Harry Potter and the Rise of Hope

Chapter Eight

Within the Eggs

Harry looked up and just barely dodged Malfoy. "Out of the way Potter this is our field now!"

"Who says?"

"Professor Snape. We need to train our new chaser," he pointed over his shoulder to Zabini who was sitting calmly on his broom out of the way.

"Bugger off!" Fred shouted from down the field.

"Make me!" Harry watched as Fred dropped his club and dove for the Slytherin.

Down below, a stray Bludger sped toward Arora. Picking up Fred's dropped club she swung at it sending it up to hit Malfoy's shoulder. Fred grinned. It was apparent that he had just gotten a wicked idea. "Everybody waiting to try out, get on the field!" he called, "one point for every Slytherin you hit!"

The Slytherins however had nothing to worry about. The only Bludger that even came close was the one hit by Arora.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Remus Lupin lay on his stomach in front of the staff room fire. He was so immersed in his book that he never noticed when Evelyn Monroe (the previous year's DADA teacher, now in the Astronomy Department) walked in, sat down, and be gain grading papers. Evelyn's dark hair fell loosely over her shoulders Remus had grown his own hair long. It was now held back by a golden clip. His brown eyes were in stark contrast to her hazel.

"Remus?"

"Muhmm," he didn't even look up to see her grin.

"What would you suggest when a student's hand writing is illegible?'

"Which house?'

"Slytherin."

"Give them a zero."

"What?" did he detected a note of amusement in her voice?

"It's what Severus does to the . . ."

"What do I do Lupin?"

"I was just saying how most of the staff deal,"

"With messy hand writing." Evelyn jumped in.

"Your potion Lupin." Snape handed over a steaming goblet, and the took the offending paper, "ah Mr. Malfoy, easily legible if . . ."

"Well I'm afraid he's going to have to improve his penmanship." Remus choked on the last mouthful of his potion at the astronomy teacher's words.

"I'll just leave this with the house elves shall I." He said lifting the glass. Before he left he gave Evelyn a wolfish grin and she winked back.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Ron, Harry, and Hermione headed down to Hagrid's for their Care of Magical Creatures class. They had finished up their study of Manticors (one of them had tried to eat Fang) and Hagrid had promised a surprise for their next lesson. When they got there Hagrid was holding a shiny black egg under his arm.

"Hagrid?" Ron asked, "that's not another dragon egg is it?"

"Yup. A Peruvian Vipertooth!"

"But how?" Ron asked beginning to panic.

"Permission from the ministry and Dumbledor. Great man Dumbledor. It's fer me fourth year class!" He was beginning to feel a little sick. If Hagrid had a dragon for the fourth years, Ron thought, what would they be working on?

Hagrid set the egg inside and led the class over to a small Paddock. Inside were about twenty, perfectly round, purely white eggs.

"And what, may I ask, are we supposed to do with those? Make an over sized omelet?" the Slytherins snickered at this comment by Malfoy while Hagrid chose to ignore it.

"Now yer going ter want ter work in groups of two er three. Make a nest out of the materials over there then come an get yer egg."

Not until the end of Class did any one dare to voice the question that was eating away at their minds. "Um Hagrid?"

"Yes Hermione?"

"What exactly are in these?"

"Acromantula!" Ron nearly fainted.

~*~*~*~*~*~

After the lesson, with Ron just staring off in to silence, Hermione headed to the library. After searching several shelves, being denied access to the restricted section, and going through the books that needed to be shelved she finally found what she needed.

"Harry you'll never believe what I've found!"

"What?'

"Hush! Listen!" Hermione set the book on the table and opened it to the marked page. It was an old dust tomb, pages yellowed with age. Upon not finding any thing in the newer books, she had picked it up on the off chance that something that hadn't been read in years might hold the answer. Hermione had been right! Looking at Ron who still sat in a horrified trance, Hermione began to read:

Inhabiting the dense jungle of

Borneo, is the Acromantula. This

eight-eyed giant spider is capable

of human speech. It has several

distinctive features including thick

black hair that covers its body,

a leg span which can reach up to

fifteen feet, pinchers which produce

a distinctive clicking sound when

it is exited or angry, and a poisonous

secretion.

The Acromantula is carnivores

preferring larger pray. It spins dome

shaped webs along the ground which

it uses to catch the animals it feeds

upon.

The Acromantula female is larger

Than the male and she can lay up to

One hundred eggs at a time. The eggs

will then hatch in six to eight weeks.

Hermione stopped and Ron looked up, "well that's good then! We have over a month to convince Hagrid to put the eggs back!"

"Not necessarily." Hermione corrected, "we don't know how far along the eggs are." Ron paled.