 catch up, Derf and other mentions Gryffindor for life Notorious Niffler
Did she mention how much she loved nifflers? Emmeline would prefer to stay out in the forest with this little guy forever for the rest of the day, but sadly, Gemma was getting kind of restless. It just wasn't fair for the first year to expect the Granian to hang around here forever. With a SUPER regretful sigh, Emmeline deposited the niffler back on the ground. She pulled a small, golden band (not real gold) that had a nice shine to it out of the plain sack she was holding. As she looked sadly down at the niffler, she asked: "You wanna go get this, buddy? I hope to see you again someday." And with that, the Gryffindor threw the ring as far as she could so that the niffler could chase it if he wanted to. Then it was time to go back over to Gemma.
"Hi Gemma, ready to go home?", she asked the horse quietly as she approached the Granian at a steady pace. Gemma pushed her nose into Emmeline's hand again when she raised it to pet the horse, and the first year took that for assent. She trailed her hand down Gemma's neck as she carefully mounted the horse, watching out for her beautiful wings. "Okay, let's go!"
Gemma didn't waste any time in taking off and soaring over the forest and back into the pen behind the barn. Emmeline loved every minute of this, and she hoped that Professor Wayland would let her ride Gemma again some time. As she slowly dismounted, Emmeline moved around until she was face to face with Gemma again. "Thank you SOOOOO much, Gemma!", she exclaimed as she petted Gemma one last time before joining her classmates grouped around the headmistress.
Derf wasn't here, but Emmeline initially wasn't too worried about that. Obviously, he'd encountered a cool creature in the forest and just wanted to spend more time hanging out with it, like she had. What else would explain the Hufflepuff's absence? She wasn't going to give her friend away to the headmistress though. Nope.
Now the headmistress was asking questions, so Emmeline raised her hand and obliged: "I learned that there are nifflers in the forest! And, I think I can use Ehwaz to help calm scared creatures down, maybe, because the rune will help them trust me more quickly." Okay, now time to wait for class to end so that she could go to the nursery and see Sirius.
The first year's attention was sort of wandering, but she tuned back in to the other students' answers when the Ravenclaw girl prefect (Kitty) spoke up. Emmeline had paid particular attention to what this girl said in lessons ever since the Statute thing in History of Magic. As she listened, Emmeline grew more and more horrified. This girl had done WHAT?! Somebody needed to call the Sorting Hat, because obviously this girl did NOT belong in Ravenclaw! How could she leave Derf immobilized in the forest?! She wasn't just a Ravenclaw, she was a PREFECT for Merlin's sake! Emmeline felt a strange surge of anger pulse through her. It was bad enough that most grown ups at Hogwarts couldn't be trusted, but now there were evil prefects too?! Or at least prefects who did obviously evil things and then acted all casual about it.
Her first instinct was to race for Gemma and fly off to find Derf, but the headmistress and some older girls who were clearly smarter than that mountain troll with the prefect's badge had already flown off. She didn't want to get in their way or disturb Derf with too many people around him. The first year leaned against one of the fence posts surrounding the horses' pen, her eyes fixed resolutely on the sky to wait for the rescue party to come back.
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