Scaly Search - #6

While Gerald was a bit surprised at Hagrid not knowing about the Scarebear, he didn't mind having to go to the Staff room again. If this kept happening, though, the staff would probably get suspicious of what the two of them are doing, asking about magic creatures that existed years ago. Did Muggle Teachers have students asking about Dinosaurs? Probably, but they'd have to be weird.



Shrugging off his thoughts, he waited next to Grace for Miss Fairburn, wondering what the others were doing. Toby was probably talking Ryan into doing something. He decided. Hopefully it's not too bad?

"Hey Grace, Do you know Toby?" He asked her randomly, wondering just what kind of person he was. He managed to get Ryan out of his shell to play a prank on them, so he must be cool.

It was Professor Rivera who answered. She first glanced at Gerald, then Grace. 'Yes?' she asked, unsure which of them had knocked. 'How may we assist you this time?'

There was a burst of magic behind her - almost like a tiny fireworks display of orange and gold. Professor Rivera didn't even react to it, except to roll her eyes. There was some barely-audible lecturing in the background on behalf of Professors McGonagall and Hathmore.

About to make up some excuse, Gerald was thankful the Professor came when she did. Breathing a small sigh of relief, he blinked in surprise at the Explosions behind them. Just what happened in there? It couldn't have been anything good, else McGonagall wouldn't have reacted. Hathmore seems like the type to lecture if something had affected him personally, so was it a Glitter-Bomb? Who set it off?

More than happy to let Grace do the talking, Gerald tried to angle his head, aiming to look further into the room.

Elara walked briskly down the hallway in the direction of the staffroom, after returning to the potions classroom to retrieve her textbook and then having to run it all the way back to the common room to relieve herself from carrying it around all day- she was running a bit behind. She doubted that she'd even have time to visit the library before dinner, not when she had other (some might argue more important) things to do.

Approaching the staffroom, she immediately noticed that there were two first years conversing with Professor Fairburn in the doorway- she didn't want to be rude and interrupt but she also wasn't interested in standing around to wait for them to finish talking- that could take time that she didn't have. Clearing her throat to alert them of her arrival, she took a step towards the small group.

"I'm sorry to interrupt" she started, hoping that they wouldn't mind her butting in briefly "Excuse me Professor, but is Professor Archerose around?" she ignored the first years completely as she turned her attention to Fairburn in a hope of having her question answered- and hoping that she wouldn't have to go track the teacher down.

Grace opened her mouth to speak but was just as quickly interrupted by a Hufflepuff girl. She waited for Professor Archerose, one of the professors she was a little more familiar with, to come out of the staff room and go talk to her. Then she and Gerald could describe the scaly beastie. She did wonder what Professor Fairburn was up to that seemed to have all the other teachers upset.

”Um, we were wondering what you knew about....” Grace considered how Gerald had described it and how Hagrid had described it. ”Centuries-old creatures that look like scaly bears?” she added in her head “that may or may not be lurking in a hall of mirrors guarding a cool secret door.” She couldn’t quite remember it exactly because well, she had been quite busy running away from it. Maybe Gerald had a better idea of describing it. She wished she had a photographic memory.

Professor Fairburn was baffled yet intrigued by their request. She made a "hmm" sound as she considered the details, trying to think what creature it could possibly be. She decided not to ask them why they wanted to know or where they even heard such details.

'There's nothing like that,' she said. 'Not that I've heard of, anyway. Not unless you mean tusks rather than horns, and three eyes not five? In which case, that certainly sounds like a Gerodenus.'

He nodded, confident that's what they were asking about. Nothing else fit, and Fairburn had an exceptionally extensive knowledge of beasts - even the rarest or most ancient ones. 

'A Gerodenus can live for thousands of years, though haven't been seen for centuries,' she explained, happy to impart some rare knowledge on the first years. It was something different, as her classes were all 3rd years and above. 'It was rumoured that Godric Gryffindor captured one, which was tamed by feeding it an ancient fruit grown by Helga Hufflepuff. She kept a supply of the ancient seeds, but after the founders left the school there was no sign of beast nor fruit.'

Gerodenus didn't sound as Cool as Scarebear, but it'll do. He was surprised he got so many things wrong with the description, as he was almost certain it had horns.

Where did Helga Hufflepuff grow the fruit?" Hopefully they didn't need to sneak into the Common Room again. Was it possible they could get the help of a Hufflepuff? Hopefully it was outside, then perhaps they could find an old greenhouse with the Seeds.