Ella ○ Harry Potter

Five: Tanuki is a Raccoon Dog, Professor sir.

The raccoon dog squealed, running off and climbing a tree.

"YOU STUPID THING!" Ella cursed it, "GIVE ME BACK MY CUPCAKE!" she continued throwing insults at the stupid creature, chucking random pillows she conjured at the raccoon.

The raccoon dog happily munched on the vanilla cupcake, his whole face green from the cream topping it.

He made a purring- like noise and finally climbed off the tree. It took Ella a moment to notice that, and she screamed when she felt something climbing her; the raccoon.

"What?" she snapped, "you want more cupcakes?" The raccoon dog nuzzled his head into Ella's neck and the girl couldn't help but awww. "Wanna be my pet?"

The tanuki looked up at the girl with his big eyes, and she instantly smile. "I'm gonna take it as a yes!" she squealed, "I shall call you... Koda."

The tanuki purred happily, and Ella smiled.

That might be her second friend in Hogwarts, Hagrid being the first. She sure hoped Remus Lupin would soon be the third on the list.

"Hey, Koda, wanna go grab something delicious?" not waiting for a reply, she skipped out of the Forbidden Forest with a Koda on her shoulder, making her way to the the Great Hall, lunch just started.

As she sat at the end of the Slytherin's table, Koda made his way under her sweatshirt, his head poking out, probably leaving hairs on the gray shirt she was wearing underneath.

She took a serving of cookies, and some chicken and rice. She fed Koda cookies, while eating the chicken. She was pretty sure Koda is there just until he'll find someone else to feed him, but that was okay with her.

She suddenly spotted Remus Lupin in the staff's table and she alerted Koda that she was about to stand up, making him clutch her sweatshirt tightly.

"Mr. Professor!" she called, smiling widely. Remus turned to watch her.

"Hi Ella," he greeted. "What's that poking from your sweatshirt?" he questioned, eyeing her suspiciously. Koda turned to look at the professor eyeing the exchange between the two. He tilted his head at the greasy black haired man, before turning back to Lupin.

"That's Koda, he's a Tanuki."

"He looks like a raccoon," Lupin said bluntly.

"Well, Tanuki is a Raccoon Dog, Professor sir." Ella smiled. "Isn't he cute?"

"Well, yes..." Lupin hesitated, "are you sure it's safe though? Maybe it's sick, or has fleas or something..."

Ella froze in her place.

She did not think about it.

She cautiously took out the Tanuki out of her sweatshirt, holding it away from her. "Koda, come on, we've got things to do and people to see."

"Sometimes I wonder if this girl is sane," Minerva McGonagall mused.

"She is absolutely not," Lupin smiled, and for the first time, Severus Snape agreed with him.

•

It seemed that everyone loved DADA and Professor Lupin, all except for small gangs in Slytherin that were too proud to take a liking into anyone who wasn't wearing robes made of gold.

Ella, after checking that Koda was indeed a healthy little creature, carried on with carrying him on her shoulder or hanging from her sweatshirt. The furry little creature seemed to take a liking in her and Hagrid, who she visited everyday.

Hagrid kept his classes quite boring now, teaching them about some sort of worms. Harry Potter (the Harry Potter, the boy-who-lived) and Ronald Weasley, two third year Gryffindors took a liking in Koda too, and the three spent Care of Magical Creatures fooling around with the small creature.

Ron suspected Ella was actually evil, but didn't quite mind it as he played with Koda.

Jorgitha once crushed the class, tackling Ella to the ground, munching on her hair as a form of affection. When Ella offered that they could take care of a mentally ill alpaca instead of worms, Hagrid paled, muttering something about this alpaca being possibly more dangerous than a dragon, which resulted Ella begging for a class with dragons, or at least about dragons.

Ella never got a response.

Lupin and her ditched the idea of Muggles' fairytales for detentions, and simply chatted away the hour. The two weeks were up, and soon enough it was October.

Ella would spend the weekends in the seventh floor, exploring Carl's magic's limits. She found some other rooms in it, but mostly baked so she could eat a lot of brownies in Potions instead of sleeping for once. History of Magic was for sleeping.

One day, after double Potions, Ron, Harry, and their best friend, Hermione, were whining (mostly Ron) about how horrible Snape was, while Koda and Ella were munching on cupcakes just behind them.

"You know what would make you feel better, Ron?" Ella asked, beaming at Ron.

"Oh, I've got an idea," the ginger boy muttered darkly.

"A cupcake," she smiled happily. She offered him the box. Ron eyed it for a moment, but couldn't say no to food, so he took a vanilla one topped with plain white cream and chocolate chunks. Within few moments, Ron took the box and started eating some brownies too.

Koda made a noise in protest, climbing Ron's shoulder and snatching a cupcake away from his grasp.

Ron shoved the box back into Ella's hands, chasing Koda for taking his chosen one. Hermione and Harry seemed intrigued and tried a cupcake too, smiling at the taste.

"That's some awesome cupcakes," Harry grinned.

"Thanks, I do try," Ella smirked.

Hermione simply smiled, but eyed Ella strangely. Once Harry and Ron walked off- Ron admitted defeat- and Koda climbed back on Ella, Hermione's strange look was explained.

"How come you're a Slytherin?" the bushy haired girl asked, making Ella look at her funnily.

"What do you mean?" she questioned.

"You're more of a Hufflepuff, or even a Gryffindor, why Slytherin?"

"Why did you not include Ravenclaw?" Ella asked, confused. Hermione looked at her for a moment, blinking. "Okay... Uh, I dunno." Ella shrugged, "I mean, when I got here the Sorting Hat talked about family and blood status and everything... He then said I am too evil for Hufflepuff, which I've got no idea why, I am a lovely and kind human being."

"You once told Filch to go f... uh, have fun with a turtle because he looked at you weirdly." Hermione said, "and you once threw a plate at him."

"Well, Filch is an icky person," she huffed. "Either way, the sorting hat said that because of my bloodline I shall be placed in Slytherin."

Hermione smiled lightly at her, "how about you come to our Common Room? We could all do the Potions' essay together."

"Sure."

"And bring your cupcakes."