grinned at him. "Hi, Hagrid," she said.

Hagrid was the only person who called her Rosie. She had found it annoying at first, but Hagrid was always so cheerful when he said it that she soon started to like her special little nickname.

"So what's today lesson?" Rose asked.

"Ah, well, these bowtruckles need their claws trimmed," said Hagrid. "I thought we could try that."

"That sounds fun," said Rose.

Hagrid looked around to see if everyone else had arrived for the lesson. "Okay, looks like you're all here," he said.

"Okay, gather around," said Hagrid. "These bowtruckles here need to have their claws trimmed. I need you to divide up into pairs, so then one of you can feed them bugs to calm them down while your partner trims their claws."

Hermione turned to Ron and Rose. "I could pair with Ron, as I know he doesn't like bugs," she said.

"It's not bugs, just spiders," said Ron.

Hermione just looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

As they were discussing it, Rose saw Draco walk past. "Hey, Draco," she said. "Have you got a partner yet?"

"Err, well no," he said.

"Okay guys, you two pair up, I'm going with Draco," said Rose.

Rose walked over to where Draco was standing next to an empty table.

Draco shuffled his feet awkwardly. "Sorry about before, with my father," he said.

"You mean at the station?" said Rose. "Yeah, it seemed like he doesn't like me."

"It's because you're muggle-born," said Draco. "My father doesn't want us being friends."

"What, really?" said Rose. "What's wrong with my parents?"

"We are a pure blood family, my father thinks that means we are superior to the muggles and half-bloods," said Draco.

"That's stupid," said Rose. "You don't believe that, do you?"

Draco looked down at his feet awkwardly. "I... I used to," he said. "When I was younger, it's what my parents taught me. It was just when I got to know you better that I started to question what they had told me."

"Because of me?" Rose asked.

"Yeah, you and Granger," said Draco. "You are both really powerful witches, much more talented than me. It made me realise that maybe I was wrong about what I believed."

Rose reached out to grip Draco's hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "Well I'm glad I changed your mind," she said.

Meanwhile, Ron and Hermione were over with their bowtruckle. Hermione was feeding it some bugs, while Ron stood ready with the clippers.

"They are holding hands now," said Ron.

Hermione looked up from the bowtruckle. "Who is?" she asked.

"Rose, and that git, Malfoy," said Ron. "They are talking and holding hands."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "So?" she said. "Just concentrate on what you are supposed to be doing."

"I don't understand why she is friends with him," said Ron.

Hermione sighed. "Ron. Clippers," she said.

"Okay, okay," said Ron.

Hermione gave the bowtruckle some more bugs, then stroked it gently on the head. When it seemed calm enough, Ron moved in with the clippers and carefully snipped off the sharp end of its claws. The bowtruckle remained calm, and didn't seemed bothered by what Ron was doing. Once he had finished, Hermione gave it another handful of bugs to eat.

"Anyway, Malfoy is not that bad," said Hermione. "He seems a lot nicer now than he was in the first years. He has calmed down and grown up a lot as he has gotten older."

"Yeah, well I still don't like him being around Rose," said Ron.

"It's up to Rose who she wants to be friends with," said Hermione. "Unless you have a problem with her hanging around with other boys?"

Ron blushed and turned his head away. "No," he mumbled.

Hermione grinned. "That's what I thought," she said.

When the lesson was over, Rose went back over to Ron and Hermione. Then they started to walk back towards the castle.

~~~~~

The next day, Hermione had an advanced charms lesson with Professor Flitwick. She arrived a few minutes early, and found the classroom empty apart from Flitwick. He was sat at his desk and reading through some essays from the previous class.

"Hello, Professor," said Hermione.

Flitwick looked up from his parchment with a smile. "Good afternoon, Miss Granger," he said. "A little early for the lesson, are you perhaps too eager to learn?"

"Well, there was something I was curious about," said Hermione. "I was wondering if you could help?"

"Of course. What's the problem?" said Flitwick.

"It's the girls from Beauxbatons. They seem to have some kind of power of attraction over the boys here," said Hermione. "I was wondering if they were using a kind of charm for that?"

"Ah, yes. You noticed it too," said Flitwick. "It's not a charm though. I believe that it is because at least one of them is part Veela."

"Veela? What do you mean?" Hermione asked.

"It's a type of magical creature, humanoid in appearance, but has some natural magical properties," said Flitwick. "But Hagrid could probably tell you more.  Or perhaps a book from the library?"

"Okay, thank you, Professor," said Hermione.

When the lesson was over, Hermione headed straight to the library. After a bit of hunting through the shelves, she found a reference book about creatures with a human like appearance. Hermione flicked through to the section on Veela.

What Hermione discovered was that Veela were magical beings who were nearly human. They looked like extremely beautiful women, with silvery coloured hair.

Hermione thought back to the Beauxbaton girls, and how they looked. Certainly they were all pretty, and a few of them did have very light blonde hair, so that did seem to fit.

There was also a part on the powers that Veela possessed. It said that their appearance had the power to hypnotize and seduce anyone who was attracted to girls. Well that explained the effect they had on the boys, thought Hermione.

Once Hermione had finished reading, she placed the book back on the shelf. Then she noticed that it was nearly time for dinner, so she left the library and started walking towards the Great Hall.