Fan Fiction ❯ Mourning Tears ❯ Magical Mokes ( Chapter 2 )

Mourning Tears

Chapter 2: Magical Mokes

The next morning bright sunshine would greet the students at Hogwarts, though the day would be a bit brisk for the first day of classes. The Gryffindor common room filled quickly with students. Many of which were getting re-acquainted with old friends or swapping schedules or in the case of first year students some were asking questions on how to get from class to class.

"What do you think of the new professors?" Hermione asked Ron and Harry as the trio walked down the staircases and towards the great hall for breakfast.

"It's kinda hard to say really," Ron replied as he shuffled his bag of books from one shoulder to the other. "Till we have them for a class I mean."

"True," Hermione responded.

"I don't think that any instructor is going to be able to top, Professor Lupin, in Defense against the Dark Arts," Harry added as he shoved open the doors to the hall.

"You got that right!" Ron said enthusiastically, "To bad he couldn't have stayed on."

Not long after arriving in the great hall, Ron, Hermione, and Harry were soon to be joined by Fred and George, Ron's twin brothers. The five of them were soon talking when other students started filing in, a group of them happened to be Draco Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle. The fair-haired boy leaned over and whispered something to the two bulky boys with him, causing the three to snicker.

"Just think Potter, no dementors to frighten you this year," Draco called out across the room as several other Slytherins who laughed at his comment surrounded him.

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Heading out into the sun the first class that Harry, Ron, and Hermione had was Herbology with Professor Sprout. They were soon met with many other students from the Gryffindor house as well as students from Hufflepuff, much to the delight of all the Gryffindor students. The herbology class passed with out too much of an incident much to the surprise of all of the students and thankful professor. The next class would be Care of Magical Creatures with Professor Mourning and as oddly as it sounded to the three friends Professor Hagrid.

As they arrived at Hagrid's hut, the three Gryffindor students noticed that again their class was with the Slytherin House, much to their dismay. It was obvious to Hermione that Draco was planing something with Crabbe and Goyle and she nudged Ron and Harry in the ribs to get their attention.

"Good Mornin' ev'ryone, 'ope ye've all 'ad a good summer," Hagrid greeted everyone. "Got sum'than special fer all of yeh today."

"Hope its not another group of hippogriffs," Draco said with feigned concern, though his eyes shined maliciously. "Hate to have my father get involved again."

Crabbe, Goyle and a few of the other Slytherin students snickered at Draco's remark though they tried to smother it the best they could.

Hagrid looked as if he were going to reply just as another voice cut in, a woman's voice, as Professor Trystania Mourning came around from behind Hagrid's hut. Her long black cloak billowing about her ankles as a green dress with silver trim could be seen between the open face of the robe.

"No, I'm afraid that I am going to disappoint you Mr. Malfoy, no hippogriffs," Professor Mourning said with a light smile. "Maybe later in the year when I can trust that young boys will not go about insulting creatures they shouldn't."

Draco just glared at Professor Mourning, not expecting to be insulted by a professor from his own house.

"Good morning everyone," Trystania said to the gathered students. "Has anyone read much over the summer?"

Hermione and a few other students rose their hands as most of the others shook their heads looking at one another nervously.

"Don't worry if you haven't," Trystania replied at seeing several skeptical looks. "The few of you that have may know a bit about the creature that you are going to receive today." She then turned to look at Hagrid and asked. "Could you go get them, Hagrid.

"Sur' can M'ss Mourning," Hagrid said with a smile and disappeared around the back of his hut only to return a few moments later with a large crate. "W'er do ye want it Professer?"

"Over by the fence, Hagrid, thank you," Trystania told the burly man as he moved the crate over by the fence and pulled off the top.

Inside the crate were several dozen small lizards ranging in a variety of silvery-green scales, some baring stripes of red, blue, yellow or a combination of up to all three. Many of the lizards blinked their gold eyes at the bright light that streamed in their newly uncovered space as the all crowded together for warmth. A few of the lizards shrank in size as they tried to sneak into cracks between their brethren in the box causing a few students to blink and rub their eyes.

"These class are going to be your companions for this term," Professor Trystania began to explain. "I will monitor your progress in caring for your Moke as well as how much he or she has learned over the course of the semester."

She reached down and pulled a medium sized emerald colored Moke with blue striping on its head that faded to red about mid back. The lizard held tightly onto her hand with its feet before it scurried up her arm a little farther where it felt safe and laid down to start soaking up heat.

"How cute," Pansy, one of the Slytherin students said as she watched the lizard start to look about.

"Now as a few of you have read up about magical creatures, this may seem repetitive but it is essential," the woman said.

Professor Mourning made a light clicking noise as she held her other hand out to the Moke and it climbed onto her other hand so that she could hold it out to show the class a bit better.

"Mokes are a fascinating creatures and one that is not to terribly hard to care for. The one thing that you must all pay close attention to, is that these animals can change their size at will. SO all of you will have to be careful for they will change shape not only when they are excited or content, but when scared as well."

To prove her point Professor Mourning grabbed the Moke by the tail once its attention was focused on something else and the animal not only jumped in fright but shrunk down small enough to fit in the palm of her hand. The Moke then turned its golden gaze to Trystania, blinking a few times at the woman as she reached out a finger to pet its head.

"Whoa," Ron said as the animal went from a two-foot long lizard to a four-inch lizard in a blink of an eye. Other students were muttering, startled or excited comments about what they had just seen as well.

"It's alright, Jep," Trystania said to the Moke and it slowly began to grow in size, till it was as big as it had been previous to her scaring him. "As you can see it is important to pay attention to your Moke, for they can be lost."

"All righ' ev'ryone come on inside th' fence an' I'll help yeh get yer Moke companions," Hagrid said. "Yeh can pick out yer lizard by both markin's an' whether it be a male er female."

Many of the students climbed over the fence enthusiastically, while other's hung back not sure whether or not they liked the Mokes. Several students crowded around the box trying to pick out which lizard they wanted to care for.

"You may name your Moke what ever you wish," Trystania explained as Jep ran farther up her arm once again as she moved out of a couple of students way so they could get a better look at the mass of reptiles moving around in the box.

Many of the students sat in the grass, thankful for the warm sunshine on that brisk fall day. Each student had a Moke held carefully between his or her hands.

"I think that they are fascinating," Hermione said as she petted the head of the female Moke she picked out. "I read up on them in our Monster Book of Monsters. They shouldn't be that hard to care for you know, since they don't get that big. They live on a diet of insects mostly."

"Do you do anything but read at all during the summer Hermione?" Ron asked with a shake of his head as he looked down at the Moke sitting in his lap.

Hermione just glared at Ron, "Of course I do."

Harry just laughed at the two of his friends; lighthearted quarrels were the norm between them. His attention then turned to Draco, Crabbe and Goyle as they approached the box with the other class still pointing out different lizards and their markings, not getting any closer to making a decision.

"Isn't she precious, Draco," Pansy said with a smile holding up one of the smaller female Mokes before Draco's pale grey gaze.

"Splendid," Draco replied with a slight sneer, he wasn't looking forward to this class one bit as he leaned over the box.

Several students were arguing over one rather beautifully patterned male Moke. The lizard's markings faded from yellow to red to blue as they formed an odd stripped pattern down its head and back. A bit of a glint came to Draco's eyes, as the students who were arguing over it were both Gryffindor students.

"I'll take that one," Draco said with a sly smile on his lips as he pointed to the animal that the two Gryffindors were fighting over.

Hagrid cocked a brow at Draco as he looked at the animal that he pointed to. "Are yeh sure yeh wan' tha' one?" Hagrid asked as he saw the crest fallen looks on the other two students faces.

"Yes," Draco retorted, biting his tongue before saying anything else that might make him miss his chance at making a fool out of the bickering students.

"Excellent choice Mr. Malfoy," Trystania said as she walked through the students, seeing what they have picked. Jep crawled around to the woman's back and came up onto her right shoulder, gold eyes starring down at the box and his diminishing brethren. "I'm sure he'll be quite the match for you."

Draco smiled, thinking that Trystania was actually going to favor Slytherin students much as Professor Snape does. He would soon find out that his guess was quite wrong.

Hagrid looked up at Trystania a moment before reaching into the box to pull out the brightly colored Moke after the woman nodded for him to continue. Shrugging, Hagrid handed the animal over to Malfoy knowing that Professor must have something in mind.

Harry found himself frowning at the lizard that Draco got, knowing full well why silvery-blond haired boy did it.

"What's the matter Potter?" Draco said in a silky tone as he held the Moke out before him, almost parading the creature around. Crabbe and Goyle followed Draco over to a group of their fellow Slytherin students, snickering. Draco turned and looked over his shoulder a Harry, Ron and Hermione and added, "Jealous?"

Pansy and her group of Slytherin girls couldn't help but smile gleefully as Draco egged Harry on, they were having too much fun watching the passing of insults.

"I think that I'll name him Lazarus," Draco said loudly with that satisfactory smile upon his lips still as he glanced over his shoulder at the two students who were forced to chose a different lizard because of him.

Harry placed a hand on Hermione's arm to keep her from getting up and walking over to Draco. Her temper rose with each passing insult that Harry ignored.

"Why that..." Hermione, started as she trembled in anger.

"It's not worth it," Harry whispered to Hermione.

"Looks like we don't have to worry too much any more," Ron added as he saw Professor Mourning heading Draco's way.

"I think that that is quite enough gloating for now Mr. Malfoy," Professor Mourning said as she stopped just behind Draco, Crabbe and Goyle stepped back a few paces as the woman crossed her arms about her chest.

The look on Trystania's face did not show whether or not she was displeased with Draco's behavior as the pale haired boy looked back over his shoulder at the woman.

"Sorry," Draco murmured as he gave her a slight almost nodding bow, seeing if being polite would get him off the hook. "Professor Mourning."

A slight smile slid across Trystania's lips as Draco turned to face her and offered her the apology. Draco took this as a good sign.

Ron inwardly groaned as he figured that this was going to be another class were the Slytherin students were favored over Gryffindors. By the looks on Harry and Hermione's faces, they were thinking the exact same thing.

The rest of the hour passed by nearly uneventfully for the Care of Magical Creatures class. Neville had unintentionally scarred his Moke twice causing it to shrink to a tiny size the first time and enlarge the second. But both the Moke and the boy were unharmed throughout both of the events and Neville even managed to crack a smile or two for the encouragement given to him by Professor Mourning and Hagrid. By the end of the class Draco was realizing that the Moke was not truly that bad of a creature to deal with. That by no means meant that he was enjoying the class all that much, or at least that is what he outwardly showed at this point in time. The rest of the class period was spent learning about what foods to give the Mokes as well as making labels for the cage system that Hagrid built for the students to house their animals at his hut.

Points to both houses had been distributed by Hagrid and Trystania, though many of the Slytherin students felt that they had been short handed as they had received less points, a few complaining loudly that Hagrid favored the Gryffindor house over their own.