Caterpillar

[Cadell Owens-Lee]

Cadell had quite a good Christmas break and the second semester of his sixth year was well and truly underway by now. He hadn't received many letters from his youngest sister since they last saw each other however and this slightly concerned him. She was always writing to him telling him how her new school was going, and Cadell just hoped that the lack of letters meant that she was keeping herself too entertained to have time to send one. From his knowledge, she had made one friend already, even though he was in a different house, and Cadell was happy for this. For now, he just had to focus on himself, and with his seventh year soon approaching, he would make this his first concern. He wanted to do well in his NEWTs and for now he would try to relax before the workload came.

The Ravenclaw wandered down the streets of Hogsmeade, looking down at the ground beneath his feet. Winter had passed and spring had come which meant he was able to count the number of weeds growing in the cracks of the concrete as he walked. He was happy to do this, absentmindedly counting 36 weeds of all different shapes and sizes until he soon became distracted by a rather large caterpillar crawling across the window to one of the shops. It stopped as he approached it and he wearily put his hand out for it, not moving as it crawled up it, its small legs tickling him slightly. He chuckled at this and stayed standing in front of the shop, not taking his eyes off it even as people pushed past him to get into the shop he was clearly blocking the way to.

 

[Reuben Pendleton]

Living in England was, like, the coolest thing. Reuben missed New York, of course, and his family, but being a wizard came with many advantages, and one of those was easy travelling, so he could see them just about whenever he liked. His parents had already come over to meet Ainmere, and adored her as much as Reuben did. Well, maybe not quite as much. But they'd liked her a lot. Reuben smiled as he strolled down the street of Hogsmeade, the smell of spring fresh in the air. It was funny what a few months out of school could do to you; already he'd lost track of the terms, and which weekends the Scottish village was open to residents of the nearby school. It seemed he'd picked the wrong time to visit, though he didn't mind so much; he was used to the busy hordes of teenagers fighting to squeeze through shop doors, and crowding around outside interesting window displays. In a way, he was still one of them.

The path to the Quidditch shop was blocked from every direction. Reuben stood still for a minute, waiting for the crowd to clear, when all of a sudden his eyes landed upon only the coolest little caterpillar ever. He grinned, his desire to check out the latest broom he couldn't afford immediately forgotten. The boy holding the little bug looked about his age - maybe younger, but it was hard to tell. Either way, he was probably a student at Hogwarts. "Awww, look how cuute!" Reuben said, tilting his head. "Are you gonna put him in a bush? Someone could stand on him."

 

[Cadell Owens-Lee]

Cadell would never consider himself an animal lover, and if anything, he was more interested in the bio-mechanics of animals rather than the animals themselves. The caterpillar moved fast, its 16 legs, 8 on each side, moving so quickly that Cadell could barely keep track. He didn't want to move out of the way for people, and so continued to stand there, his eyes widening as he watched the caterpillar's every move. He didn't look up when he heard the sound of someone's voice, and this time the person was not complaining about him being in the way. Instead, he complimented the caterpillar and insisted he put it in a bush. "I will not put it in a bush." he said simply. He kept his eyes fixated on the creature. "Isn't it amazing how it moves? You know they don't have any bones? That's why I think it's so... fascinating." He moved the caterpillar closer to him so he could observe its legs, moving his arm around so it did not fall off it. Eventually, he looked up at the boy. He hadn't seen him before and so assumed he did not go to his school, or if he even went to school at all. "I'm Cadell, what's your name?"

 

[Reuben Pendleton]

Reuben thought it was pretty mean not to put the caterpillar in a bush, but maybe the boy planned to do that after he'd got bored of looking at it. It was pretty fascinating, after all - even if Reuben thought so for different reasons. All creatures were friends in Reuben's eyes. It made removing pests from the farm a bit annoying at times, though fortunately Saveli was willing to help out. "Um," said Reuben. "Yeah! Sure. I'm Reuben." He went back to watching the bug crawl across Cadell's hand. "So, uh... what are you gonna do with it? Keep it as a pet? You're kinda blocking the door a bit - I dunno if you know."

 

[Cadell Owens-Lee]

The boy didn't seem too happy about Cadell not putting the caterpillar into a bush, but Cadell tried to ignore this. Why would he put it into a bush now when he could continue having fun with it? It just didn't make sense for Cadell to put it in a bush just yet. The boy introduced himself as Reuben and Cadell nodded as Reuben continued to watch the caterpillar with him. He was glad that he seemed even half interested in what he was doing. "I want to do something with it but I'm not sure." Cadell told him, thinking of what sort of experiment he could do. "Do you think it would be wrong to keep it for a few days to observe its growing patterns? And then afterwards I can let it go... or, put it in a bush." Cadell always liked doing his own experiments and it wasn't everyday that Cadell met a caterpillar that liked him.

 

[Reuben Pendleton]

Reuben wrinkled his nose. That certainly wasn't what he would have done with a pet caterpillar - but then again, he'd sort of grown out of the insects-for-pets phase. Maybe Cadell was younger than he'd first thought. "Um - yeah! Sounds great, man." Students were still trying to squeeze past to get through the shop doorway. "We're still in the way, though. Hey, let's go sit over there - there's a bench, there." If they didn't move sharpish, someone was going to forcibly shove them out of the way. Reuben would have just left the boy to it, except that he was keen to wait a while and let the crowds disperse before he tried joining them. "Do you know what kind of caterpillar it is?"

 

[Cadell Owens-Lee]

Cadell beamed as Reuben agreed with his idea of the experiment and he immediately began thinking of where he could keep it in the castle where the professors couldn't find it. If he was just able to keep it for a bit before the holidays began then he could start the experiment once he gets home. He'd just need to find some food to keep it alive and he was sure that wouldn't be a problem. After all, it was quite small and seemed pretty basic to look after. As Reuben began making his way over to a bench, Cadell followed him, happy that he had made friends with both Reuben and the caterpillar in one go. At Reuben's question, Cadell shrugged. "I haven't really researched caterpillar species yet, but that is definitely something I have to do if I want to do my experiment. Do you think different species would grow at different rates? Hopefully it doesn't turn into a butterfly halfway through the experiment." Cadell told him with a slight chuckle, trying to figure out what stage of growth it was already in as it continued to walk all over his hands.