"Sadie!" Harry called as I entered the great hall. I ran over to the Gryphondor table where he and our friends sat studying and gave him a quick punch in the back. He spun around to return the punch, but I quickly stopped him by telling him that we would be late for potions class if we didn't hurry. Being an animagus I quickly changed into a silver wolf and ran toward potions class with Harry, Hermione, and Ron close behind. I quickly ran into the classroom and ran up to Snape. I sat beside him panting as he patted my head. I may have been a Gryphondor, but Snape had raised me since my parents died when I was five. As I sat there Harry, Ron, and Hermione ran in laughing, but the fun was short lived when they saw the look Snape gave them.
"You're late." He said as they sat down. I heard Crab and Goyle laugh and turned to glare at them as a growl tore from my throat. They froze when they heard me, but I noticed something odd, Malfoy was staring at me.
"Take your seat, Sadie." Snape said looking down at me. I walked over to my seat and changed back into my normal form. As I sat beside Ron I noticed Malfoy staring at me again. I stuck my tongue out at him and turned to face the front of the room again. Throughout class I would occasionally glance over at him from the corner of my eye and every time he was staring at me with that same smirk that was always plastered on his face. When class ended we all headed to the great hall for lunch. I sat in my normal spot across from Harry between Neville and Seamus. I saw talking with Harry when I was lifted into the air and tickled. I didn't even have to turn around to know that it was Fred and George. They quickly put me down and took off running as I chased them around the huge room. As I closed in on them I heard someone clear their throat and I stopped. I looked straight at Professor McGonagall as she stood at the teachers table glaring at us. I let out a sharp whistle and Fred and George stopped running and looked at me. I motioned to McGonagall with my eyes and they looked up at her. We watched as Dumbledore walked up to his pedestal and cleared his throat. Fred, George, and I quickly ran back over to our seats and sat down.
"Good afternoon students. I have a very important announcement, so please listen closely. I am pleased to tell announce that this years Triwizard Tournament will be held here at Hogwarts three weeks from today. Everyone jumped up and started cheering as Fred and George looked over at me.
"You're not going to get your name in." George said with a smirk. I smirked back and crossed my arms across my chest.
"Don't be to sure about that. I did research the other two times they had the tournament here and I realized something about that nice little age barrier they put around the goblet." I said. The two twins looked at me in surprise and I knew that they wanted me to tell them my secret. I motioned that my lips were sealed and they gave up. We chatted until it was time for everyone to go to their next class. As I walked to CFMC (caring for magical creatures) I noticed some kids from Slytherin tormenting a first year from Ravenclaw. I told Hermione to hold my book and walked over to the group.
"What do you think you're doing?" I said sharply as I approached the Slytherins. They looked up from what they were doing and glared at me.
"It's none of your business." One of them said turning back to what he was doing. They had the poor Ravenclaw girl levitating in the air and were spinning her around. She looked like she might get sick at any moment. I walked up behind the boy who had spoken and grabbed the back of his robe. I threw him to the ground and glared at him.
"I said back off and I meant it." I said through clenched teeth. My statement was quickly followed by a loud growl. The boy stood and he and his friends ran off. I turned around in time to catch the little girl and steadied her.
"Are you alright?" I asked her. She looked up at me and smiled.
"Yeah, I'm okay. Thanks for helping me." She said. I smiled and held my hand out to her.
"I'm Gryphondor house third year Sadie Sinclair." I said. The girl slowly reached out and shook my hand.
"Ravenclaw house first year Abby Parker." She said with a wide smile. She let go of my hand and I helped her pick up her books.
"So, what class are you headed to?" I asked handing her the last book. She held up a thick furry book and I smiled.
"I'm headed there too. You can walk with me if you want." I said as we started walking back over to Hermione.
"Who's this?" Hermione asked as she handed me my books.
"Her name's Abby. She's a first year in Ravenclaw." I said as we walked into the clearing where our class was. Abby stood beside me as I opened my book. She tried to open hers, but as soon as she did it tried to eat her. I quickly reached out and grabbed it from her. She looked at it in fear and I couldn't help but laugh.
"You have to stroke the spine before you open it." I said showing her what to do with my own book. I handed her book back to her and she mimicked what I had done. Slowly she opened the book and was surprised when it stayed still. Hagrid walked out into the clearing and cleared his throat. Once everyone was quiet he whistled and a huge Gryphon came down and landed behind him. He walked over to the class and stood just inside the rock wall.
"How many of you know what this is?" He asked gesturing to the creature behind him. Hermione automatically said that it was a Gryphon.
"You're very close, but this is no ordinary Gryphon. Can anyone else tell us what it is?" Hagrid asked. I could see how angry Hermione was that she had been wrong. Hagrid was about to tell us the answer when Abby raised her hand.
"It's a Marel King Gryphon. It's named for its color and the fact that it's three times larger than its distant cousin the normal Gryphon." She said when Hagrid called on her. I looked down at her and smiled. It was nice to have someone around that knew more than Hermione.
"That's correct. Today we're going to learn how to tame a Marel King and ride it. Do I have any volunteers to go first?" Hagrid asked. Everyone stayed where they were and I stepped forward. Hagrid motioned for me to come forward and I slowly walked over to him.
"Where on earth did you find a Marel King?" I asked as we inched our way over to the huge Gryphon. Hagrid ignored my question and held his hand up.
"Slowly raise your arm and put your hand on his beak." Hagrid said as we inched closer. The gryphon gave a loud caw and Hagrid stepped back.
"Sadie don't move. You're making him angry." Hagrid said as I continued toward the creature.
"I'm not making it angry you are." I said turning to face Hagrid but keeping my hand out to the Gryphon.
"How am I making him angry?" Hagrid asked. I laughed and smiled at him.
"Well, it may be because you keep calling it a him when it's a girl." I said. I turned back to the Gryphon and inched closer until my hand was resting on its beak and my face was only three inches from its own face. Hagrid walked over and smiled patting me on the back. As soon as his hand hit my back the Gryphon's head shot up and it screeched loudly at him.
"Hagrid, back up." I said gently pushing him back away from the large bird. I stepped between the two of them and looked the Gryphon right in the eye. It stopped and looked down at me. As I stood there I held my hand up and the Gryphon slowly leaned down and I could feel its breath on my face as it put its beak on my hand.
"Well, I think you can ride her now." Hagrid said walking up to me. I walked around to the Gryphon's side and climbed onto her back. With a gentle nudge in her side she took flight and we were flying above the trees. After circling the castle we headed back to the clearing. As we landed I jumped off and ran over to my friends.
"That was awesome, Sadie." Harry and Ron said running over to me. Everyone from Gryphondor clapped and congratulated me. As we ate dinner that night, Harry and Ron told everyone about me riding the Marel King Gryphon. They all thought that it was awesome. After dinner we walked back to the dorms and stayed up since it was Friday. We all went to the Gryphondor common room and sat in front of the fire. After a while we ran out of stuff to do and Ginny suggested that we play truth or dare. We all decided that it would be fun since we didn't know what else to do. Ginny went first and decided to torment Ron.
"Ron, truth or dare?" Ginny asked her brother. Ron looked at her in surprise certain that either one he pick would lead to him being embarrassed.
"Truth." He said after a minute. Ginny smiled and looked at him.
"Is it true that you were planning to ask Hermione to the Ulle Ball?" She asked. Ron nearly spit soda everywhere as he tried not to scream at the youngest Weasly.
"Yes." He said finally managing to swallow his soda. He and Hermione both blushed and turned away from each other. Now it was Ron's turn to pick someone.
"Harry, truth or dare?" Ron said.
"Dare." Harry said confidently.
"I dare you to eat one of Fred and George's stink beetles." Ron said with a smirk. George handed Harry a stink beetle and we all watched as he ate it. Hermione, Ginny, Ron, and I all gagged and Fred and George started laughing.
"Fred, truth or dare?" Harry said automatically. Fred stopped laughing and looked at our friend.
"Dare." He said calmly. Fred and George always picked dare so none of us were really surprised.
"I dare you to kiss the girl you like and ask her out." Harry said smirking.
"What if she's not in the room?" Fred asked.
"I know that the girl you like is in this room, so do the dare." Harry said crossing his arms. Fred's eyes went wide and he swallowed a lump in his throat. Slowly he leaned over and kissed me on the lips.
"Sadie, will you go out with me?" He asked pulling away. I sat there dazed for a minute before snapping out of it and looking at him with a sorry expression.
"Sorry, but no. You're like a brother to me and that's all." I said standing up, "I'm going to bed." I walked over to the door and smacked Harry upside the head on my way. I got back to the dorm room that Hermione and I shared and crawled into bed.