With the second half of the school year about to begin, Snape would be taking students to the International Potions Competition. Having a Potions professor as skilled as Jig fill in for him would save a great deal of "trouble."
A new "news" item appeared in the latest Daily Prophet: "Magical Creatures Out of Control, Ministry of Magic Launches Investigation."
Hagrid's name did not appear in the article. It merely described what a mess the Forbidden Forest had become, as if the school could not go on without the Ministry of Magic stepping in.
Pomona carried a large bouquet of fanged geraniums past a patient reading the newspaper. She approached the reception desk, intending to ask where Frank and Alice Longbottom were staying.
"Oh, you came at just the right time!" The nurse's eyes lit up when she saw the fanged geraniums in Pomona's arms. "We need these!"
"What?"
"A group of Quidditch players were injured during a match on the Piddle River. We need a large quantity of Skele-Gro now." The nurse said enthusiastically, "Come on, I'll take you to the potion-making room."
"No, these flowers aren't—"
But before Pomona could finish, the nurse had already dragged her away.
Pomona's fanged geraniums had come from the school greenhouses. They were all descendants of a parent plant named Gerard.
It was already very old. After Pomona's first attempt to grow Puffapods had failed, it was the magical plant she cultivated on her second attempt. Fanged geraniums had to be fertilized when they grew their teeth, or they would only have gums rather than fangs. At that stage, they bit people.
The rings on their fangs could determine how long a geranium had lived, but unlike tree rings, some teeth were newly grown. One had to find the oldest fang among