บท 180: Three, two, one... Blast Off!
Tracey was justifiably angry for having been punched for no apparent reason, but at the very least, Oleandra had learned what the spell inscribed on the rusty sword named Retaliator did: it countered any attack with ten times as much force with the same type of attack. Which was pretty obvious in retrospect, but then again, Percy had also said that the sword had many other titles, none of which had anything to do with counterattacks.
Having been poked with one finger had counted as an attack, causing Oleandra's body to automatically strike back after enduring the 'attack.' The only problem with this retaliation spell was that it froze one's body until the attack arrived, which was probably why it required one to be holding a weapon to act as a target for the magic. Since Oleandra was unarmed, the magic had acted upon her body, freezing her instead!
Here was how Oleandra imagined the magic was supposed to be used: when you were targeted with a spell or weapon strike, you activated the runes on your weapon, and it would absorb and spit back the attack with ten times the potency. If it was a bluff, or a miss, and no attack came, you were still free to cancel the magic yourself and regain control of your weapon!
Unfortunately, Oleandra didn't have any sort of magical weapon except her wand, and she didn't want to risk the delicate instrument breaking in case her magic failed to protect it against the attack it was supposed to counter!
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After this unfortunate, let's say, accident, Tracey refused to speak to Oleandra; this was going to be a long day, as Oleandra shared all of her classes with her. Speaking of classes, Care for Magical Creatures with Professor Hagrid was next. But as she headed down to the grounds where the teacher's solitary wooden cabin was located, Cloak the Lethifold suddenly began to show some signs of discomfort.
"What's the matter, Cloaky?" Oleandra whispered into her clothes after a cursory glance to check if people were looking at her.
The Lethifold itself wasn't too certain about why it felt uneasy. Oleandra gulped; what on earth did Professor Hagrid have in store for them this year? Whatever it was, it had spooked even a Lethifold, so it couldn't be good.
"…Blast-Ended Skrewts!" Oleandra heard Professor Hagrid shout.
When Oleandra and the rest of the Slytherins taking the class walked down the steep slope down from the castle, they found that all of the Gryffindors were already there. But the Gryffindors and Professor Hagrid weren't exactly alone: there was also a great number of wooden crates filled with swarming, grey, things.
"On'y jus' hatched," said Professor Hagrid proudly, "so yeh'll be able ter raise 'em yerselves! Thought we'd make a bit of a project of it!"
"And why would we want to raise them?" said Draco derisively.
Oleandra approached one of the crates to get a better look; they were filled with small creatures that looked a lot like shell-less lobsters, who were so pale that they wouldn't have looked out of place as a specimen of some arthropod in a jar of formalin. Every so often, one of the creatures' behinds (or was it front?) would explode violently, propelling the creature a foot or so forward.
"I mean, what do they do?" asked Draco. "What is the point of them?"
Apparently, Hagrid didn't know the answer to this question either, as he took a few seconds to fail to find an answer, before finally deflecting the question.
"Tha's next lesson, Malfoy. Yer jus' feedin' 'em today. Now, yeh'll wan' ter try 'em on a few diff 'rent things— I've never had 'em before, not sure what they'll go fer— I got ant eggs an' frog livers an' a bit o' grass snake— just try 'em out with a bit of each."
Oleandra rolled her eyes; of course, Professor Hagrid didn't know the answer: it was because there wasn't one! Or if there was one, it hadn't been discovered yet! She suspected that such a creature had never existed in this world before, for two reasons: firstly, these creatures were extremely weird, even for the Wizarding World's standard and secondly…
Last year, she had discovered that Professor Hagrid was experimenting with cross-breeding creatures. Doing such things wasn't exactly breaking ground for Wizards; after all, they had been breeding hybrids such as Manticores, Hippogriffs, Griffins, Sphynxes and Basilisks for millennia. However, due to the danger such creatures posed, it was also highly illegal to undergo such experiments. There wasn't a ban on experimental breeding for no reason, after all!
"Cloak, is this what you were worried about?" Oleandra discreetly whispered into her clothes.
No, was the answer that came back.
Whatever had spooked the Lethifold, it wasn't out here; it was inside Hagrid's cabin. Oleandra resolved to discuss the matter with Professor Hagrid after class.
"Ouch!" yelled a Gryffindor student angrily. "Its end exploded!"
"Ah, yeah, that can happen when they blast off," said Hagrid with an understanding nod.
Oleandra gingerly grabbed some frog liver as instructed and dangled it above the small greyish creatures tantalisingly. After a while, she began to feel stupid; did these things even have mouths? How were they supposed to eat?
"Eurgh!" said Lavender Brown. "Eurgh, Hagrid, what's that pointy thing on it?"
Hagrid explained that (presumably), the males had stingers, while the females had suckers. Well, that was one mystery solved, the females drank blood like mosquitoes. But how did the males eat?
"Well, I can certainly see why we're trying to keep them alive," said Draco sarcastically. "Who wouldn't want pets that can burn, sting, and bite all at once?"
"Professor Hagrid," Oleandra began. "Are we certain these Skrewts can actually eat?"
"Ah, Oleandra!" Professor Hagrid beamed. His students were either too close to him or didn't respect him enough to call him by his job title, 'Professor.' Now, Hagrid didn't really care if his students didn't use the proper title for him, but Oleandra was about the only person who ever called him Professor Hagrid, so it made him feel a little proud inside whenever he heard these magic words!
"O' course they do!" he said confidently. "E'rythin' needs ter ea', don' they?"
Oleandra felt it was completely pointless to ask any further questions, so she kept her mouth shut for the rest of the class.
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