Chapter 37: Your Name

The next day, when Hermione Granger woke up and discovered that Fish was not in the common room, she ran to the Great Dining Hall with the others.

It was only when she reached the Great Dining Hall that she found Percy Weasley and the study group gathered in the foyer, where the hourglass of House points stood, talking about something.

Hermione hurried over to them, "What's going on?" She asked.

"You can see for yourself...", Percy sighed helplessly and pointed to the Gryffindor hourglass, the ruby representing the score was quite a bit lower than before dinner yesterday, it was fifty points short.

"Oh my god, what happened last night?" exclaimed Hermione, covering her forehead, how was it possible that her study group had worked so hard to get house points and beat other houses, only for the score gap to become larger in one night?

"I don't know...," Percy continued bitterly, "I heard from Harry and the others that Fish didn't seem to be in his dorm last night, and we didn't see him in the morning."

Although Percy didn't say it explicitly, everyone knew what he meant, that the fifty points could only be deducted for Fish.

The Gryffindor wizards were used to this sort of thing, but this time it was just a slightly bigger deduction, no big deal, they were more worried about the fact that Fish hadn't come back last night.

Just when they were all worried that something had happened to Fish, the Hogwarts doors burst open and a serious looking Professor McGonagall walked in with Fish.

"Meow? Everyone's here." (●ΦωΦ●)?

A heartless Fish gleefully greeted the Gryffindors gathered in the Great Dining Hall.

Professor McGonagall glared at the brat and then addressed Hermione and the others sternly, "What are you all doing here? don't you have classes in the morning?"

Seeing that Professor McGonagall was in a bad mood, they all dispersed and returned to the long Gryffindor table for breakfast.

"Go eat breakfast and remember to go to class after lunch!"

After sending the Gryffindors off to eat, Professor McGonagall nudged Fish, "Also, meet me and Mr. Filch in the Great Dining Hall at nine o'clock tonight!"

"Got it, meow~ You're a nuisance, Minerva." Fish, who had no idea what confinement was, waved his hand moodily and hurried towards the long Gryffindor table.

He had been caught by Minerva the night before, and hadn't even run to the kitchen to get food from Comey and the others, so his stomach was already growling with hunger.

"Fish, are you okay?", As Fish approached the long table, the little wizards around him approached him.

"What can I do?", Fish picked up the chop the little witch had cut off and stuffed a piece in his mouth with a puzzled look on his face.

"What happened last night? did Professor McGonagall catch you? Harry and the others said you didn't come back to the dormitory last night," Hermione, who was already full of questions, blurted out a string of words that the others couldn't even understand.

Luckily, she was asking the questions everyone wanted to know, so no one had any trouble with her.

"Last night, meow?" gulping down the food in his mouth, Fish said truthfully, "I rode Austin to Hogsmeade last night and Minerva caught me and she's going to confine me for a week, starting tonight."

Although Fish himself seemed unconcerned, the others didn't seem so, and they instantly started talking.

"Confinement? That's not good." Fred, one of the twins, was blunt: "Filch might make you clean the toilets."

"Fish and Filch seem to be on good terms, you won't be given much work." George wasn't too concerned,

His attention was focused on something else, "Did you go to Hogsmeade last night? did you take a secret passage?"

"Didn't Fish say he was going to ride Austin?" Ron had been given a hard time by his two brothers the night before, and he took the opportunity to sneer, "Who's Austin, by the way?"

"Austin is an owl I met yesterday afternoon in the upper room of the West Tower." replied Fish, patting his tummy after breakfast.

When he said that, it made sense to everyone, but Hermione, who was known as "Miss Know-it-all," suddenly found a blind spot, "Wait, so, you can remember people's names?"

Just because Hermione wasn't offended that Fish had given her a nickname, didn't mean she liked it, or rather, that no girl would like a nickname like "Rat Teeth."

"Meow?" ??ω??

Fish cocked his head in confusion, "I can always remember, 'Rat Teeth' is Hermione Granger, 'Scarhead' is Harry Potter, Redhead 1, 2, 3, 4 are Percy, Fred, George and Ron Weasley..."

Fish pointed them out one by one, even the twins Fred and George, whose names he had not confused, which was no easy task knowing that not even his mother could tell which one was which.

However, it wasn't a problem for Fish, with his keen sense of smell and Druid's instinctive animal perception, the difference between the two was really quite obvious.

After giving the nicknames and names of everyone around him, Fish raised his chin and proudly said, "Fish has a smart head!". (*￣ω￣*)

"And you still call me 'Ratteeth'!" exclaimed Hermione frantically, scratching her long, thick hair.

"Don't you call me 'Fish' too?" said Fish.

"Huh? What's your name if not 'Fish'?", Hermione was stunned, not quite sure what Fish was referring to.

"No, Meow no!", Fish shook his head like a rattle, "My name should be Meow~, Fish is a nickname translated from his human language."

"...," Hermione didn't know what to say to Fish when he looked at him with such conviction.

And even though she was an expert, she still didn't know anything about cat language.

"Hahahahahaha! What does it matter if we call you 'Rat Teeth', isn't that a cute nickname? Our nickname is still a number," George reached out and patted Hermione on the shoulder, laughing and reassuring her.

With a grimace at George, Hermione knew there was no point in arguing further with Fish, who was clearly still thinking in terms of cats.

So she willingly gave up her seat next to Fish and turned to discuss with Percy and the others how to make up the fifty points that had been deducted the night before.

But this problem didn't matter much to Hermione either, since today's first year lesson was only two morning Potions lessons, and it was impossible for Hermione to get points, in terms of not losing points....

Hermione looked at Harry, and then at Neville and Seamus....

Obviously, that was impossible as well.

"Then it's up to you," Hermione said in a heavy tone to Percy and the other seniors.

Fish, who was wolfing down his food, twitched his ears and suddenly looked at Hermione and the others, who were discussing how to get as many points as possible.

"Meow?"

Although Fish had never had a concrete idea of what House points were, after hearing so much talk about them, he was a little worried.

However, just as he was about to ask about House points, a young witch picked up a piece of fried fish and popped it into his mouth.

"Fish, ah~~~~~~"

"Meow~~~" (*^-^) (^0^*).

With the food ready, Fish didn't mind the House points and swallowed the fish in his mouth.

"Ah, Katie, you're taking advantage!"

The other witches were not happy and joined in, feeding Fish.

"Ugh... envy..."

The boys, who had seen this scene many times before, sighed again in unison.

After a rowdy breakfast, the Gryffindor first years headed off to their least favorite class, Potions.

Except, of course, for one special member, Fish.

"Hello!" (●ΦωΦ●)?

Fish, the first to enter the Potions classroom, greeted Snape and the Slytherin students with a cheerful smile.

Snape merely ignored Fish, while the Slytherins returned a reserved smile.

As Fish took his seat, the Gryffindors filed in, and Professor Snape's eyes sharpened as soon as Harry took his first step into the classroom.

He wouldn't bother Fish, but he wouldn't let the rest of the Gryffindors off the hook either, especially Harry Potter, whom he both loved and hated.

Then Snape began frantically targeting other Gryffindor students with the malicious intent of deducing Gryffindor House.

In particular, Harry, the enemy's son and Snape's lover, was so irritated that he nearly got into a fight with Snape, but Ron was quick enough to stop him, but he and Ron were also caught by Snape and had five points deducted from each of them.

Two hard Potions lessons later, the Gryffindors' already poor points got worse.

After class, the Gryffindors fled the classroom in disarray, making sure they were out of Snape's sight before heading to the Great Dining Hall, cursing.