Chapter 134. Luna and the Giant Squid
After receiving Adrian Wesson's definite refusal, Gilderoy Lockhart did not pester him further.
Leaving only, "You can take a bit more time to think it over," he departed.
Once Lockhart had gone, Rai's feathers puffed slightly, his pupils narrowing to slits as he fixed a hard stare on Lockhart's receding back.
Adrian gently smoothed the Thunderbird's tense neck-feathers. Plainly, it sensed the same thing he did—the malice buried deep in Lockhart's heart.
Before a Thunderbird's keen perception, any shadowed intent had nowhere to hide.
It seemed he would have to be even more careful around Lockhart from now on.
Soon, the students arrived, and today's Care of Magical Creatures class went ahead as planned.
Just as Adrian had prepared, the lesson was to use Nifflers to help find the assorted coins he had hidden nearby.
However, even with Nifflers assisting, finding those coins proved rather difficult.
Most of the Nifflers were not inclined to cooperate with the students.
For a while, the scene was absolute chaos.
These greedy little creatures not only refused to help, they even made off with several students' silver Sickles.
In the end, only half the class managed to find any coins.
Among them, Hufflepuff's Cedric Diggory had the good fortune to find a Galleon.
At first Cedric assumed it was Leprechaun gold, but when it had not vanished after several hours,
he realised it was a real Galleon.
Their Care of Magical Creatures professor was generous indeed!
After class, Adrian set about dealing with the mess the students had left—in their search for coins, the clearing by the Black Lake had been utterly torn up.
The Nifflers had pocked the ground with holes and even blasted through several stones larger than a person's head.
Fortunately, with the Mending Charm, restoring the place to its former state would not take much effort from Adrian.
"Reparo, Reparo, Reparo…
"
Adrian stopped mid–wand-swing because he had spotted a familiar figure.
It was Luna Lovegood. She wore a slightly oversized Ravenclaw robe, a necklace strung with butterbeer corks around her neck, radish-shaped earrings in her ears, and her wand tucked behind one ear as she came skipping towards Adrian.
"Good afternoon, Professor!"
Luna paused before Adrian to greet him, then went right on skipping towards the Black Lake.
"Luna, please wait a moment," Adrian called, giving his wand a final light flick to restore the last patch of grass.
"What is it?" Luna turned back, her voice airy as ever.
"You seem to be in a bit of a hurry. Off to do something?" Adrian pocketed his wand, curious.
"Oh, I'm going to show this to the Giant Squid." Luna turned, lightly raising the copy of The Quibbler in her hands. "There's a report in the latest issue about the Crumple-Horned Snorkack under the water. I think he'll be interested."
Underwater bent-horn beast? That sounded even less plausible than a water monkey.
Adrian blinked, and Rai, perched on his shoulder, tilted his head in tandem.
The Giant Squid was an enormous squid, tamed to live in the Black Lake at Hogwarts; on sunny days he would swim into the shallows so students could scratch the itch on his tentacles.
"I rather think the Giant Squid probably can't read," Adrian reminded her.
"That's all right—" Luna gave a slight shake of her head. "I'll read it to him. Goodbye."
With that, Luna continued along the path to the lake's shallows.
Seeing this, Adrian felt a touch of concern, so he followed Luna to the shallows.
Sure enough, the Giant Squid was there basking, several thick arms lazily slapping the surface of the water.
Luna didn't remove her shoes; she waded straight in, carrying The Quibbler to stand before the Giant Squid.
"Good afternoon, Mr Squid," Luna greeted in her characteristically floaty tone.
Then she stood there and opened The Quibbler, reading its contents out loud, word by word.
Watching this, Adrian couldn't help tilting his head; he truly could not follow Luna's train of thought.
As for the Giant Squid, he looked very much as though he did not wish to humour Luna.
Adrian stood to one side, watching the scene with interest.
A few minutes later, Luna's reading abruptly halted—not because she had finished the article, but because a sudden splash had doused The Quibbler, soaking a large portion of its pages at once.
"What a pity," Luna said, seemingly not angry in the least—only regretful. "Looks like we'll have to try another time."
Then she turned and at last noticed Adrian quietly watching nearby.
She immediately bounced over to him.
Adrian smiled faintly and waved his wand; a charm circled Luna once, and the moisture on her robe and magazine evaporated in an instant.
"Thank you, Professor Wesson." Luna glanced down at the magazine in her hands—already good as new—then looked up at Adrian and said, "Do you need my help, Professor?"
Adrian was a little taken aback. "How did you know?"
"The Nargles," Luna pointed at Adrian's ear. "Lots of them there—they told me."
Adrian touched his ear on reflex. Clearly, there was nothing there.
Still, whether or not those Nargles truly existed, Luna was right: he did, in fact, have something he needed her help with.
"I'd be very happy to help you, Professor," Luna said, hugging the magazine. "If it's something I can help with."
Though he had no idea how Luna had guessed, Adrian nodded. "Excellent, Luna."
Adrian led Luna all the way back to his office.
There was only one matter for which he needed Luna's help: the "sprite" upon him.
He needed Luna to observe the relationship between the "sprite" and those mutated plants.
Upon entering the office, Luna's attention was immediately drawn to the Devil's Snare vines snaking out of the suitcase.
She had already seen Devil's Snare during the summer, so she was not surprised.
Luna stroked the tendril that had reached towards her; it gently curled around her finger and nuzzled her palm.
Adrian noticed the light in Luna's eyes.
It seemed she was very fond of Devil's Snare.
"Ordinarily, we ought to have a cup of tea first," Adrian said, glancing out the window—the glow of sunset was fading, and dusk was beginning to veil the castle of Hogwarts. "But we're pressed for time."
"That's all right."
Adrian nodded, then went to the suitcase. The Devil's Snare obligingly flowed out and settled itself upon him.
Then Adrian lifted the suitcase and tossed it into the air.
A few seconds later, a door materialised in the middle of the office.
"Come with me, Luna."
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