"Actually, there is one more thing," Professor McGonagall said, stopping in her tracks as a sudden realization struck her. She looked around, her brow furrowing behind her square spectacles. "Where is Hagrid?"
She had distinctly remembered placing Maurise under the Gamekeeper's supervision. Yet here was Maurise, returning alone on the back of a Thestral. It was highly irregular.
"If you are looking for Hagrid, he is still in the Forbidden Forest," Maurise replied smoothly, sliding off the skeletal winged horse. "We failed to locate the missing Thestral from last night. Instead, we encountered some rather aggressive local wildlife. Hagrid stayed behind to manage the aftermath. We are both uninjured, however, so please do not worry."
"Wildlife?" McGonagall paused for a moment, then her expression softened into one of understanding. "I see."
She assumed the pair had run into something dangerous, and Hagrid, in his protective nature, had sent the student back on a mount while he wrestled with whatever beast had decided to cause trouble. Under emergency circumstances, such a decision was acceptable.
As Deputy Headmistress, she knew the Forbidden Forest was not a petting zoo. Attacks were an occupational hazard for the Gamekeeper. She wasn't particularly worried about Hagrid; the man was practically indestructible and had decades of experience. Furthermore, the boy standing before her didn't look traumatized. He looked bored. It must have been a minor scuffle.
As for the missing Thestral... she had lost interest.
Reflecting on it, allowing a first-year student into the forest at night, even with Hagrid, had perhaps been a lapse in judgment.
"May I go now?" Maurise asked.
"You may," McGonagall nodded. Her eyes then darted to the object in his hands. "Oh, wait a moment. That wooden box. Is that Transfiguration?"
"It is," Maurise admitted calmly.
"And the contents?" McGonagall asked, her curiosity piqued.
"A small insect," Maurise answered with practiced honesty. "I caught it in the forest. I had never seen anything quite like it in the Muggle world, so I found it rather fascinating. I thought I might keep it as a pet."
He reasoned that raising an Acromantula couldn't be that different from other hobbies. After all, didn't students here keep toads? To Maurise, the only difference between a spider and a toad was the leg count and the texture.
"Is that so?"
McGonagall withdrew her scrutinizing gaze. Since Maurise was so open about it, she saw no reason to press further. It was unlikely to be contraband. Students kept all sorts of odd creatures; it was their freedom to do so, provided they didn't eat the furniture. She was far more impressed by the quality of his Transfiguration on the box itself.
"Goodbye then, Professor McGonagall," Maurise said, offering a polite, slight bow.
McGonagall nodded in return, watching the boy disappear around the stone corner with his box.
"That boy," she sighed, shaking her head, "is going to be a handful."
She turned and began marching toward the Forbidden Forest. She needed to remind Hagrid to keep a closer eye on his herd. At the very least, they couldn't have invisible horses taxiing students around the castle grounds whenever they pleased.
It was already lunch hour. After leaving the professor, Maurise headed straight for the Great Hall.
The vast room was already bustling with noise and activity. He headed for the Ravenclaw table, found an empty spot, and placed the box containing the highly venomous arachnid casually beside his goblet. It was time to focus on lunch.
The spread wasn't quite as extravagant as the Welcoming Feast, but it was still impressive. There was roast beef, battered fish, savory pies, and sausages that glistened with grease and flavor.
Maurise forked a sausage onto his plate and took a bite.
Perfect. The stale bread and watery stew from the orphanage, which usually cost about thirty pence for a large, flavorless bag, couldn't even be mentioned in the same breath as this. It was exactly as he expected.
"So, here you are, Maurise."
A voice chimed in from behind him. A second later, two red-headed figures dropped onto the bench, flanking him on either side.
It was the Weasley twins.
"What do you want, George? And Fred," Maurise said, chewing on a piece of beef. He glanced left and right. "Incidentally, how exactly does one tell you two apart?"
To his eyes, they were carbon copies. Even their cadence of speech was identical.
"Have a guess," Weasley Number One said with a mischievous grin.
Maurise immediately decided that engaging in their riddle was a waste of time. He turned his attention back to his fish.
"Alright, alright. I'm Fred, he's George," Fred said, abandoning the classic twin routine for a moment of seriousness. "Let's talk business. Were you flying in the sky yesterday? Don't deny it. We saw you waving at us."
Maurise recalled that he had indeed crossed paths with them while airborne the previous night.
"Oh, that," he nodded. "Yes. I was riding a Thestral."
"A Thestral?"
"You don't know?" Maurise looked slightly surprised. "They are the creatures that pull the carriages from the station."
The twins shook their heads in unison.
Maurise briefly explained the nature of Thestrals to them... skeletal horses, invisible to those who haven't witnessed death, very fast, slightly ominous.
"You can only see them if you've seen someone die?" Fred looked thunderstruck. "I always thought the Hogwarts carriages were enchanted to fly on their own!"
"Me too," George added. His eyes then wandered to the wooden box resting on the table.
As if on cue, the box rattled.
"What's in there?" George asked.
"An insect," Maurise replied casually, placing a hand on the lid to steady it. "Caught it in the forest. It's unique."
Fred's eyes lit up instantly. "The Forest? You went into the Forbidden Forest?"
"Hagrid took me," Maurise said, his expression flat. "It was related to the Thestral incident yesterday. It's not a big deal. I wasn't punished."
"Wicked," George whispered, leaning closer to the box, trying to peer through the seams. "So, what kind of insect is it?"
Maurise didn't see the point in hiding it. He unlatched the lid and tilted the box, displaying the slumbering, hairy, multi-eyed creature inside.
"Merlin's beard!"
The twins gasped in perfect synchronization, recoiling instinctively.
"It is an Acromantula," Maurise introduced it as if he were presenting a new type of quill.
"We know it's an Acromantula!" Fred hissed, looking around nervously and lowering his voice. "But are you mad? Why would you bring that into the castle?"
"I plan to keep it as a pet," Maurise stated earnestly.
The twins stared at him. Silence stretched between them.
Was this the new standard for first-years? A pet Acromantula? They thought of their brother, Ron, who turned pale at the sight of a common garden spider. Compared to Maurise, their brother seemed rather... soft.
Seeing their silence, Maurise looked puzzled. "What is it? Is it inappropriate?"
"It's not about being inappropriate," Fred sighed, looking at Maurise with a mix of awe and concern. "Look, we think it's brilliant, obviously. But an adult Acromantula grows to the size of a car. If the teachers find a monster like that in the dorms, you won't just lose points. You'll be expelled."
"I see," Maurise nodded slowly.
So, this massive creature was just an infant. It seemed magical creatures were far more exaggerated than he had anticipated. He didn't dislike spiders, but a spider larger than a human was inconvenient. He didn't have the space for a roommate that could eat him.
Maurise calmly closed the lid of the box.
"In that case," he said, his tone as flat as if he were discussing returning a library book, "I suppose I'll find a quiet time to kill it."
The twins froze. They blinked for a few seconds, processing the sheer cold pragmatism of the statement.
Then, George lunged forward and grabbed Maurise's arm.
"Wait! Don't be rash!" he said urgently. "You can't just squish it! You never see these things!"
Maurise raised an eyebrow. "What are you suggesting?"
"Lend it to us for a few days... no, wait, let us research it for a few days," George corrected himself, looking excited. "We have a strictly academic interest in dangerous biology."
Maurise rubbed his chin.
Lending the spider out? He didn't particularly care. It solved his disposal problem for the time being.
"Certainly," he smiled faintly. "But I have a condition."
"Name it."
"I want your Ton-Tongue Toffees. A dozen of them."
"Deal!"