Chapter 31: Nicknames

"Fish, look at that! We've got flying lessons starting this week!" exclaimed Ron Weasley, Red 4, first thing in the morning, pointing to a notice posted in the common room. This was followed by a look of disgust, "I can't believe I'm in flying lessons with the Slytherins, what a bummer."

Fish couldn't feel the same way though, he didn't know what flying lessons were and he didn't hate Slytherin students.

But with all the talk of the humans around him, Fish was gradually realizing what flying class was, a class that taught broom flying.

"Oh, I see," Fish realized, "Minerva seems to like that."

Fish remembered that he once tore into pieces a book with a broom-riding human on the cover, and Minerva came back in a fit of rage, not only scolding him, but also chastising him for thinking he did wrong.

But in the end, he got his way.

"You must be talking about Quidditch!" Ron was a little excited, "It's the best sport in the world! There isn't a wizard who doesn't like it."

Other students from wizarding families joined in the conversation and, by extension, began bragging about their own flying experiences, which made young wizards like Harry, who grew up in the Muggle world, gape for a moment.

But Fish wasn't interested in Quidditch or flying brooms, he was in a hurry to get to the Great Dining Hall for breakfast.

When they arrived, the Great Dining Hall was noticeably noisier than usual, the other three houses had also been informed of the flying classes, the first years were eagerly discussing the topic, and the seniors had a few moments to chime in, before quickly going to their classes.

"Here," As soon as Fish sat down at the long table, Hermione placed a cut steak in front of him and put a fork in his hand.

After the initial excitement, the young witches normalized their feeding frenzy and began to think about how they could help Fish integrate into normal life.

After a discussion in private, they now took turns preparing the food for Fish and letting him serve it to her.

"Fish, are you sure about the flying lessons?", Hermione, who had never touched a flying broom before, had been very nervous about flying lessons ever since she heard about them, and kept looking for young Muggle-born wizards like her to talk to in order to find some relief.

When she saw Fish, she unconsciously asked herself the same question.

"I don't know, I've never flown before." (￣~￣). Fish answered with a fork in his hand and chewing the meat in his mouth badly, after a week at Hogwarts, he was getting used to interacting with other young wizards.

"Anyway, I'm not afraid of falling, so I won't hurt myself if I accidentally fall," Fish said.

"Ugh... that's cool.... Animagus...," Failing to find some relief, Hermione scrunched up her face and wondered if she could learn to be an animagus as well.

With all this commotion, Thursday arrived.

Today's breakfast was a very finely chopped lamb chop prepared for Fish by Parvati Patil, who was a bit of a brunette and had a small ornament on her forehead.

Fish was munching on the mutton chops when a small chatter was heard in his ears, it was Hermione, 'Rat Teeth', who was reciting the contents of 'Quidditch Through the Ages', the book Fish had cracked.

"Memorization alone won't teach you to fly properly, Miss Squirrel Teeth," Malfoy approached with a large bag of candy, and when he heard Hermione's ramblings, he couldn't help but say with a sarcastic tone.

Before Hermione could say anything in response, Malfoy placed the candy in his hand in front of Fish's face.

"My mother sent more sweets, I brought some for you to try," Malfoy said slowly to Fish.

Besides the Gryffindor lions, other students from other houses also came by from time to time to bring Fish some food, and Malfoy, who always got snacks from his house, joined in after a few days of reservation.

"Oh, thank you, Big Brain!" (●?ω?●)

Bright-eyed, Fish quickly opened the bag, grabbed a handful of candy and popped it into his mouth.

Malfoy's proud face fell, "I'd rather you call me Draco, if that's okay with you."

"It's fine, Big Brain, no problem, Big Brain," Fish said.

In fact, the names were easy enough for Fish to remember if he wanted to, he was just more used to calling them his own, and their nicknames, it seemed, had caused a trend within Hogwarts, George and Fred were now called by the number 2 and 3 instead.

Even some of the Hogwarts professors sometimes used the nickname to tease each other, and the one with the most enthusiasm for it was none other than mean old Dumbledore.

As Malfoy was still trying to get Fish to stop calling him 'Big Brain', an owl flew up to the long Gryffindor table and dropped a small package in front of Neville, who was trying to listen to Hermione.

Neville opened the package and inside was a crystal ball shrouded in white smoke.

"It's a memory ball!" Neville explained to the group, "Gran knows I always have a short memory; it tells you if there's something you've forgotten to do. See, you squeeze it hard, like this, if it turns red..."

But suddenly a hairy paw slapped him from the side and knocked the memory ball out of his hand.

"Oh, my memory ball... Fish?" cried Neville.

As a purebred kitty, Fish couldn't resist a shiny crystal ball, so when he saw Neville open the bag, Fish kept his eyes fixed on the memory ball, watched it for a while, and then took the opportunity to transform into his cat form and pounced on it to knock it out of Neville's hands.

After knocking the memory ball down, Fish swatted it back and forth with his two front paws as he juggled it around the long Gryffindor table.

Once the victim, Neville, realized it was Fish, he was fine with it and let Fish pet the memory ball, while the others watched with loving eyes as the kitten played with it on the table, even moving his own plates for Fish to have more fun.

"If you like playing with balls, I can have my father get you a better one," Malfoy, annoyed at being left out, raised his voice to get Fish's attention, but Fish was too engrossed playing with the ball to hear him.

"You don't need your father, your big head looks pretty round," Ron didn't hesitate to mock Malfoy as he saw how defeated he was.

"I guess it's a Weasley tradition to use your head instead of a ball, after all, with your family it's not easy to buy a ball," Ron's eloquence was weak compared to Malfoy's, and Malfoy's counter attack instantly drowned him out,

Just as Ron was getting angry and stood up to strike, Professor McGonagall sensed the commotion and came over, "What's going on?"

Professor McGonagall saw Fish, who had messed up the Gryffindor table, "Fish! You're not eating right again! Five points off for Gryffindor!"

However, the usual point deductions from professors had no effect on Fish, and even the rest of the Gryffindor students paid no attention to him, except Hermione, who was determined to make up for Fish's point deduction.

As Professor McGonagall scolded Fish, Malfoy grabbed his two followers and slipped away.

"Meow~ ?●ω●?"

Fish, who had been lifted by the back of Professor McGonagall's neck, cried out softly, causing the little witches nearby to feel their hearts melt.

Professor McGonagall was unfazed as she gave the students a stern look and pointed to the crystal ball Fish had just slapped and asked, "Whose is this?"

"Yes...it's mine...," Neville raised his hand warily and explained in a whisper, "It's a memory ball my grandmother made me, I always lose...".

Professor McGonagall was no stranger to Neville as a student and was aware of his impressive memory.

"Keep it if it's yours," Professor McGonagall instructed with a frown, then put Fish back in his chair, "And change it so I can eat properly!".

"I want a ball too!", Fish climbed into the chair in his human form, tugging on Professor McGonagall's arm and pouting.

"Don't we have a couple of balls in the house? You've played with them a couple of times and left them in a corner, and that poor Fluffy, you've been playing with him less than three days and you threw him!", Professor McGonagall reached out and held Fish's head down, rubbing her fluffy silver hair into a tangled mess.

"Oooh..."

Many of the little witches were biting their handkerchiefs at the sight.

She was so enviable!

Even though Fish now let them touch his head from time to time, they couldn't be as careless as Professor McGonagall.

Under Fish's influence, there were more and more young witches who wanted to become animagi and transform into cats to be near him.

Unaware that he had motivated another group of young wizards, Fish, prompted by Professor McGonagall, cocked his head to the side and began to remember, "Is there?"

From memory... there was something like that, but the balls had been tossed aside after he'd been pouncing on them for a while, and now he didn't know where they'd gone.

As for that Fluffy....

"Oh, this sausage tastes so good" (●?ω?●). Fish blinked, sat back in his chair as if nothing had happened, popped a piece of sausage into his mouth and said in a slurred voice.