Creatures Great and Small

Creatures Great and Small
by Andrea13 and Persephone
Chapter 4

Tom sighed resignedly when he unfolded the note at breakfast. Looking over at the Gryffindor table, he traded a look with Rubeus, holding the same note in his over-sized hand. "What's that you've got there, Tom?" one of his yearmates asked.

"Detention notice," he replied glumly. "Tonight, at dinner."

Everyone in earshot blinked. "YOU got detention?"

Tom coughed slightly and took a sip of pumpkin juice. "Visiting Rubeus last night. Dumbledore caught us."

"Gryffindors. I'd've thought you'd be more careful, but maybe with him...."

Tom eyed the speaker, who raised a defensive hand. "Don't give me that look! I just meant with two people, twice as much noise, eh?"

Tom wasn't so sure about that, but he just shrugged and let it go. "Just a bit of bad luck. At least Dumbledore can't give me anything TOO bad just because I'm a Slytherin, not with Rubeus sharing it with me. I wonder what he'll have us do..."

"It's Dumbledore. It will," their supposedly budding Seer predicted almost gravely, "be really, really strange."

"Too true." Tom sighed and poked despondently at the note. "I'll live. I think."

"Don't look so glum. I know it destroys your perfect record, but one detention's not the end of the world," Gerald said comfortingly through a mouthful of toast. "I should know, I've had enough."

"Hmph. Slytherins aren't supposed to get caught."

"Sometimes it's worth it."

"Uh-huh. We'll blame you if we lose the Cup, then."

"Please, who are we going to lose to? Gryffindor?"

"There's no point taking unnecessary risks." Which, Tom supposed, probably sounded rather hypocritical of him, but he was saved from further discussion by the necessity of hurrying to class.

A particularly complicated Potion occupied most of his attention for the rest of the morning, but Dumbledore's detention kept springing to his mind. WHAT did the old man have in mind for him? Dumbledore was notoriously fair, but Heads of Houses always favored their own students a LITTLE. And a detention Rubeus would not find too taxing could be death-defying for HIM.
Tom would never admit to the butterflies that flew around in his stomach when he met up with his brother outside of Dumbledore's office that evening. They'd been permitted to eat quickly themselves, but the rest of the school was still gathered in the Hall. Tom glumly wished he could be with them, then took a deep breath and knocked.

The door popped open with Dumbledore on the other side of it. "Ah, there you are. Come in for a moment, and then we'll be off. Lemon drop?"

Tom blinked. "Ah...thank you, sir." There was something deeply disturbing about being offered candy upon arriving for detention. "Does he always do this?" he hissed quietly to Rubeus when Dumbledore turned around.

"Do what?"

"Offer sweets when you're supposed to be being punished?"

"Oh. Well, most other times, too," Rubeus whispered back. "Anyway, we haven't got to the detention yet."

Tom decided in that moment, fervently and definitely, that Gryffindors were WEIRD.

Dumbledore smiled at both of them in a vaguely amused and slightly paternal way as they seated themselves in chairs across from his desk, Tom gingerly and Rubeus with the air of long-familiarity. Tom had to physically restrain himself from going to investigate some of the interesting-looking gadgets scattered around the room. "Well, boys, since you mentioned to me last night that you don't often get the opportunity to see each other outside of meals, I thought I would give you the chance today. You'll therefore be serving your detentions together. In fact, we all will." Dumbledore's expression suggested this would be a great treat.

Tom wondered anew just what would be so interesting for Rubeus and presumably horrible though hopefully non-fatal to HIM.

"What'll we be doin', Sir?" Rubeus asked, apparently taking this to be a sort of cue.

"We will be... cleaning." Dumbledore announced this with an air of great enjoyment. "Due to the uses to which the area in question has been devoted, the elves and the caretaker were requested to let it alone, and the request was never rescinded, so I'm afraid it's a bit of a mess at the moment."

"And which area would that be, sir?" Tom asked politely, wracking his brain for what "uses" would prevent house elves and Pringle from cleaning an area....

Dumbledore simply smiled, his eyes twinkling, stood, and said, "Follow me."

They did. For what seemed like an absurdly long time. Tom concluded after two staircases up, three down, and one that changed direction until he was ready to swear they were following a sideways spiral tunnel, that whoever had arranged this location apparently shared Dumbledore's sense of humor. Perhaps this was the Gryffindor equivalent to the Chamber, though in that case it seemed absurd to take him there. (Even if he had taken Rubeus.) Perhaps it was....

...coated in ashes and unidentifiable gunk and the smell of fire.

"This definitely needs cleaning," Tom muttered, wondering why in Merlin's name this had been left for so long. He tried to breathe just through his mouth. "Er... where do we start?"

"Hmm... I'd advise with the floor. It may require a quick going-over at the end as well, but it's preferable not to stick to it."

"Right...." Tom pulled out his wand and started trying to think of a good scouring spell.
Rubeus eyed the ash-covered floor and half-raised his hand in the air. "Professor? Where ARE we?"

"The castle furnaces, Mr. Hagrid. Well, some of them."

Rubeus crouched down and studied the ashes and the odd dark-red residue in which some were embedded. "Has there been a dragon in here, Professor?"

"If anyone has been raising a dragon in this castle, it has been without my knowledge," Dumbledore replied, drawing a chair in mid-air that solidified as he sat down. "There was, however, a rather nasty incursion of Ashwinders. We managed to track down all of the eggs, but only after a number of them had already ignited."

Tom looked up sharply. Ashwinder eggs that actually got to the point of ignition didn't always lead to another Ashwinder, but they could, and when they did the new one was more likely to be able to bide its time....

He bit his tongue before he could try to call to them. If Dumbledore and (presumably) the other professors had been over this room looking for eggs, they'd presumably looked over it with a fine-toothed comb. Any remaining snakes would be well-hidden, he imagined. Tom muttered a spell under his breath, ashes starting to rise in the air and shift, making a private resolution to find his way back here and check, just in case.

Some of the stuck-down ones refused to move until he added a second cleaning charm, whereupon the dark red gunk, to his shock, ignited. Rather surprisingly, it burned down before he could extinguish it and left what appeared to be a nice, shiny, clean spot of dark blue on the floor.

"Heh. Maybe we should burn it all away," he grinned, kneeling down to poke at the oddly-colored floor. He nearly fell over when he spotted figures moving beneath.

Rubeus came over to look while Tom was still staring. "What's -- oh." He raised a thunderstruck face to Dumbledore. "Sir? The furnaces are over the _Great Hall_?"

"You never realized?"

That, Tom thought, was hardly fair. Why _should_ they have realized? But Rubeus was gazing, not through the floor, but at it, with an enraptured expression. "Never thought about what the spells'd look like from the back...."

"It's really a quite interesting enchantment, isn't it? I'll be happy when it's cleaned off again. This is a fascinating place to sit and think."

And, what, pretend you were sitting above the sky? Or possibly upside down? Tom wondered if the ceiling was as translucent from below as above... after all, if it had always been covered with ashes, or empty, they wouldn't have been able to see much....

...Which meant all his classmates down there at the Slytherin table could see him right now.

As well as the rest of the school -- including those goody-good Gryffindors, probably having a good laugh at Slytherin's finest on his knees doing the scrubbing. Tom scrambled to his feet quickly and repeated his spell to clear the ashes, wondering if an accidental misfire causing the room to be filled with smoke would obscure things from below....

"You really might want to be more careful," Dumbledore said mildly. "The room has been used for alchemy."

Rubeus looked at his wand and swallowed hard. "Maybe I should... do it by hand. Don't want ter mess it up."

"You won't, little brother," Tom reassured him. He stepped over to tap Rubeus' wand up into the proper position. "You've seen me, go on. You can do it."

"I don' know...."

"Now, if only you spent your available time together practicing charms rather than wandering around the castle at night," Dumbledore remarked brightly. "Really, I'm almost surprised neither of you showed signs of leaves."

"Er... leaves, sir?" Tom asked in confusion.

"Well, I have reason to believe that most of the times your brother has been out after hours, it has been in the Forbidden Forest in search of 'interesting creatures,' as he terms them. In this case, of course, any such creature would have had to be within the castle...."

Tom nearly stopped breathing.

"Mr. Hagrid, you haven't been raising a dragon within the walls, have you?"

"No, Sir!" Rubeus said stoutly. "That's not to say I wouldn' like one, though...."

"Rubeus, shut UP," Tom hissed.

Rubeus looked hurt. "Well, I would. Wouldn't raise it here though, o' course. Got too many classes and things ter be feedin' it every half hour like yer supposed to."

"I'm very glad to know you're aware of the responsibilities involved," Dumbledore said, sounding rather amused.

"If yeh're going ta take care of a creature, yeh do it right. They're dependent on you. Dad wouldn't have let me have any pets if I didn' treat 'em right." Rubeus jutted his chin out stubbornly and for a brief moment -- despite wild differences in parentage, size, and just about everything else -- looked remarkably like Tom Riddle.

"An excellent attitude, though given your taste in pets I'd add ensuring that they're prevented from injuring anyone else."

"Well, that's part of treatin' 'em right, isn' it? Teach 'em not ter hurt anybody, least as much as they can understand it."

"A very mature sentiment," Dumbledore applauded, then raised an eyebrow at Tom. "You're being remarkably silent, Mr. Riddle. Don't you agree?"

Tom swallowed. This was starting to get uncomfortably close to topics he'd rather avoid. "Ah, I don't exactly share Rubeus' taste in pets, so I don't really have a chance to exercise it in practice, but I agree in theory."

"Well, I suppose that's fair enough, as it appears he accumulates enough of them for nearly any other two boys I can think of on his own. Might I ask what type of pet you would prefer yourself?" The tone was entirely one of good-humored, polite interest.

Tom pulled out the charming smile that had never failed him on anyone, male or female. "I'm a Slytherin, sir. I'd prefer a snake, of course."

"Well, it did still seem a fair question. While I will note a certain prevalence of cats, I don't believe I've spotted any genuine lions in the dormitories."

"Really, sir, I know this is meant to be punishment, but it's a little much to compare me to Gryffindors!"

To his surprise, Dumbledore laughed. "House pride is always a good thing, Mr. Riddle. And certainly none could doubt yours." His amused gaze flicked to Rubeus.

Tom coughed, blushed, and applied himself to the ashes again.

"Peppermint?" Dumbledore offered.

There he went with the sweets again! Maybe he'd incorporated some sort of potion.... "Er... thank you." Tom took a peppermint, wondering if it would be cowardly to watch Rubeus for effects first. Probably. He shrugged and ate it.

Rubeus was still on his knees, clearing off more of the ashes by hand and scrubbing the clear spot. "Sir, can they see us down there?"

"Have you ever seen anyone up here during meals?"

"Well, no sir, but there's ash everywhere.... Er, I suppose that would make it look overcast, wouldn't it?"

"Most likely."

Rubeus realized that Dumbledore had not really answered him and didn't seem very likely to. He sighed softly (for him; a minor gale for anyone else) and waved his wand in the air again. Unfortunately, he inhaled ashes just as he tried to speak the charm, and ended up igniting half the room instead.

Tom yelped an extinguishing charm at the same time Dumbledore said it (significantly more calmly), then knelt and quickly scooped up an ash-gray ripple at his feet that turned out unexpectedly to be nearly as long as Rubeus was tall. It eyed him annoyedly. The Ashwinder flicked out its tongue at Tom's nose and hissed in annoyance. "Is it not enough that you had to come tromping in here and wake me up? Did you have to stop it when it was finally getting warm again?"

"Erm, sorry. It's just that we're all in the room too, and we don't deal as well with getting burned as you do. I'm sorry we disturbed you."

"Well, I see you found a serpent after all," Dumbledore said mildly.

Rubeus, having stopped coughing, came over rather sheepishly to see it, careful not to tread on its tail. "Sorry 'bout that, Tom. How'd you even spot him in all this? Pretty fellow."

"He was the only ash that moved," Tom pointed out dryly. "I wasn't actually trying to find one, Professor, but..."

"Well, he does seem to have been nearly on top of your toes."

"Yes. Hmm." Tom hefted the serpent in the air and wondered what he was supposed to do now. Rubeus had more experience asking for pets, and "Can I keep him?" seemed awfully juvenile. Not to mention he'd have to do something about the possibility of eggs so he didn't burn the castle down.... Or however much was flammable.... Well, and he should probably ask it what it thought....

"Tom," Rubeus asked worriedly and in a low voice, "don' they live for only an hour once they've had an egg?"

"He's still pretty warm. I don't think he would've laid eggs yet. Er, it, I mean," Tom corrected himself, since Ashwinders were, after all, asexual. "She" might be more accurate since they were all capable of laying eggs, but "it" was the accepted term. "There's a pretty easy way to tell."

He looked back at the snake, which was squirming a remarkably little amount and hissed at it, "Hello. I'm sorry for grabbing you like this; I just didn't want my brother to step on you while we're cleaning."

"Well, fine. Stop dangling me, though, will you?"

Tom, though somewhat uncomfortably aware of Dumbledore's interested observation, wrapped it up around his arm. "Is that better?"

"Much."

"Good. Ah...I'm not sure if you're really aware of where you are, but this is a human school for magic. We're cleaning this room out, so it won't be safe for you here anymore. I... was thinking you could come stay with me, if you liked. I have a room here, with a very nice fireplace."

"That does sound nice... This one's going to be cold from now on, I suppose?"

"A lot cooler, at least, with all the ashes cleared away. Um...this is probably an awkward question, but...have you laid your eggs yet? I know your kind doesn't, um, live very long after that."

The snake sighed. "No... haven't got around to that yet."

"Ah. Well, if you want to...live longer, I can do a spell to delay that, you know. I think you'd be fun to keep around. My House symbol's a serpent, so you'll get loads of attention. And treats, if you want them," Tom added with a grin.

"I bet Tom could keep it from dying or setting the dormitory on fire," Rubeus was telling Dumbledore with obvious pride. "Yeh wouldn' mind his keepin' it with him, would yeh?"

Dumbledore arched an eyebrow and sounded rather amused as he replied, "I should think he'd need to consult his own Head of House on that score; I've no objection -- and there is indeed an appropriate charm -- but neither do I have direct authority over the Slytherin dorms. Of course, perhaps what you really want to ask is whether I'd permit it to visit?"

Rubeus looked at his feet, kicking some ash back and forth, perhaps in hopes of spotting another Ashwinder. It wasn't fair Tom got all the interesting creatures lately. First Sharessa, now this! "Well, sir, I'd like that..."

"With correct precautions, I would have no objection. I'm rather surprised if Mr. Riddle hasn't shared living quarters with serpents before. Literal ones, that is," he added lightly before a comment about Slytherins could be made.

"Great, sir!" Rubeus exclaimed with a happy grin stretched across his broad face.

Tom looked up from his conversation with the Ashwinder and said politely, "I hope you don't think I'm trying to shirk my detention, Professor. It's agreed to come stay with me, but I told it to stay quietly out of the way until we're finished. I'm sorry." He leaned down and let the snake slither off his arm. It crossed the room to coil up beside Dumbledore.

Dumbledore ran a hand over the Ashwinder's back, apparently delighting it greatly, and waved the other one. "I consider dealing with Ashwinders to be a legitimate aspect of cleaning the area. I must confess, though, given how easily you've befriended this one and your household's obvious hospitality toward various creatures, it seems rather strange to me that you say you haven't really kept pets before, even serpents?"

"Rubeus always kept pets enough for both of us at home, sir," Tom answered with a grin, looking over at his brother. "I got out of the habit of thinking about it. A few of the other Slytherins have had snakes, though, and I got to talk to them. Mostly I was busy with schoolwork."

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled in answering humor. "I must admit to being pleased you didn't attempt to put last night's escapade off on your brother's penchant for wandering in search of such pets. I'm afraid I've been given flimsier excuses."

Tom straightened, his eyes narrowed. "A Slytherin doesn't hide behind someone else for his actions." He smiled a bit and added, "We just try not to get caught in the first place."

"Well, as you didn't succeed in that particular effort this time... I think you'd best return to your work."

Tom grinned and Rubeus ducked his head. Both dutifully replied, "Yes, sir," brandished their wands again, and began sweeping up the ashes. Dumbledore watched them with an amused smile and a penetrating stare, absently scratching the Ashwinder's head.

*****

"See there? That wasn' so bad, and he's real nice." Rubeus, it seemed, was not especially distressed by the detention and considered the Ashwinder to more than compensate for any disadvantages to the situation. "He even taught yeh a better charm for keepin' it safe."

"Whatever you say, Rubeus," Tom murmured, scritching his new pet's head. It was currently twined all around his arm and looked perfectly content at the new arrangements. As for Tom himself, he still wouldn't consider an evening spent with Dumbledore gently interrogating him pleasant, but it could have been worse. Rubeus didn't seem to realize the old man had been pushing for information on what they'd been doing out of bed, but he hadn't let anything slip, either.

"Yeh'll let it come visit me, won't yeh, Tom?" Rubeus asked eagerly. "An' yeh've gotta name it. All pets need a good name."

"It already has a name of its own, you know."

"Well, what is it?"

In reply, Tom hissed something very long and involved in Parseltongue.

Rubeus blinked at him. "That's a name?"

"Snake names are very complex. But in English, it would be..." Tom frowned in consideration for a moment, then pronounced, "Fido."

Rubeus stared at him, then laughed. "All right. Fido it is then, and --" He broke off as they nearly walked into a small cluster of Gryffindors. "Hi!"

"Hi Rubeus!"

Tom fought back a sigh. Weasley. Grand. Just who Tom wanted to see. And...the MacMillan girl, plus another boy and girl he didn't recognize. Still, they were his brother's friends. He managed a friendly enough though slightly cool, "Hello."

"Here, look what Tom's found! Professor Dumbledore had us cleanin' a furnace room for detention, an' there was an Ashwinder!"

One Gryffindor took a step back. Weasley appeared not to be doing so solely out of pride. The MacMillan girl clapped a hand to her cheek. "Rubeus! You're being enthusiastic about something nonvenomous! Are you all right?" She went as if to jump up and feel his forehead.

Tom smiled and said mildly, "Well, he doesn't always go for venomous creatures. Sometimes they just have fangs." With a perverse (some would say Slytherin) sense of humor, he stepped forward and held his snake-bedecked arm out towards Weasley. "Don't you want to pet him?"

Weasley rather reluctantly lifted his hand toward the Ashwinder -- and then there was a loud but unintelligible hiss and he suddenly moved much faster to catch a tiny ball-of-fur kitten that had just emerged from the back of the neck of his robes and flown at the Ashwinder's head. "Gah! Hold still you little -- Er, maybe another time, Riddle -- Turtle, hold still! -- And by the way the name is entirely my kid brother's fault."

Tom took a half-step back of his own and hissed something to Fido. "Can't you control your pets any better than that, Weasley?"

Rubeus, he noted, was shaking his head in deep disappointment over his friend's pet's lack of serious fangs, claws, or venom, though he DID brighten when it sank its tiny teeth into Weasley's hand.

"Well, he was fine until we ran into you." Weasley extracted his thumb and stuck it briefly in his own mouth, then removed it, got the kitten settled firmly in the palm of one hand, and scratched the top of its head.

Rubeus frowned at both of them. "Be nice, now. Wasn't any harm done either way."

"Hmph. Remind me to keep Fido away from Gryffindor pets. They're decidedly ill-mannered." Tom scratched his own pet's chin as it flicked its tongue out at him.

"I didn't think we were allowed to have Ashwinders," the MacMillan girl spoke up, more fearless than her companions in the presence of snakes. A good trait, Tom thought warmly. "They can cause a lot of damage, can't they?"

"Only if you let them lay their eggs somewhere that can catch fire. Don't worry, Fido's charmed safe."

"Brilliant. Can I pet it?" She stopped and blinked. "Wait. Fido?"

"Of course. Be gentle, though. It's not used to being around people." Tom smiled ruefully. "Fido's the best English translation I can manage of its real name."

She offered the back of her hand first, fingers curled under, as if greeting a strange dog that might theoretically try a nibble, and waited until the forked tongue had flicked at her before trailing fingers along the back of its head. "Must be convenient to be able to ask what it wants to be called. I had to guess until my cat started answering."

"It's handy," Tom admitted. "It's also nice to explain why I'm taking it away from where it's lived all its life, and which parts of the castle it can't go to. And snakes are very intelligent."

"Hmm." She started to take her hand away, then started laughing when Fido bumped it determinedly with its head. "And a bit demanding? There's a familiar trick."

There was a "Mwrrl?" from around her ankles as what was presumably the aforementioned cat wandered up to them. Tom glanced down; it was a small, tawny short-fur and looked for all the world like a miniature lioness.

"What is this, wander around with your pets day?" Tom wondered aloud. "I thought they were generally supposed to remain in your dormitories." He gave his best "don't make me take points away" prefects stare.

MacMillan shrugged. "I see toads in class all the time. Leona's very well behaved -- but I suspect her of being able to walk through walls."

"Just what we need. I thought Dumbledore said there weren't any lions as Gryffindor pets."

She laughed and crouched down to pick up Leona, then came back up and started petting Fido again before it could do more than look for her. Leona looked intrigued. "Wellll, in name only...."

"What were you doing talking to Professor Dumbledore anyway?" the boy whose name Tom couldn't remember asked, a bit hostilely. "I thought Slytherins didn't like him."

Tom prudently resisted the urge to say that he didn't.

"Eh, we had detention for bein' out... talkin' to each other after curfew," Rubeus said easily.

"You got detention, Riddle? Thought you were a teacher's pet."

Tom arched one black eyebrow. "We both got detention, as Rubeus just said. It was quite worth it to get Fido out of the deal. Not that it's any business of yours."

He tensed as Leona started walking down the MacMillan girl's arm to investigate Fido. Her mistress didn't look alarmed, but he wasn't certain how reassuring that was; she WAS a Gryffindor.... Then again Fido didn't seem terribly alarmed either. Leona reached out a velveted paw to pat the Ashwinder on the head. Fido's tongue snaked out to flick at the cat, which looked almost amused. Tom shook his head. "Now that's unnatural."

"I dunno, Tom. I think lions and snakes should get along more often," Rubeus told him with a grin.

Moira MacMillan snickered. "See, not all Gryffindor pets are ill-mannered. Turtle's just a baby anyway; he doesn't know better. He was locked in mortal combat with a bedpost earlier, I understand."

Tom politely kept his opinions about Gryffindors to himself, in consideration for his brother standing there. "All the same, I think I'll keep Fido away from him. Although why Weasley's brother named him 'Turtle' is beyond me."

"He's four. It's beyond everybody."

Leona climbed carefully over Fido and settled in the crook of Tom's arm next to the Ashwinder, purring loudly. Tom looked slightly disconcerted at this, making MacMillan giggle behind her hand. "So Rubeus, will you be bringing Fido to visit us in Gryffindor? It looks like Leona would miss it."

"I'm hopin' Tom will let me, yes." Rubeus grinned broadly.

"Hmm. Maybe. As long as you promise to keep Turtle away from it." Tom scratched Leona lightly under her chin and hissed something to Fido.

"I'm sure we can manage," MacMillan said.

"What'd you say to it?" Rubeus asked with interest.

"I asked if it'd mind visiting you and Leona. It said okay, as long as you have a nice fireplace."

"Well, I don' know for sure about Ashwinders, but the salamanders seem to've liked 'em all right."

Tom hissed at the snake again. This time it hissed back for a while. Tom listened intently, then started laughing. "Ah, it says that sounds nice."

Rubeus gave him a deeply suspicious look. "What else did it say?"

"Just that it'll be nice to be around people with gentle hands, even if some of them smell afraid for no reason."

Some of the Gryffindors looked insulted. MacMillan chuckled and shook her head. "Well, considering it looks like it's as long as Rubeus here, it's good to know there isn't reason!"

"It's a perfectly innocent Ashwinder. They're not even venomous," Tom replied, starting to realize how Rubeus felt about his strange pets.

"It's real nice, too," Rubeus added."

"What do Ashwinders eat, anyway? Or do they? All anything ever says about them is that they come out of magical fires and their eggs set new ones, and then there's usually a reference to a Potions text. Nothing about in between."

"Well, usually they lay their eggs pretty quickly, so they don't live very long. But I put a charm on Fido so it won't lay eggs. They don't need to eat. They get all the energy they need out of fires. That's why they stay near the fireplaces all the time," Tom explained, still scratching Leona. Fido had uncoiled a bit from his arms to put its head nearer to MacMillan, swaying a bit to attract her attention.

MacMillan apologized to the Ashwinder and dutifully went back to petting it. "Well, that does make sense. Had I better let you get it back to one, though? You were walking pretty quickly...."

Tom blinked as Fido commenced a snake version of purring. It apparently really liked this girl. "Probably. We've just been up in the furnaces, though, so it's not like it's starving. It was looking forward to getting pampered by the Slytherins, but you appear to be taking care of that pretty well."

She grinned. "And Leona seems to have decided to adopt you. I wonder if I should feel deserted?"

"I'll never be able to show my face in the Slytherin dorms again if I show up with a miniature lion," Tom said easily, passing Leona back to her owner with a parting scritch. "But I'll be sure to save some fish for her when I can."

"That's nice of you. I'll look forward to seeing Fido again, too." The Ashwinder arched under a final stroke before the Gryffindors (except, of course, Rubeus) moved past and went on toward their own dorm.

Rubeus was grinning at him. "What?" Tom asked as Fido redraped itself more comfortably across Tom's shoulders.

"Congratulations."

"For what?"

"Th' first civilized conversation I've seen yeh have with Gryffindors this year. Besides me, o'course."

Tom snorted. "Well... the MacMillan girl does seem to have good taste. Except for the miniature lion, of course."

"Yeh didn' seem to mind the miniature lion that much, or didn' yeh notice the way yeh were petting her?"

"It seemed only polite."

"Uh-huh." Rubeus grinned at him. "And you're always so polite ter Gryffindors."

"You'll notice only the one of them, besides you, was all that polite to Fido," Tom pointed out. "Though she _did_ get it purring."

"Most folks don' understand interestin' creatures. They've all got boring pets."

"Well, that 'Turtle' was certainly excited enough itself." Tom glared over his shoulder, though the Gryffindors were out of sight by now. "Stupid little fluff-ball."

Rubeus rolled his eyes. "Don' know why Xavier likes it so much. It's silly. Yeh just don' like it because it tried ter attack Fido, though."

"That's a perfectly legitimate reason!"

"It's only a baby an' acted on instinct." Rubeus paused. "Stupid instinct, since most other snakes that size'd probably take it for a mouse an' have lunch, I'd think, but Xavier did catch it an' there wasn' any harm done on either side."

"This is why I don't like cats." Tom scratched Fido's head, which was draped on his shoulder. "And I think I'd better get Fido to a nice fire."

"Leona didn' pounce," Rubeus pointed out.

"Leona," Tom said with dignity, starting off again towards his dorms, "is clearly a poor snake transfigured into a cat's body."

*****