章 4: Mammoth Cheese

"Don't you find it strange?" Hermione commented to the girl sitting next to her at the table. "If these creatures are so dangerous, how can they let them roam around Hogwarts?"

"It's not that bad," the girl, who was starting her third year at the castle, replied. "Barnaby's creatures aren't as dangerous as you might think. From what I've learned in past years, they only react badly when they're not treated properly. If you get to know them and make friends, you might be pleasantly surprised."

"Yes, I can imagine," Hermione recalled how she had almost been burned for being overconfident and thinking there was no danger. "How bad can it be?"

"Well," the girl rubbed her chin as she remembered, "last year, there was a gluttonous Hufflepuff student who couldn't control himself and tried to secretly catch one of Barnaby's birds, I think he called it a Chocobo or something, to cook it like fried chicken. He ended up with a dose of scratches and pecks big enough to develop ornithophobia."

"And the student's parents didn't protest?" Hermione asked, thinking it was a disproportionate punishment for a prank.

"Didn't you hear what the headmaster said a moment ago?" the girl looked at Hermione as if she were foolish. "And how could they protest? It was the Hufflepuff boy who tried to steal Barnaby's bird, and you could say he suffered his own karma. Besides losing fifty house points from the teachers, it's pretty good that Barnaby didn't report him."

Hermione wanted to argue but closed her mouth when she realized that the girl's logic was sound. The boy had brought it upon himself, and the bird had only defended itself to avoid ending up as a meal.

"Come on," the girl patted Hermione's shoulder to snap her out of her reverie. "We need to go to our common room. Remember the way from here, and from there, you can explore the castle later."

"Okay," Hermione hurried to catch up with the girl. "By the way, what kind of fish did they serve? I've never tasted anything like it before, and it was delicious. If I weren't so full, I'd order another plate."

"I think you were lucky," the girl said with a smile as they walked with the rest of the Gryffindor group. "Barnaby sometimes manages to get some food for the kitchens, and you can only cross your fingers to get a taste. Although, like his creatures, nobody knows where it comes from. In fact, many people compete for those delicacies because they might only have one chance to try them."

"But I didn't see anyone act that way," Hermione recalled that there were several people eyeing the dishes, but no one took them from others.

"There's an unwritten rule that if a first-year student gets one of those plates on Sorting Night, older students can't snatch it away," the girl laughed and winked. "You can consider it a small act of compassion because after today, if you get another plate like that, you're likely to lose it if you don't react quickly."

"Are they very common?" Hermione really liked that fish and wanted to know how likely it was to try it again.

"That's the frustrating part; it all depends on Barnaby," the girl shook her head as they passed the floating stairs. "Sometimes, he delivers many things to the kitchens at once, and they last for a while, while other times, weeks go by without receiving anything, and we have to eat the school menu. I don't complain about the food, but what Barnaby brings is simply on another level."

"What kind of food did you try?" Hermione asked, intrigued.

"Mammoth cheese with royal jelly," the girl replied, her eyes shining. "A somewhat strong and sweet combination, just the way I like it."

"That's impossible; mammoths went extinct a long time ago," Hermione denied, very aware of the fossils she had seen in museums with her family.

"I thought the same," the girl admitted. "That's why I went and asked Barnaby."

"And what did he say?"

"He took me by the hand and personally led me to milk the mammoths," the excited Gryffindor girl revealed. "They were enormous and hairy; I almost thought the milk would be full of fur. In the end, I came out with a bucket of mammoth milk taller than me, and the kitchen elves made cheese with it. It was very satisfying."

"You milked mammoths?!" Hermione nearly fell off the stairs in shock.

"Yes, too bad I didn't take a souvenir photo. Now I only have the wheel of cheese I brought home, and it's still aging to improve the flavor," the girl's shoulders slumped with disappointment as she held onto Hermione. "Besides, it's not something I can do again in the short term."

"Why not?"

"At the end of last year, we had mammoth ribs on the barbecue with glaze," the girl replied with a tone that suggested a mix of sadness at not being able to get more cheese soon and happiness for how great they tasted when she tried them.

"That's insane!" Hermione couldn't stay still. "How could they eat them? They should have been sent to a safe habitat to recover the species!"

"Wow, calm down," the girl turned to look at her. "Barnaby assured me that there would be a possibility in the future, so you don't have to worry."

"But..."

"Just remember what the headmaster said, and everything will be fine."

The message couldn't be clearer, and Hermione remained silent for the rest of the journey.

For starters, the creatures belonged to Barnaby. If Hermione suddenly started telling him what to do with them when she didn't even know what was in his pens, she was likely to join the list of troublesome people on Hagrid's son's radar.