“Hey, you!”
At the sound of her usual greeting, Jillian looked up at the Locust and grimaced. “What?”
He looked around and said, “Kirsten wants you to do my essay on vampires for Defense Against the Dark Arts. Here’s the parchment, and it needs to be 36 inches long.” He started to leave but turned back and added, “I need it done by Wednesday.”
Jillian gaped at the Locust as he exited the library and put her hand over her eyes. She really hated it when he did that. Of course, she didn’t have to do it, but that would only cause a duel with her sister, and that would not be a pretty sight - for her!
Jillian sighed and grabbed the parchment. At least she knew the whole history of vampires by heart or she would go shove this paper down the Locust’s throat and make him choke on it. Hopefully, that would cause death, but she doubted it.
“Are you actually going to do it?”
Jillian glanced up at the Slytherin and sighed. “What do you care?”
She felt his stare for a few seconds before she looked up with a glare and said, “Listen, if you want to stare at me, why don’t you find a nice little corner and sit there to do it. I’m busy.”
He only raised an eyebrow and continued staring. His dark eyes sparked a small memory in the back of her brain, but she couldn’t catch it. Jillian narrowed her eyes at him. “Who are you?”
He abruptly turned to walk away but turned suddenly and grabbed the parchment the Locust had given her. Jillian jumped up and snatched it back. They glared at each other in contempt when the boy suddenly pulled out his wand and muttered a spell. The parchment lit up, and Jillian dropped it. It landed on Jillian’s Hogwarts A History and started burning the cover.
Jillian gasped and swiped the burning paper onto the floor where it proceeded to burn a hole in the rug. Jillian stamped on it a few times to stop the fire, but that only seemed to make it bigger. She looked up at the Slytherin and, seeing he was laughing, pulled out her wand.
“Wingardium Leviosa!” The parchment, now turning into ashes, flew up and landed on the Slytherin’s head.
He yelled and started patting his head yelling, “Hot! Hot, hot, hot, hot!”
Jillian had to lean against the table, she was laughing so hard. When he finally got all the ashes and flames out of his hair, he had a few bald spots and a very red face. He clenched his teeth and was about to use his wand a second time when Madam Pince grabbed his ear. Jillian immediately stopped laughing and stared at the floor in shame. This was going to be bad.
It was worse than bad.
Jillian had to have detention for a whole week plus have fifteen points taken away from Gryffindor. The worst part was that she had to do detention with the Slytherin. It had to be the worst punishment she had ever had, even when she had knocked over those bookcases.
Some parts were slightly worth it, though. She had made the Slytherin have to go out and buy a potion used to grow hair back. She hoped it was very painful.
Everyone kept talking about it, too, and looking at her with strange expressions like they expected her to pull out a flaming piece of parchment and throw it at their heads. Some of the Gryffindors had congratulated her for “defeating the enemy.” It was the most attention she had ever gotten in all her four years put together. It was strange to have someone you didn’t know come up and say, “Good luck with that Slytherin in detention. Make sure you burn all his hair off this time.”
Yeah, the memory of the Slytherin hitting his head and yelling, “Hot!” would probably get her through the detention.
Jillian hugged her cloak closer against the chill of winter as she followed Professor McGonagall out to Hagrid’s hut. The Slytherin was following her as they fought against the bitter wind.
When they reached Hagrid’s hut, the Professor knocked on the door loudly and called, “Hagrid, I have the students.”
The door opened with a bang to show a large man at least twice as tall as Jillian and five times as wide. Jillian had never seen Hagrid up close, and was awed by the sheer size of him.
“A’right then! Come along.”
Jillian followed the giant man as he strode across the grounds. Professor McGonagall left them, but Jillian barely noticed. The Slytherin fell into step with Jillian and whispered, “Do you know why he’s leading us toward the Forest?”
Jillian, suddenly noticing where they were going, felt some surprise, excitement, and fear. She knew all the stories about the Dark Forest, but she had never even taken a single step inside.
She followed Hagrid anxiously, but as they reached the edge of the Forest, he steered toward the left and showed them to a stable that Jillian had never noticed before.
“This ‘ere is the stables that Dumbledore uses fer dangerous animals. Yer goin’ to ’elp me take care of ’em.”
Jillian’s eyes widened at the mention of dangerous animals. She hadn’t taken Care of Magical Creatures for a reason and that was because animals usually turned against her. It was a curse in the wizard world because every animal she met was usually dangerous.
The Slytherin said nothing as Hagrid opened the stable door, but Jillian gasped when she saw the beautiful creatures. There were only about four, but they were nothing Jillian had ever seen except for the occasional illustrations in her books.
She stepped inside and pointed to one. “Is that a Hippogriff? And that, that’s a sphinx. This…this is amazing. That’s a -”
“We don’t need an education right now. We already know what everything is,” the Slytherin drawled.
Jillian turned to give him a glare, but Hagrid stopped her by saying, “We’re goin’ t’ be feedin’ that one, there, in the back.”
Jillian looked toward the large cage in the back and asked hesitantly, “What is it?”
Hagrid grinned and answered, “It’s a dragon, o’ course.”
The Slytherin laughed and told Jillian, “You’re feeding it!”
(Author's Note) I'm sorry if I didn't get all of Hagrid's speech right, and I really was going to tell you 'the Slytherin's name' but the right moment didn't come up. Who he is will definitely come up in the next chapter, so be patient.