Taming the True Fire (HP)

The first days of October blessed Hogwarts with long hours of golden sunlight, a distant echo of the summer long gone. The students seized every opportunity to steal some time, either for a walk around the castle grounds or simply for lying lazily on the banks of the Black Lake.

Gryffindors were lucky to have Herbology as their last class on Thursday afternoon, along with Hufflepuffs. Professor Sprout generously decided to have their lesson outside, instead of in one of the Greenhouses, and the second-years were quite busy hunting the Enlargeslugs that had invaded the school's herb beds. 

It might have sounded like an easy task, but in reality, the Enlargeslugs were surprisingly quick and notoriously hard to handle. Whenever they felt in danger (or wanted to eat huge amounts of food), they expanded their size up to ten times, and if not handled with extreme care, they could easily burst. 

"Get it!" – screamed Alice Fortescue from Hufflepuff, running after one especially big specimen that was trying to slip away through the spearmint sprouts. Sirius tried to show himself helpful, but unfortunately, he grabbed the escaping Enlargeslug too roughly, and it burst with a loud bang, covering both Sirius, Alice, and James who was standing nearby, with green mucus.

"Eww!" – gagged Lily after the class was over – "This stench in unbearable!"

"Jeez, thanks, Evans!" – snapped Sirius, trying to clean his hair from the mucus.

"I hope you're not planning on going like this to the Common Room." – said Catherine, taking a few steps back.

"Duh? Do you expect us to sleep outside?" – frowned James, putting back on his glasses. 

"Better that than getting this lovely aroma of rotting fish and ammonia inside." – insisted Catherine.

"Let's go and take a shower in the Quidditch changing room." – suggested Sirius.

"You know, Flame, you're not being fair." – said James, picking up his schoolbag to follow Sirius – "It might be unpleasant for you, but imagine how it is for us. We can't run away from the stench!"

Catherine rolled her eyes, watching her friends disappearing in the distance. 

"Shall we go to dinner?" – asked Lily cheerfully. 

Catherine's stomach clenched as the Enlargeslugs' stench still lingered in the air. "Um, I'm not that hungry. I think I'll take a walk." – she said, waving to her classmates and walking towards the Forbidden Forest. 

The young witch loved this part of the castle grounds because not a lot of students came that way. She could happily stroll around and pick wildflowers without anyone staring at her or asking questions. In addition, there was something about the forest that had always attracted the girl toward the wall of old knotted trees. 

After picking up a whole bunch of wild Angelica, Catherine sat under a lonely oak tree at the very edge of the forest and leaned against the trunk. She was busy trimming the white flowers when she heard noise coming from the tuff of grass on her left. Pretending she hadn't heard anything, the black-haired girl continued her work when something small and fluffy lounged itself at her. Thanks to her quick reflexes, Catherine managed to catch the attacker mid-air and stared at the chocolate-brown fur and cute snout, belonging to the brave creature that was still frantically trying to reach the girl.

"Are you a Niffler, little fellow?" – asked the young witch amused – "Hey, stay put! What do you want?"

The small furball was now desperately struggling against the second-years' grip, attempting to set itself free.

"Who do you belong to?" – Catherine asked, standing up while still holding the Niffler and looking around.

She decided to return to the castle and look for the little guy's owner when a huge figure appeared from the woods. The girl quickly recognised the impressive silhouette of the Keeper of the Keys and Grounds of Hogwarts, Rubeus Hagrid. She waved to him and ran in his direction, still holding her vicious attacker. 

"Hi, Hagrid!" – said Catherine when finally catching up with him.

"Blimey, Catherine! What yeh doin' 'ere? Where 'ave all yer mischievous mates run off to, eh?" – said Hagrid, laughing. 

"Some of them having dinner, others cleaning Enlargeslugs' mucus from themselves… you know – the usual school stuff." – answered the girl, smiling – "By the way, do you know who this little friend belongs to?"

The Niffler was still struggling in Catherine's hand, but now, after seeing Hagrid, it tried to get to him and left a few nasty scratches on the young witch's skin.

"Sneakers!" – exclaimed the Gamekeeper – "Yeh, naughty lad! Why'd ya go runnin' off like that? Bin lookin' fer yeh since mornin'!"

"I'm so glad he's yours, and I can return him to you!" – said Catherine, handing Hagrid the so-called 'Snickers'. 

"He's a good lad, but he's still a young'un. Didn't mean no harm, he didn't!" – exclaimed the giant, putting the Niffler in one of his coat's huge pockets – "Why don'tcha come to my Hut? I'll whip us up some tea, and I'll tend to them scratches for yeh."

"This sounds nice." – agreed Catherine, secretly dying to find out what was the Gamekeeper's house like from the inside. 

They reached the small wooden Hut, in front of which the girl noticed some unnaturally big pumpkins taking over almost half of the vegetable patch. The Hut consisted of one big room serving as bedroom, kitchen, and living room. The huge fireplace was currently cold and empty, with a large copper kettle hanging above it. Hagrid motioned toward the wooden table in the centre of the room, where Catherine sat comfortably on a rather big chair, while the Keeper of the Keys bent over the fireplace and within minutes, the old kettle was singing. Catherine was staring at the various items, hanging from the ceiling, ranging from hams to mysterious braids of hair from some creature, when Hagrid placed a teacup in front of her with the size of a bowl. 

"Um, thank you, Hagrid." – said the girl, wondering how to drink from the cup without spilling half of its content. 

"Sorry 'bout this, don't have any fancy grub to offer. Haven't had the chance to snag nothin' from the house elves at Hogwarts lately." – apologised the giant, taking the seat next to Catherine – "Me dad, now he was a real whiz in the kitchen, but I can barely rustle up a bit of meat for meself. Miss his bakin', I do."

"I can teach you how to bake, if you want to." – suggested Catherine, carefully sipping her tea – "I'm quite good at it, so I can make whatever you crave if I have the ingredients."

"Are yeh serious? This'd be like a dream come true, it would!" – exclaimed Hagrid, clearly touched by Catherine's offer.

"Yeah, no problem at all." – said the girl, smiling – "If you wish we can start as soon as next Saturday. I'll send you a list of the ingredients we would need by owl."

"Agreed, I can't wait, I can't!" – beamed Hagrid, looking like a young boy, despite the bushy beard and hair. 

After Catherine finished her tea, the Gamekeeper insisted on taking care of the scratches on her hand. He took out a big brown bottle from one of the cupboards and poured some of its content on a piece of cotton. The crimson liquid exuded a potent scent of mint and stung intensely. However, the effect was almost immediate. The girl's skin recovered completely. 

"Now that's an interesting potion you have there." – she noted with curiosity, eying the bottle.

"Heh, it's an old family recipe, that is. Saved me life a few times, I'm tellin' yeh." – said Hagrid proudly, then added – "Nifflers do 'ave sharp nails, they can dig underground, but I'm surprised Sneakers did that to yeh."

"He certainly surprised me. It seemed as if he was determined to reach me at any cost." – noted Catherine contemplatively.

"They do love shiny stuff, creatures like 'em. Yeh don't happen to 'ave anythin' like that on yeh, do yeh?" – asked Hagrid. 

"Is this considered shiny?" – asked the girl, taking out the pendant her mother had gifted her last year.

"Now that explains it all!" – the giant exclaimed and loudly clasped his hands - "The shinier the object, the more the Niffler wants it. I can feel the lil' devil tryin' to escape now from me pocket. Calm down, Sneakers!"

"Why do you call him Snickers?" – Catherine inquired, tucking the pendant back under her clothes – "Is it because he looks like a chocolate bar?"

"What? No! 'Cause he likes sneakin' around." – explained Hagrid – "What chocolate bar is that?"

"Ah, it's Sneakers, not Snickers." – Catherine laughed – "Snickers is the name of a popular brand of chocolate in the Muggle world."

"Hah, these Muggles. What else are they gonna come up with, eh?" – Hagrid chuckled in return. 

"It's getting dark, I should go back to the castle!" – the girl said after a while but upon noticing the Gamekeeper's crestfallen expression, she quickly added – "Don't worry, I'll come again next week, and I'll teach you how to make delicious cookies."

"You're welcome to come whenever yeh wish. Don't get a lot of visitors, I don't."

"I will!" – promised Catherine, opening the door and stepping outside into the October dusk.