A Whole New World (Hunter)

He wasn't cold. But very hungry. He got lost, and separated from the rest of his family. He wasn't sure how far he had traveled, but now he was in a little village. In the distance there was a rather large castle. He thought it seemed nice and comforting, and maybe they had food! So, that was his destination. The big castle with all the glorious amounts of food. But, he was so hungry, he was starting to get a little woozy, so he decided to take a break outside what looked like a joke shop.

At least, that was what he thought it was. He could just pin out several of the letters. In the first city he went to, he heard some people saying letters, so he had learned how to read by listening and making out the letters on news papers, and street signs. But now, he was feeling hopeless. Hopeless, alone, and sad.

It was then he heard a ding. And it scared the shit out of him. He backed up a little bit, and saw an over grown teenaged boy walking out of the little shop. He looked at him. He looked interesting. He had never been this close to one of them before. He decided to follow it. MAYBE it was going towards the giant castle with food! When it walked out, it started walking in that direction, so he was hopeful!

He started following the boy, and accidentally got too close and nudged his leg. He didn't mean to look desperate, as his father had told him that it wasn't ok to beg no matter what situation he was in. But he was just so hungry. He hoped this boy could be the very thing that would help save his life, and return him back to his family.

Project don't-be-such-a-complete-asshole was so far about half of a success. As in, half of the time, Hunter was still the same irritable, violent git as always. But then, the other half of the time, he was able to remind himself to try and be nice to people, and not sulk around and look miserable, and be sociable and shit. Okay maybe it was more of a quarter of a success, not a half, but it was progress. He couldn't be expected to just be nice to random strangers for no reason, right? But at least, when he was around Ariel, life felt almost - normal. Like it had felt before. Before Jack had died. Before Ariel's father had died. Before both of them had changed so completely. Ariel understood him, and Hunter cared about her too much to cause her any more pain for his own benefit. There was something about going through hell and back with someone that in the end, made you even closer.

And on the bright side, it made work seem like fun again! Last term, it had been a way to keep his mind off of everything. Just one out of a long list of distractions. But this term, Hunter was actually able to enjoy the joke shop again. Work was pretty much just a contest of who could pull off the best prank, and even though Ariel almost always won, it always made for a great time. But it was still, unfortunately, work. And today, Hunter had been covering the shop by himself. And the customers had been unusually unpleasant. So the moment Ariel arrived to relieve him, Hunter gave her a relieved look and ducked out the door. The warm air hit his face, and he grimaced. Because the heat sucked.

Normally Hunter would head to the pub to pick up butterbeer, but he had to get back to tend to a new potion that he was working on. So, instead, he headed down the road straight for the castle. He sighed as some third years knocked into him from one side, forcing himself not to elbow one of them in the face, and kept walking. But after a few moments, he felt someone else bump into him. Only they bumped into his leg, which seemed strange. Had they fallen or something? Turning around with a glare to tell whoever it was to watch where they were going, he drew to a halt and he raised an eyebrow in surprise. Because it wasn't a person at all!! Unless people were about as tall as your calf and scrawny and white and fluffy.

It was a sheep. Well, a baby sheep. A lamb. Hunter just stared at it for a second, completely bewildered. What the hell was a lamb doing in Hogsmeade? It was probably somebody's weird pet. Deciding it didn't matter, Hunter glared at it and nudged it away with his foot. "Go away," he said irritably, as though the thing would understand him. But it didn't go away. It just stood there and stared at him. "What the hell do you want?" he asked it, but then quickly glanced around to see if anyone had heard him. Because Hunter VanDerberg did not waste his time talking to lambs in the middle of the street in Hogsmeade. Whatever, he'd just leave it there. But another look at it made Hunter realize that it was incredibly thin. His family raised sheep, and this one looked like it hadn't eaten in days. Stupid thing. With a sigh, he fished into his pocket and pulled out a handful of bertie botts beans. Sorting through them, he picked out a couple of grass flavored ones and tossed them on the ground for the thing. "There. I don't have anything else. Now scram," he said, turning to head back to the castle, having done his good deed for the day.

What was this? The boy was dropping some kind of food. It didn't look like any kind of food he wanted to eat, but at that moment, he was so hungry it didn't even matter. He licked up the little beans. But they tasted like... like something he had had before. It tasted like grass! So good... But the little bean was gone in seconds. And he wanted more! BUT the boy was walking away! This wasn't good! He followed the boy, and tried to catch up with him, but he was walking rather fast, so he had to run. He wanted more of those little beans that tasted like grass!

They were good, and he was sure the flock at home would LOVE them! Though it did seem to make no sense since they practically lived in grass and could get it any time they wanted. But, those delicious beans would be an excellent discovery to his flock. If any of them where to get lost like him, then all they would have to do would be to grab these little delicious magical beans, and BAM a lamb would never go hungry if they were lost again!

So, he needed to catch up to the boy with the magical beans! He picked up his pace. But started panting really hard a few feet away from where he had been before. Man... he really needed to loose some weight. Well, loose some weight from not starving himself. He made a noise at the boy to tell him to slow down.

He wasn't sure if the boy could understand him, but he hoped it would get his attention. It was then he finally caught up to him. He nudged his leg again, and gave him the most babyish eyes he could to plead for more magical beans, or to go into the castle. Maybe there was a room filled with magical beans that could help feed his family!

Was it following him? Seriously? Why was it following him? Oh yeah, because it was an animal and he'd given it food. Fucking sheep. Lamb. Whatever. It bumped into his leg again, and Hunter sighed irritably, resisting the urge to punt it across the street. But no, he wasn't that mean. After all, JT was a sheep, not a cat. If it was William's stupid cat, he would have kicked it already. Hunter turned around to face it, only to find it staring up at him with the most innocent, helpless face ever. "You're not cute, " he told it bluntly, crossing his arms and staring back at it. Maybe if he dropped a vomit flavored bean for it then it would go away.

But, despite Hunter's denial, the thing was kind of, sort of maybe a little bit cute. But still annoying. He turned to walk away again, but realized that it was useless. Because the stupid thing was practically glued to his leg. And he just didn't have it in him to kick it. Or to give it a vomit bean. And it was kind of not so ugly. So, after making sure there was nobody around to witness it, he sighed and squatted down next to it, fishing in his pocket for more beans. "Here," he said exasperatedly, holding out a few that he figured were fruit flavored in the palm of his hand. Staring at the not so ugly little thing, he tried to figure out what to do.

The lamb was clearly just going to keep following him. And it was clearly starving. So, if it was going to follow him anyway, he might as well accept it now. He'd just take it back and feed it for a few days and then turn it loose. After all, his family did raise sheep. Though their sheep weren't this annoying. But he couldn't just go waltzing into Hogwarts with a sheep. Elddirs would probably set it on fire if he saw it. "Alright, come on," he said, standing up and heading toward the castle again, knowing the sheep would follow him. He just had to figure out how to get it into the castle without anyone noticing.

Yes. The big human was heading towards the giant castle with all the beans! Exactly what he wanted! He grinned as much as he could at that point. He wagged his tale and panted as he wobbled along beside the giant human. But now he was thirsty. But as they walked along the trail to the giant bean castle, he couldn't help but remember the race car track he had ran into on accident and how fast the cars where going. It was times like these when he wished he was human and could do human things, like read better and drive those gigantic running machines that zoomed around as fast as they could. He smiled thinking about it, wondering if this human was a race car driver. Would he get to go on rides? Or go with him to visit the track?! Now he was excited to be able to live in the bean castle with the human. Maybe, with his luck, the bean castle will have a race track in it! He could only hope!