Chapter 22

Stay safe, Daphne," said a concerned Hermione to the girl.

Daphne smiled and promised she would. She was off to find Tracey.

In Care of Magical Creatures, Hagrid tried to get the class interested in a creature of his own design, Blast-Ended Skrewts. Once the other Gryffindors arrived, they learned from them they'd spent almost all of the class squeezing bubotuber pus out of recently matured bubotuber plants. Of course, they already knew that. Neville also promised to give them a copy of the homework for the class at lunch.

Harry and Hermione had arrived a little early and it looked promising that Ron wasn't going to turn up. But, that was never going to happen. As he'd managed to miss most of breakfast, Ron had used the opportunity of morning tea to stuff himself half-silly. He then arrived late for the class, wiping his face with the sleeve of his robes as he came jogging across the lawn from the castle.

Harry and Hermione were standing on the other side of Hagrid from the castle, looking through one crate of four containing the creatures. Harry almost groaned; but, it was Hermione's jab and very direct look that stopped him before he really began.

Ron tried to run over and join Harry and Hermione, but Hagrid grabbed him by a fistful of collar and directed him to the other 'Gryffindor' crate.

The Blast-Ended Skrewts looked like deformed, shell-less lobsters, horribly pale and slimy-looking, with legs sticking out in very odd places and no visible heads. There were about a hundred of them in each crate, each about six inches long, crawling over one another, bumping blindly into the sides of the boxes. They were giving off a very powerful smell of rotting fish. Every now and then, sparks would fly out of the end of a skrewt, and with a small 'phut' sound, it would be propelled forward several inches.

Nothing but deep affection for Hagrid could have made Harry and Hermione pick up squelchy handfuls of frog liver and lower them into the crates to tempt the Blast-Ended Skrewts. Harry couldn't suppress the suspicion that the whole thing was entirely pointless, because the skrewts didn't seem to have mouths.

At the end of the class an hour later, where they still didn't discover what the Skrewts liked to eat, Harry and Hermione quickly washed their hands in the tubs provided and headed back up to the castle. Ron came hurrying after them.

"Oi!" the boy called, hurrying up behind them. "Harry, mate!"

"Oh, Merlin," groaned Harry.

"Well, at least the skrewts are small," said Ron as he finally caught up to the pair of them as they made their way back up to the castle for lunch.

"They are now," said Hermione in an exasperated voice. "But, once Hagrid's found out what they eat, I expect they'll be six feet long."

"Well, that won't matter if they turn out to cure seasickness or something, will it?" said Ron, grinning slyly at her.

Hermione had said something to that effect to Malfoy when he complained about them. "You know perfectly well I only said that to shut Malfoy up," she replied. "As a matter of fact, I think he's right. The best thing to do would be to stamp on the lot of them before they start attacking us all."

As they walked in through the doors of the castle, Harry said to Ron, "Daphne will likely be sitting with us, again, Ron. If you can't handle that, don't sit next to us."

"What?" he spluttered. "But... mate!... I reckon she's bewitched you, or something! She's nothing but a..."

Before Ron had a chance to finish, Harry grabbed the redhead by the front of his robes and yanked him in close. "Don't even think about finishing that sentence in my presence, Ron," Harry quietly snarled. "You cannot bewitch, as you put it, a bond. It's there and it's eternal. We are bonded. If you can't keep a civil tongue in your head around Daphne, then it would be best if you didn't even try to sit next to us at table."

Giving a mouth-gaping Ron a bit of a shove away from himself, Harry glared at the boy before storming off into the Great Hall.

Hermione had already entered the Hall while Harry was berating Ron. And she was currently sitting with Daphne with just enough room for Harry to sit between them.

Harry entered still in a very annoyed temperament. And basically dropped his bum into the seat between the two girls. Hermione had parchment, ink and quill out and was copying from another sheet. The original was in Neville's handwriting, so it must be the homework from the Herbology class.

"How did Ron take it?" she asked, not looking at him and while still writing away.

"He's still of the one-track mind Daphne's 'bewitched' me," grumped Harry. "Of course, that completely leaves you out of the equation."

"Problems with Ron?" asked Neville, from opposite.

With a grumbling mutter as he watched Ron go and sit down with Seamus Finnegan and Dean Thomas, Harry nodded. "He clearly has no idea about bonds, how they form, or what they mean. You'd think, as a pure blood, he would."

"Steady, Harry," said Neville, cautioning him. "It's not all that surprising. Soul bonds are extremely rare. The fact you've formed identical bonds with two witches at the same time is phenomenal. I cannot recall such a thing ever happening before."

Harry sighed and said, "I guess you're right. It just Ron's bigotry is really getting to me. I already have to put up with his petty jealousy, laziness and poor manners. I'm just not willing to put up with any more of anything else. I thought Professor McGonagall was going to set him straight, this morning. That doesn't seem to be the case."

When Ginny came and joined them a few minutes later, the three automatically became very careful around her. They knew she was going to try to hit them with potions if she wouldn't, or couldn't, accept the status of the bonds. Even then, she might not know enough about bonds to still try – if what Neville said was true.

She spoke about inconsequential things, and didn't mention overhearing about the bond, at all. That worried Harry, at least. He suspected she was unwilling to believe the news about the bond and would try to potion them, soon enough.

However, she didn't seem to make any sort of move, in that regard, as none of them saw her being furtive and none of them became suddenly sick. That did not mean, however, they weren't going to remain on their guard around her; especially when there was food or drink around.

When it looked like the three of them were done, Daphne said, "Shall we head for the library before we need to head for our afternoon classes?"

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