literature

Remedial Lesson -DRABBLE-- Knox-Freya

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  “No, you can’t do that!”

  “What?” Knox looked around, startled.

  “You can’t give a Knarl milk!” exclaimed the curly-haired blonde who was reading Knox’s homework over his shoulder.

  “I only wrote it down – I didn’t actually do it,” Knox pointed out. You’d have thought he’d just tried to kick a pigeon from her reaction.

  “Yeah, but if you did it in theory, then you’d do the same in practical too, right?”

  There were about a million things wrong with that logic. It was one thing to just randomly write something down and another to actually do it. Writing out ‘today I’m going to jump off a bridge’? Piece of cake. Actually doing it? That would take a lot more nerve and idiocy than it would to simply lie on paper.

  But in this case, he had to admit that she did have a point. If his first thought of what to feed a Gnarl was milk, then that was most likely what he’d do if he was faced with one. But apparently, that was wrong.

  Knox sighed and sat back in his chair. “What’s wrong with giving a Knarl milk then?”

  “If you gave it milk, then it would attack you,” was the simple reply.

  Knox raised his eyebrows. “What; it doesn’t like milk?”

  “They think that if you give them milk that you’re trying to poison them. And that’s the only way to distinguish them from a normal hedgehog – by seeing their reaction if you present them with milk.”

  How did I not know this? Knox thought to himself. No wonder he was having to take remedial Care of Magical Creatures. If he didn’t know how to tell a Knarl from a hedgehog, then he certainly wouldn’t have any hopes when it came to looking after hippogriffs or unicorns.

  “So let me get this straight. I’m nice enough to feed this poor lonely ‘hedgehog’...” Knox gestured air quotes with his fingers. “And I get attacked for it?”

  “Well, yeah... But the Knarl wouldn’t know that.”

  How had Knox managed to get possibly the dippiest girl in their year teaching him? It was easy to tell why Emmy had said that country girl Freya Cotton was strange. His tutor hadn’t even sat down the whole time she’d been helping him – she’d just been hovering over his shoulder. But then it was still no reason to be mean to her. She had willingly offered to help him.

  “You can sit down, y’know,” he pointed out. “It’s not like there’s a shortage of chairs or anything.”

  The library was practically empty now. There was a group of four Gryffindors from a few years above them, who were sat in the corner, and that was it. Even Madam Pince didn’t seem to be around right now.

  “Oh. Okay then,” said Freya, happily taking the seat next to him. Had she been waiting for an invitation to sit down or something?

  “Okay, so I got the part about Knarls wrong,” Knox conceded. “So what about this bit here that I put about Bowtruckles?”

  “No, that’s wrong too.”

  Knox raised his eyebrows. He was sure that most people wouldn’t be quite so blunt about pointing out that you were wrong, but it was easy to tell that Freya wasn’t intentionally being rude. She didn’t seem to have a very good grasp on social interactions.

  Come to think of it, he’d never really seen her around with friends. No wonder she’d been so eager to help when he’d made his plea for a Care of Magical Creatures tutor.

  “Alright, then where do Bowtruckles live, if it’s not under floorboards?”

  “In Wiggentrees,” explained Freya. When she saw Knox’s blank look, she added, “It’s one of the most popular trees for wizards to get the right wood for making wands.”

  Most of what Knox had already written needed to be corrected, but Freya patiently explained all of the answers to him and with a bit more prompting, he was able to complete the set of essay questions that he’d been given. The library was completely empty by the time he’d finished. He wasn’t likely to achieve any amazing grades in Care of Magical Creatures anytime soon, but hopefully, this would be the only remedial work he’d have to do for it.

  “You’re an angel,” he said, as he finally rolled up his parchment. Freya looked surprised. She probably didn’t get complimented by people all that often. Knox felt awkward. “I mean... Thank you. I wouldn’t have gotten this done if I hadn’t had such a good tutor.”

  “Um, that’s okay,” said Freya, a little embarrassed. “I like Care of Magical Creatures.”

  “Wish I could say the same,” Knox said ruefully, dragging his bag up onto the desk and stuffing his homework inside. Thank god he’d never have to look at that damn thing again. “I’ll just be grateful if I don’t have to do anymore remedial work.”

  “Well, if you do, I don’t mind helping again,” Freya offered.

  Knox felt a little bad for her. Was it because she liked the company or that she was just always happy to help? Or even a bit of both? Either way, he felt that he hadn’t really done anything for her in return. And he’d definitely feel bad if he took advantage of this socially clueless girl’s help without giving anything back.

  “It’s a Hogsmeade visit this weekend, isn’t it?” he asked suddenly.

  “Err, yeah, I think so,” said Freya, confused at the abrupt subject change. “How come?”

  “Do you want to go with me?” Knox suggested.

  It seemed like a good solution. He could take her to the Three Broomsticks and buy her a Butterbeer or something. Or some chocolate from Honeydukes. He didn’t like leaving good deeds unpaid and it would give him something interesting to do. Freya was nice enough company, if a little ditzy.

  He hadn’t really been planning to go to Hogsmeade himself originally. Emmy had already said that she had too much homework to catch up on and he always felt like a bit of a third wheel when it was just him, Laurent and Jade. So problem solved. Well... In theory.

  “You don’t have to pay me back or anything,” Freya said hastily. She clearly didn’t want to be a charity case.

  “Come on, I’ve gotta do something for you,” said Knox earnestly. “And I didn’t really have anyone to go with, so I thought it could be fun.” He then gave her a cheesy smile. “Are you really gonna pass up the opportunity to spend more time with my charming self?”

  His friends would have groaned if they’d heard his very poor pick-up line. And most other girls would have turned him down flat for being arrogant about it – regardless of whether he was joking or not. But Freya at least seemed to get the joke and she smiled back.

  “Yeah, okay then,” she replied, more happily this time. “And maybe then we can go and try to find some Knarls and see if we can distinguish them from hedgehogs.”

  Or maybe it hadn’t been such a good theory after all.
Little drabble of mine and StrawberriOnTop's joint Harry Potter couple <333

WHY HAS IT TAKEN ME SO LONG TO WRITE ABOUT THESE TWO? T__T Probably because I seem to fail at writing short pieces lolol. I feel like I don't give this couple enough love... (though I now totally wanna draw them again!)

This is leading on from a drabble that Berri actually did herself. Poor Knox having to do remedial Care of Magical Creatures... and getting stuck with Freya as a tutor |D She gets less socially awkward after a few years, I promise OTL.

They were both really fun to work with though :heart: And I really hope I wrote Knox okay for you, little sis!

--

Next part:
Hogsmeade Weekend -DRABBLE-- Knox-Freya  When the weekend rolled round, Knox had been relieved to learn that Freya had in fact been joking about them going to find Knarls and hedgehogs to compare. She actually had more of a sense of humour than he'd expected. Though maybe she still needed to make it more clear when she was joking... He'd spent the last few nights dreaming of Knarls savaging his shins because he'd mistaken them for hedgehogs and tried to feed them milk.
  Though sense of humour or not, Freya was turning out to be a bit of a handful. She didn't seem very comfortable thinking for herself and chose to pass all of the decision-making onto Knox. Even something as simple as choosing what shop to check out seemed to be beyond her.
  "So where do you want to go first?" Knox had asked as soon as they'd reached Hogsmeade.
  "I don't mind," Freya had replied almost instantly.
  "Come on, there's gotta be somewhere you want to check out. We've got all day here so don't be afraid to speak



13.

Freya Cotton © punkette180
Arlen "Knox" Lennox © StrawberriOnTop
Harry Potter universe © J.K. Rowling
© 2013 - 2024 punkette180
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StrawberriOnTop's avatar
ROFL
I can't even -- I kept laughing as I read this.
Freya, what are you even :iconohyouplz: .........she's so cute though :iconcannotevenplz:

I can't even tell you how much I love this drabble |DD
totally want to draw them right now :stare:
I guess I'll have to delay my homework a little sometime this week :eyes:


you did wonderfully with Knox :XD:

I promise he's better with women than magical creatures :icontrollrollplz:

thank you for writing this sdlfskdf ❤

I can't even
I keep grinning like an idiot LOL