Make Me.

Book 3 - Chapter 6

Ellie was following behind Hermione across the school grounds, a significant amount of distance between the two of them. Yesterday's rain had cleared and the sly was a clear, pale gray, and the grass was springy and damp underfoot. She slipped a few times going down the sloping lawns towards Hagrid's hut on the edge of the Forbidden Forest, her sneakers getting caught on little mud slides in areas that were walked on more than others. 

Because Hermione had stormed out of lunch, both girls had arrived for their next class, Care of Magical Creatures, much earlier than they needed to. Before Ellie could say anything, Hermione had taken off her robe, laid it down on the grass and sat. She took out her Arithmancy book again and telling by the look on her face as she began to flick through the pages, Ellie felt it best to let her sit and read in silence. 

Ellie took off her own long, flowing robe and shoved it into her schoolbag. She plopped down onto the steps of Hagrid's hut and unbuttoned her sleeves, rolling them up past her wrists. Her legs were bouncing up and down in mounting excitement as she clipped her hair up and back, out of the way for whatever lesson Hagrid had planned for their class. 

Ellie sat watching the grounds and Hermione for a moment before plunging a hand back into her schoolbag and withdrawing The Monster Book of Monsters that Hagrid had assigned. The book seemed very excited to see Ellie again and it was nipping at her nose and snapping its teeth at the girl. Anyone else would've taken it as a sign of aggression, but Ellie only giggled and patted it's dense mat of fur, making it fall open for her to read freely. 

Hermione looked up from her normal, fur-less, book, with a look of half-amazement and half-disgust. 

This was the first time Ellie had gotten the chance to look into any of her new books before class, and The Monster Book of Monsters was unlike any other school-assigned book she had ever read. She flicked through the pages which were oddly reminiscent of a few books she had snooped through in the library's restricted section. The creatures detailed were like none other that Ellie had ever read about. There were pages and pages on manticores, sphinxes, and every kind of troll a wizard could possibly encounter. Ellie's attention was caught on a picture of a creature with a wide, hammer-shaped head with four arms and a serpent like-body. It was holding a dagger, a mace, and an axe, all at once, and it still had a free hand. Underneath the drawing, the creature was named: Limax. 

Ellie was looking at a particularly gruesome image depicting a gringwart goff and it's strange method of hunting preparing its prey when a sound forced her to look up out of her book. It was something like a shuffle, mixed with some scuffing and tumbling sounds, a few squeaks of wet grass underfoot, and a couple of cries of pain and yelps for help. 

Ellie's head whipped up, thick hair falling out of it's clip and into her face, her body jumping off the step at once and hurting forward. 

Neville was on the ground a few paces in front of her and Hermione, his Monster Book of Monsters gnawing on his face and neck, little bits of paper floating around in the air where Neville was just standing. 

"Neville!" Ellie tugged at the book, prying it off of Neville's face. In one of his hands was an undone belt that he had apparently been using to keep the book closed and calm. Once Ellie had successfully gotten Neville free from it's grasp, the book turned on her. At once, it jumped and latched onto Ellie's forearm. She tried patting it to calm it down, but it was very angry, probably from having been belted shut, or perhaps Neville had just ended up with a very violent copy. "Neville. . . the belt -" 

The book chomped down hard, and there was a sound of ripping fabric as it did. Neville was floundering with the belt, trying to get it into a loop so he could slip it back around the book, which was now clamped down onto Ellie's arm with no plan of releasing soon. Ellie pinned the book between her ribcage and her arm, squishing it's eyeballs with the buttons of her shirts.