The Green Trio

September 16th, 1994

Luka liked to believe she was capable of loving every creature presented to her, but Blast-Ended Skrewts were making that quite hard to stick by. Their growing shells looked like translucent skin draped and stretched over their bodies as they squirmed over each other, their tails shooting out sparks every few minutes. She had to resist the urge to kick at the crates to keep them from climbing up the sides. Watching them was enough to make the hairs on her arms stand on end and the last thing she wanted was one of those things crawling up her leg when she wasn't looking.

"Wonderful creatures, aren' they?" Hagrid said, brimming with a childlike joy as he turned his big head to see that Diana and Cersei had busied themselves with Fang. The boarhound had thrown himself on his side to welcome a belly-rub. "Real beauties."

"It's really impressive that you bred them yourself." Luka said, still at her professor's side.

A smile peaked through from under the half-giant's beard. "The trouble now is findin' out wha' the bloody things eat. They've started hackin' away at each other."

The young Ravenclaw scratched at her lower lip, absentmindedly peeling away some dead skin as she often did when she was thinking. She leaned over the crate. A small blast shot up, searing the tip of her nose.

"If they only eat each other," she said, scrunching her face and taking a step back. "Why don't you try feeding them manticore meat? That's half of their genetics, right? Actually, that might be hard for you to—"

"Why, why didn' I think of that?" Hagrid half-shouted. "I migh' know a fell'r, actually. I'll 'ave ter be sending outta owl then." Lifting the lid, he covered the Skrewts up and then looked at Luka with great consideration. "Say, yeh three wouldn' be eatin' lunch in the forest again, would yeh?"

Looking out at the first line of trees of the Forbidden Forest, Luka could imagine their faded outlines. Her, Cersei and Diana. Eleven years old, just weeks into their newfound friendships, waltzing into the forest with the lunches they'd piece together from what they could grab off the table because the Great Hall was always loud with taunts and teases from their peers, particularly directed at Luka and Diana. The former for her overbearing excitement and the latter for her last name. Whatever was in the forest, they thought, couldn't be as bad as the kids in their year.

She could see them. So tiny sitting at the base of a tall tree.

She still hadn't told them about Fred and George and their little 'proposition'. Not being much of morning person, she hadn't the slightest bit of energy to entertain such a discussion so early, but for no reason besides the strange tick of time counting down to after her Potions class, the more the whole thing felt like a strange secret she was working her way up to revealing.

She shook her head, staring at Hagrid. "What makes you ask that?"

"Well, yeh haven' been comin' 'ere ter eat since last 'ear and if yer were eatin' there at eleven, fif'een don' sound like a far stretch, do it?"

"We've been eating in the Great Hall." Luka told him, feeling a small pang of guilt for leaving Hagrid alone at lunch. He'd been the one to find them in the forest and offer them his hut as an alternative to the Great Hall. "It's not so bad anymore."

Turning ever so slightly, he gazed at the two other girls nearby and leaned down to Luka, whispering, "How's Cersei takin' seein' Cedric again?"

Luka nearly snorted, knowing the groundskeeper was evenly concerned and nosey for gossip. "She won't admit she misses him."

"'Course not, 'course not... Pride and all. S'damned thing... Wha' abou' Diana? Anyone botherin' her?"

"Some people, yeah, but not as many as before."