Sythis's
Standing on the platform, Amaya shivered; she had been waiting for 20 minutes and no Bumble guy yet. Everyone else had gone up the castle but she was still waiting for her escort. She was beginning to get annoyed, and wanted to turn around and would've gotten back on the train except for the fact that it had left a few moments ago, when she heard a booming voice calling for her, " Amaya? Amaya Neige? Where did that girl get to?"

Turning around she saw the man that had led all the smallest children into boats, the man with the wild hair and the burly beard. The Enormously Large Man. Taking a breath and stepping away from where she had situated herself after everyone else had left the teen proclaimed, " I'm Amaya." keeping her voice flat, she studied her escort. "I thought some old man named Bumbledore was coming to get me. The kiddies on the train called you Hag…something." she trailed off, hoping she wasn't blushing too much. Damn her memory for names! "Where is the old bat?" she asked, not looking at the large man she had just called a 'Hag' when she continued after a short pause. Too her surprise instead of crushing her like a bug for the unintentional insult the man laughed, loudly.

"Hagrid" It took a few moments, but once the laughing stopped this was the first thing out of the man's mouth. Finally looking at him again, Amaya could see the amusement in his eyes as he studied her. "What?"

"Me name's Rebeus Hagrid." he told her holding out his hand for her to shake, before adding as an after thought "Thou'h I guess 'Hag' is one o' the nicer names I've been called recently. The headmaster had to oversee the feast and deal with a few other matter, so 'e sent me to get ya. Sorry 'bout making you wait. " A smile crept across the black haired teens face for a second when she placed her hand in his amused by how dwarfed her normally large hands appeared in his own enormous ones. There was no need to introduce herself again, they both knew her name. "Nice ta meet ya." she said, pulling her hand away. It was too, he reminded her greatly one of Kaiser's friends who'd taught her about charms.


Hagrid turned and began walking away when he glanced over his shoulder at Amaya and noticed her reaching for her stuff. "Ah, now leave that there. It will be sent up to the castle after we're gone. No need for you to worry about that." Hagrid informed her, watching as she glanced warily at the few pieces of luggage she'd brought with her. She'd hate to lose the few things she's brought with her, especially since they were irreplaceable. "The house elves will retrieve it shortly, don't fret 'bout it." Weighing her options, Amaya stared straight at Hagrid from behind her sunglasses before saying plainly "You'd better be right about those elves." and walking away from her stuff taking only her backpack with her.

The friendly atmosphere from a few moments cooled with the teen's last statement and Hagrid could couldn't help comparing Amaya to her uncle in his head for a few moments while Amaya began cataloging everything she had in her luggage mentally. It was another five minuets before Amaya finally broke the silence and pulled Hagrid out of his mental comparison. " Are you a teacher here?"
"I teach Care o' Magical Creatures an' am groundskeeper 'ere at Hogwarts." he told her, smiling when a grin spread across her features.

" What type of animals do you teach about in your magical creatures class? Unicorns, Dragons, Centaurs, Sythis? She questioned, before offering a short explanation "I've never been to a school of magic before; Kaiser and his friends tutored me but it was never very formal. I always wanted to know more about the creatures but Derek, the man who normally taught me about them wasn't around very often and when he was the lessons were short. "

Laughing, Hagrid shook his head and reached out a hand to muss her hair, much to her mortification, before replying," So you enjoy learning about magical creatures? I teach about all types of magical creatures, from Flobberworms to Dragons to Unicorns and I'll even sometimes bring in something rare when I can get a hold of them." Pausing for a moment he cocked his head to the side and narrowed his eyes trying to think " But I don't think I've heard of Sythis. What are they?"

Listening to him as she tried to fix her messed up hair, she replied "I'm interested in them... there are just so many different types. Very much like humans and their personalities. Creatures are just as diverse, you have things from Unicorns to Goblins. Veela to Were's and a lot more."

Pausing mid step, Amaya cocked her head to the side a little and looked at him when she finally realized the last thing the man had said"You've never heard of Sythis." she stated more than asked, before muttering. "Maybe it's just an American thing… Derek told me the basic about them a while ago, they're supposed to be myth...but personally I believe in them." The second part was loud enough for him to hear and a short silence followed before Hagrid spoke.

" What 'xactly are sythis? I kno' a lot 'bout Magical Creature and I may just know 'em by another name." He stated, glancing at the girl, wondering about the creatures Amaya was referring to.

Biting her lip gently, Amaya furrowed her brow and nodded, then said "All right, just let me think for a moment. I want to think about how to explain them with my limited knowledge, because in all honesty I don't even know much about them" Running a hand through her hair, she stared out at the forest they were traveling along when something caught her attention. Even with her eyesight, in this light and from this distance Amaya couldn't tell exactly what it was that was standing on the wood line just outside the bounds of the forest but so long as it didn't threaten them in any way she saw no need to draw attention to it. As they continued she took note that it followed and managed to stay far enough away and out of light patches ,so it was impossible to get a clear look at it. After around three minutes of silence, Amaya began her explanation "They are a branch fae, but with more magic and much rarer than their cousins. Sythis have wings, shiny little wings that glimmer on their back when they fly. Supposedly they are about five inches tall, I not sure of the metric conversions yet, so five inches is about," measuring about with her hands she demonstrated " Yea tall. They look like their cousin the pixies but aren't the same thing. Their hair can be anywhere from bright white to night black . Pretty much all the colors of the rainbow, depending on their magic. "

Having taken off her glasses after the lights of the station disappeared around a bend behind them Amaya didn't notice the interest her companion was taking in her eyes. Hagrid could see there was something odd about her eyes but in the dark couldn't tell what it was, the light was too dim for him. He could, however, tell she was enjoyed talking about this by the infliction in her voice. "They fly around faster than you can imagine, One of the theories about them is there not really rare but they fly around so fast that no one can see them. That's one theory about them I don't buy. Apparently their magic is strong, stronger than say, a phoenix's tears though that hasn't been proven. The things I've read on them, very little actually, tells of a time when they were common. Only people began destroying them whenever they found one. Why? Because their magic is supposed to spring from the dark arts. " She informed him deflating rather like a balloon when she finished her description. " But I don't know WHY they destroyed them She suddenly continued, anger rolling of her in waves, " Just because it's dark, DOESN'T ALWAYS mean it evil. Dark just means it's dark." Suddenly stopping, Amaya blushed when she realized she'd been ranting. Her pale cheeks turned so red it was easy for Hagrid to tell she was blushing.

" Sorry." she mumbled, looking down and pulling out her sun glasses, placing them on her face like a shield. " I didn't mean to rant and rave like that, besides all of this is just speculation and theory." Speeding up, she continued on the path to Hogwarts while criticizing herself in her mind, only vaguely noting that whatever had been following them along the forest line had disappeared.

'Stupid, way to run off at the mouth, now everyone's going to think you're insane like before. Kaiser was always telling me to watch my verbal diarrhea around others.' She thought, a wave of grief washing over her when she thought about what he would tell her.

Hurrying forward to catch up with the girl that had practically run away, Hagrid was shocked. He hadn't heard anyone defend Dark Magic like that in a very long time. Most people didn't think like that, though what she said was true. Magic wasn't good or bad, inherently it was the user that made it so. Even spells like Imperio and Advara Kedevar' had once been considered 'White' spells. That was something most people didn't acknowledge though, now though dark was evil and evil was dark.

Deciding to think on it later, Hagrid caught up with her and said " It's alrigh', I don't think I've ever 'eard of 'em though, Sythises that is." He told her, " But be sure I will look 'em up now that I kno' 'bout 'em, even if they are just theory and myth." Smiling slightly at the girl, even though she wasn't looking at him, Hagrid questioned "Do you know about any more magical creatures like that, one I may not have heard of?"

Looking up at the man, she shrugged, making sure to school her face into a neutral expression before asking "Are we almost to the castle yet?"

Stopping and laughing outright, Hagrid replied, "Almost there? We are there. See" pointing to the castle right in front of the duo, not noticing the tear that was making it way down her cheek

Halting, Amaya reached up and flicked away the tear thankful he hadn't noticed. When adults noticed tears and pain they asked questions and she wasn't willing to answer personal one right now. It was then the teen noticed that they were indeed in front of Hogwarts, standing at the bottom step of the school entrance, in fact.. It was pretty impressive...but didn't really shock her. The teen had figured it would be something like this, after all Kaiser and Nate had told her stories, when you add in all the people on the train… well the school would have to be big. A castle was a logical option she supposed. Plus Amaya had heard several of the older students telling the younger ones what to expect. Turning to look at Hagrid from behind the glasses, she swallowed back the scream that was starting in her throat. It was too late to run away now, she knew. 'Sides, she had no where to run too.

She was about to be practically imprisoned in this school. Of course that wasn't the way others said it, they had merely said she was going to live with her uncle. Supposedly the only family she had left, well, the only family they knew about anyway. Taking a deep breath, she tried to control her heart rate but was rather unsuccessful. She would admit it, she was scared, and nothing would be able to change that. To Amaya it always seemed as if every time she ended up somewhere new, she was alone. Jumping at a sound from behind her, Amaya spun quickly to see what it was. Standing at the top of the steps were three people, an elderly man, whom she assumed was Bumble.. whatever, and a tall old lady with gray hair whom she had no idea who she was, and finally a person she had been dreading meeting the most. Her uncle. All three studied her, even though they tried not to be obvious about it.

" Brought 'er, just like you told me ta, Headmaster sir," Hagrid said from behind her, the respectful note in his voice obvious.

" Why thank you Hagrid, why don't you go down to the kitchens and eat, I'm sure you're hungry and I'm sorry you had to miss the feast." the old man told him, a gentle smile on his face as he looked past her at the groundskeeper.

She felt Hagrid place a hand on her shoulder, reassuringly, then move away from her, to the kitchens probably. She wasn't reassured and when the Headmaster shifted his attention to her, she wanted to turn tail and run. Get away from these people as fast as she could, but Amaya stayed still, breathing shakily. Damn her and the stupid promise she'd made to Kaiser.

Squeezing her eyes she behind her sun glasses she heard the old man speak for a second time, and she didn't like what he saying, because it sealed her imprisonment.

" Welcome to Hogwarts, Miss Amaya, your new home and I would like to introduce you to your uncle. Professor Snape, Potions Master here at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.