*Discontinued* No Longer

Troubles with Toads

**Harry Potter

"What. . . " Draco said confusedly as the three boys sat down in their compartment, "What was that? Why were you acting so- so weird?"

Blaise nodded his head, his own mask still intact unlike Harry's kit's, which had completely crumpled with confusion. It was cute, like Draco was a puppy, and it made him just want to pat him on the head and coo over how adorable he was.

Instead of behaving as such however, he let a little cagey grin twitch up the corners of his lips, "Well, dearest Draco," Harry said wickedly, "I just showed up someone I don't like, and in an irreproachable manner. It feels great, by the way."

The other two just stared at him, and Harry just barely refrained from rolling his eyes. He picked his book up from where it had lain forgotten on the table and thumbed through to the section he left off on. He truly did enjoy potion work.

He remained undisturbed until the trolley came, and, thanks to his incredibly fast reading abilities, he'd gotten through another quarter of the hefty volume. From the trolley, he got a large bar of Honeydukes chocolate, the last bar remaining, some delicious looking toffee, and a small box of cherry fizzing whizbees. 

Harry was quite happy with his purchases, and happier still to continue reading as he broke off a piece of the toffee and nibbled at it as he read. It was nice, and he was enjoying himself. Blaise and Draco were engaged in animated conversation, but he paid no mind to it and read on.

Of course, all good things must come to an end, or at least get interrupted.

A bossy brunette with hair nearly as wild as Harry's own opened their compartment.

Irritated, he looked up and said pointedly, "Oh, how polite of you for knocking. Of course you can come in."

The girl just sniffed snobbily and turned her nose up before saying, "Any of you lot seen a toad? A boy named Neville's lost his."

Rolling his eyes, Harry asked, "Why don't you just cast a summoning charm instead of barging in on people rudely?"

"A summoning charm? Well, I've read about them of course, but only because I always read ahead. I'm bound to be the smartest witch of our year. We aren't going to learn those till fourth year though. I've only tried the simpler spells, and they've all worked for me."

Blaise bitingly said, "Well, if you know about them, then shouldn't you have just asked an older student for help? We're first years too, as you've likely surmised. And it's considered rude to brag about yourself, so you might want to pick up a book on etiquette since you like to read so much. Then maybe you'll learn some basic manners, such as knocking."

The girl's face flushed scarlet in anger and embarrassment. Harry didn't much care for the rude girl's emotional state, but after Blaise's comments, it genuinely seemed that she would further enter the compartment so she could strangle the golden-eyed boy. 

Since he'd decided he liked the boy, not to mention he was Draco's friend, Harry took out his wand and said, "Accio Neville's toad."

A toad came hurtling to their compartment, and Harry reached out to catch it before the animal could collide with the girl. He didn't want the creature hurt. Carefully, he inspected the creature, and, upon realizing that it was a familiar, sent gentle probing waves of magic through the animal. Hmmm, it seemed that something had happened to the boy, a curse or block of some sort, and it had carried over into his familiar as the two must have shared magic. The toad didn't want to run away, but it had gotten confused because of the tampering.

"Here we are, one toad," Harry said, holding it out to the girl.

"Ew! I'm not touching it. It's an amphibian, and I don't like the texture. It's disgusting!"