"Afternoon!" Cora grinned.
Katrina smiled as she sat down beside her at the Hufflepuff table for lunch, muttering a greeting and picking up an apple. Seconds later, they were joined by Alex, Susan Bones, Hannah Abbott, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Ernie Macmillan, Cedric Diggory, and a few other Hufflepuff Quidditch players.
"Seems we have a Ravenclaw in our midst," Alex remarked, gaining a friendly glare from his sister and a few laughs from his housemates. "Still blue, I see?"
"Yep," Katrina took a bite of her apple smugly, chewing it with a superior look on her face. The Hufflepuffs laughed again as Alex rolled his eyes.
"What have the Gryffindors done?" He asked wildly, throwing his hands up into the air, "They've brainwashed my sister! She's become confident! It's barmy!"
"It is not barmy!" Katrina laughed and swiftly kicked Alex in the shin, "I've always been confident!"
"No you haven't," he waved his arm dismissively before massaging his leg, "Need I remind you that fit you had the day before you started your first year? Thought she'd be in Slytherin, this one!" Alex turned to his friends with a smirk as Katrina felt her cheeks burn pink.
"You cried on the train your first year because you thought you'd be put in Slytherin!" she retorted shrilly as the color from Alex's face drained.
"I did not!" he yelled, but Cora and the others had begun to snicker.
"Did too!" Katrina rose her chin importantly, "You ran into Cora's and my apartment bawling like a baby!"
"He really did," Cora whispered to Alex's friends as he began to swiftly glow magenta.
"You cried your third year when Mum mailed you a letter telling you that your old teddy bear ripped!"
Katrina gasped, and in that moment her hair flared violet.
"I told you never to mention that again!"
"Ha-hah!" Alex pointed at her triumphantly as the Hufflepuffs began to laugh behind their hands, "Try topping that, you old codger!"
"I'm not old either!"
"Katrina! Cora!"
Just as she had been reaching back to throw her apple at Alex, Katrina turned and saw Angelina, Alicia, and Katie running over. Immediately, her hair returned back to its normal bright-blue color, but the red of her face still remained.
"Wotcher," she said, furrowing her eyebrows thoughtfully as the three Gryffindors approached. "What's up?"
"Hey!" Angelina grinned, placing her hands on her hips with Alicia and Katie behind her.
"Did you see the announcement the other day?" Katie asked, positively beaming.
"The one about Hogsmeade?" Cora asked.
"Yeah!" Katie said, "It's on Halloween! Not too long from now, actually."
"Yeah, I saw it," Katrina said, vividly remembering the crowd in the Ravenclaw common room and how excited their chattering was. "I didn't get close enough to know it was Halloween, though."
"We'll be having the Hogsmeade trip and the Halloween Feast on the same day!" Alicia said, "Isn't that fantastic?"
"Sounds exciting!" Cora began to smile widely. Katrina shrugged.
"I suppose."
"Is that it?" Ernie Macmillan asked, cocking a brow. The Gryffindor girls each shot him identical looks of exasperation and sudden dislike.
"No," Angelina crossed her arms across her chest, "We were going to ask Katrina and Cora if they'd like to join us on the trip. We all need a bit of girl time together, you know."
Alex's mouth nearly dropped to the ground.
"Friends!" he said loudly, "My sister's got friends!"
"Of course I've got friends!" Katrina snapped, "It's not like I'm antisocial, you prat!"
"I'm not a prat!" Alex retorted, but visibly pulled his legs in before he was kicked again.
Angelina exhaled swiftly, then faced Katrina and Cora with a much nicer look on her face.
"So, what do you say?" she asked.
"Why not?" Cora grinned, looking at Katrina. "Can we?"
"I don't see why we can't," Katrina shrugged, and found herself smiling. "So long as they don't mind me taking my time in Honeydukes."
Katie snorted. "Oh please!" she said, "Alicia practically spends hours in there!"
Alicia blushed guiltily, but Katrina seemed to brighten up immediately.
"Have you seen their Wall of Chocolate? It's huge!"
"Oh dear," Cora laughed lightly, "Don't get her started on chocolate."
"Is that a yes?" Angelina's eyes sparkled as her tight grip around her chest loosened. Katrina vigorously nodded her head.
"Yes, yes!" she exclaimed, "I'm up for hours in Honeydukes any day!"
The girls all laughed, and eventually, the Gryffindors receded back to their own house table. Alex still looked abashed.
"Friends!" he whispered fiercely, leaning over and waving a hand in Katrina's face. "Are you sure they haven't brainwashed you?"
"They might've," Katrina laughed lightly, "But if they did, I'm enjoying it."
Alex frowned, but eventually began devouring his lunch.
To Katrina, Hogsmeade didn't come soon enough.
Her homework was piling higher and higher each week, and even though Charms and History of Magic were easy enough, Transfiguration and Potions seemed to be draining the life out of her. McGonagall was expecting her fifth year classes to spit out two-foot essays every other day and Snape was being more of a nuisance than usual since Katrina was still sitting with the boys. Honestly, she was beginning to loose whatever dwindling patience she had with his awful attitude towards any house but Slytherin.
And to add to all of that, it seemed Trelawney had taken an uncanny liking to her and was insisting she visit during lunch periods. All Katrina did was look through a crystal ball a few times and listen to Trelawney ranting about the "displacement of Mars" this year, and by all the outrageous things she was spouting (one of the most crazy being about Harry Potter's death), Katrina was beginning to think she really was a loon.
Many of the older students of Hogwarts were talking loudly in the Entrance Hall, excited to get out of the school at last and buy things in Hogsmeade. Filch was muttering to himself by the doors, checking off names on a checklist and peering through the crowd as if he were begging somebody not allowed to try and get past him. He really was a dreadful man. Katrina grimaced as she passed him and he grunted, checking off her name on the checklist and pointing her out with his quill. Cora followed behind her, and they set off to find the girls.
Angelina, Alicia, and Katie were waiting for them just outside of the grounds. The three of them were waving excitedly as Cora and Katrina arrived, and quickly began to push them in the direction of Hogsmeade.
If Katrina hadn't already visited it multiple times before, she would have been astounded by just how beautiful Hogsmeade was. It was filled with cottages and roads that split into wild directions and was surrounded by a view of mountains no matter where you looked.
"Where do you suppose we go first?" Angelina asked as they passed Dervish & Banges.
"Honeydukes?" Katrina answered, failing miserably at hiding her excitement. The rest of the girls cracked wide smiles, and Angelina nodded.
"It'll probably take us the longest, and we'd best not wait for it to get crowded."
Mentally, Katrina began to jump around like a wild eight-year-old. She did, however, keep her composure as their group of five entered the colorful sweetshop.
They immediately dispersed. Katrina and Cora headed to the Wall of Chocolate where, obviously, there were mounds upon mounds of chocolate goodies. Chocolate Wands, Chocolate Frogs, Chocolate Skeletons, Choco-Loco, chocolate fudge, Chocoballs, Charm Choc, Chocolate Cauldrons, Wizochoc — Cora could have probably sworn Katrina was going to melt at the sight. As quickly as she could, Katrina picked out nearly one of everything on the wall and rushed to the counter, where she payed a good 3 galleons for it and came rushing back with two rather full-looking bags and her hair flaring lime-green.
"Is that all?" Cora laughed as Katrina quickly shook her head.
"No! I need more Sugar Quills, and with luck they'll still have a few Deluxe packages left! I also need a good lot of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans and you know how much I love Peppermint Toads!"
Cora laughed again, not replying this time. As serious as Katrina could be, she went utterly wild when sweets were involved.
It was a good half-hour before Katrina and Cora met up again with the girls. Alicia was carrying nearly as many bags as Katrina was, which seemed to be quite comedic as the rest of their group laughed because of it.
"Do you mind if we go to Tomes and Scrolls next?" Katrina asked as they exited the crowded Honeydukes and into the slightly-less-crowded street.
"This is what we get for bringing along a Ravenclaw," Alicia muttered lightheartedly, and Katrina feigned a pout.
"I actually need a new copy of The Wonders of Wigtown Wanderers," Katie mused, tapping a finger on her chin and sending a wink Katrina's way. "I think I left my old one in the Library and that old Pince took it. Tell you what," she turned to Alicia and Angelina, "Why don't you two go to Spintwitches? I'll buy my book and have Cora and Katrina meet you there."
"Sounds good to me," Angelina nodded, looking to Alicia who seemed relieved to not walk into a shop full of books (something Katrina found utterly bewildering, but said nothing about). "Meet you at Spintwitches?"
"Meet you at Spintwitches!" Katie grinned, then took Cora and Katrina's hands as they parted ways with Angelina and Alicia.
"I've never gone into Spintwitches before," Katrina said as they neared Tomes and Scrolls. "What's it like? Doesn't it sell Quidditch stuff?"
"Oh, yes!" Katie exclaimed, "It's wonderful — had a ton of these really nice Chaser gloves. I nearly bought a pair last year, but they were really expensive." She sighed as the three of them shuffled into the bookstore, which was nearly deserted compared to Honeydukes. "Anyways, I'll be getting my book if you need me. Take as long as you want, Angelina's bound to stay in Spintwitches for an hour or more." After a playful roll of her eyes, Katie disappeared between a row of books.
Katrina suddenly seemed to begin to swell. So many rows, so many books! In a flurry of exhilaration, she bounded forward and down a random row, glancing between the titles of every book spine and searching for anything interesting. Charm Your Own Cheese — no — Enchantment in Baking — no — the more she looked on, the more books she found about baking and cooking and chores in general. There was even a few copies of an old Gilderoy Lockhart book, which she openly scowled at. Ruddy old teacher, too arrogant for his own robes. How she ever used to like him she would never know.
Turning down another row, she found things much more intriguing. A whole bookshelf filled with books upon books of Divination. Although she may not be quite as fond of the teacher, Katrina had become an avid fan of "Seeing". Quickly, she plucked Predicting the Unpredictable: Insulate Yourself Against Shocks off the shelf and into her heavy hands, then turned another corner.
It wasn't until she was down the fourth row did Katrina find another batch of interest. Magical Creatures. Skimming for a bit, she pulled out Dragon Species of Great Britain and Ireland and plopped it on top of her other book, and then The Handbook of Hippogriff Psychology, soon followed by Hairy Snout, Human Heart.
The next row was, again, interesting. It was filled with books about Charms and Spells. From there, she got Extreme Incantations.
By the time Katrina met Cora again at the counter, she had added Theories of Transubstantial Transfiguration and a slightly-battered copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard to her tall pile. Cora had only gotten Little People, Big Plans and seemed rather proud of herself.
"It was the last copy left," she whispered as she passed the bookkeeper a handful of Sickles and Knuts.
"Bloody hell!" Katie exclaimed as the two of them exited the shop, where she was waiting patiently. Katrina had a good two extra bags filled with her new books. "Did you get enough, Katrina?"
"There's never enough to read," she said wisely, sticking her chin into the air as the girls laughed. She couldn't suppress a giggle.
"Well, we ought to get to Spintwitches now. Alicia might have done something stupid and blown off all her galleons before we've even thought about the Three Broomsticks." Katie chuckled and led them toward Spintwitches. Just then, however, Cora swiftly slapped a hand over her face and cursed.
"What—" Katrina began, but was swiftly cut off.
"I completely forgot! I promised my mum I'd send her a patch of Pepper Imps from Honeydukes! I've got to rush back — I'll meet you at Spintwitches!" And with that, she ran off.
"Well then," Katie mumbled after a brief silence, "She's rather rambunctious, isn't she?"
Katrina snorted. "Yeah, something like that."
The two of them then shrugged to themselves and headed to the sports shop, which was filled with Hogwarts students like most of the other stores.
"There you are!" Alicia said as she pushed her way between Cedric Diggory and Roger Davies (who both seemed a bit disgruntled). "Katie, they've got customized Quaffles! They're nearly as much as a gold cauldron, but Merlin are they wonderful! You really must see — blimey," she suddenly stopped from her rapid ranting as she gazed at Katrina, "Done enough shopping, have you?"
"Not nearly," Katrina grinned, and the girls laughed.
"Come on then! Customized Quaffles, Katie!" Alicia began to shove them near the back of the shop, where Angelina was flipping through a book about Broomsticks.
Katrina, however, became much more interested in a bookshelf not too far away. Glancing at the girls (who seemed completely engrossed), she slowly approached the bookshelf and began to skim through the labels. A minute later, she pulled out a book called You & Your Owl — something she had actually been meaning to buy since she bought Alphonse, her Great Grey, the summer before Fourth Year.
"Not another book!"
At Cora's voice, Katrina jumped and swiveled around, almost guilty. Within a moment's notice, her surprised expression became that of bashfulness and her hair flashed from lime to lavender.
"Well, I've — I've been wanting this one. . . ."
Cora only laughed. "I'm beginning to wonder where you get all your galleons from!"
"Well, my dad is an Auror," Katrina smiled a sheepish, lopsided smile that only made Cora laugh more.
"Did you get the Pepper Imps?" she asked suddenly, and Cora nodded, holding up a small bag.
"Yeah, Mum'll be pleased." She began to slowly smile and continued, "But you wouldn't believe what I saw."
"And what was that?" Katrina raised a single brow and began to smirk.
"Fred, George, and Lee!" Cora whispered, leaning in so nobody else could hear, "Walked right past me without saying a word! Bloody twits, they are," she looked a trifle angry for a moment, but then excited again. "But they seemed really excited. I think they had just come from Zonko's, they had a bunch of bags in their hands — but they walked right through to the back room! You know, the one where they keep all the extra merchandise and things? Right into it!"
Katrina rose a weighted hand to her mouth. "You don't think they're stealing, do you?"
"No," Cora replied quickly, "I don't think they'd steal. If they were buying from Zonko's, they'd be buying from Honeydukes. But what really got to me was that they didn't come out! I was in there for a good fifteen minutes, I'm sure, and they didn't once step out of the cellar!"
"That's odd," Katrina knitted her eyebrows with a frown, "Maybe they know the shopkeepers? I think you're right, they're not really the type to steal anyways, not unless it's from somebody like Filch." She snorted and rolled her eyes, "Honestly, I'd probably steal from him if I had the chance."
"Me too," Cora laughed, shaking her head. "I think I might ask them about it, though, after tonight. Surely they'd tell us?"
"I dunno, actually. . ." Katrina sighed, "It's not like they told us how they know the castle so well."
"Well," Cora reasoned, "They have been in Hogwarts for a good five years. I'm sure they were clueless First Year, like most of use were. But when you're like the twins, you're bound to go exploring, aren't you? They've probably just memorized it all along the way."
"I suppose," Katrina shuffled uncomfortably, "But then why were they rambling on about promising to stay 'up to no good'?"
Cora frowned. "I've no idea."
"Oi!" Angelina called from the counter, where she was holding a pair of nice-looking gloves and shoving them into a bag, "We're leaving, you two! To the Three Broomsticks!"
"Coming!" Cora and Katrina yelled back, and Katrina hurried to the counter to buy the book. She fumbled quickly for another galleon and a few sickles, put them on the counter, and shoved the book into a new bag after the shopkeeper nodded and took her money.
The Three Broomsticks was possibly more packed than Honeydukes — the only difference was the amount of older customers. In the corner, Katrina could've sworn she saw a Hag. However, as Madam Rosmerta came her way, any curiosity about the people around her vanished.
Rosmerta was quite a pretty lady, there was no denying it. As she came by Katrina, Cora, Angelina, Katie, and Alicia's table, she smiled widely and began to take their order.
"Five Butterbeers!" Cora chimed excitedly, and Madam Rosmerta nodded and scribbled something onto her little notepad.
"Is that all?" she asked, and the girls looked between themselves. After a moment, they nodded their heads in unison, making Madam Rosmerta smile. "I'll be back in a moment!"
Katrina sighed airily as Rosmerta left, her bright heels clacking loudly on the floor. Cora laughed lightly, poking her in the side and causing her to jump.
"What?" she asked shrilly, blushing again.
"Stop staring at her, it's weird!" Cora giggled, poking her again. Katrina's blush deepened.
"I was not staring," Katrina puffed out her chest a bit, "I was admiring her skirt. I have a thing for skirts, you know that —"
"Yes, but you've always liked Madam Rosmerta," Cora sang lightly as Katie, Angelina, and Alicia snickered.
"Well — well — she's nice!" Katrina defended, "And even you can't say she doesn't look nice!"
"She is really pretty," Cora agreed, and the other girls nodded their heads.
"If I looked like her," Alicia said, "I'd be set for life! She's got all the boys drooling, hasn't she?"
The girls all laughed to themselves as Madam Rosmerta returned, handing them all a foaming tankard of Butterbeer.
"I'd hate to see Lee around her," Angelina snorted as Rosmerta clacked away, "I can imagine him now, sputtering nonsense around her."
"Fred and George would probably say 'Butterboobs' before 'Butterbeer'," Katrina nodded, and Katie and Alicia, who had been taking generous gulps of their drinks, swiftly began to choke. Angelina and Cora had started bursting at the seams with laughter, so much they were holding the stitches in their sides, and as soon as Katie and Alicia could, they joined in. Katrina felt herself blush again as she smiled lopsidedly. She honestly didn't expect them to enjoy her joke so much.
"Butter — Butterboobs!" Alicia was croaking to herself between deep, hitched laughs, "Oh — oh my god — Katrina — you're a — genius! — Butterboobs!"
Katie, Angelina, and Cora were all acting in the same way, clutching onto whatever they could get a hold of for support.
Katrina was shuffling in her seat. "Not really," she mumbled, "It was just a joke. . . ."
"And a bloody good one, at that!" Angelina yelped, wiping a tear from her eye and calming herself to mere chuckles with the rest of them.
"Butterboobs!" Alicia whispered to herself, giggling madly.
Leaving the Three Broomsticks led to another fit of giggles, as Katrina nearly tripped stepping through the door. All of her bags where weighing her down considerably, and her arms were beginning to ache.
"What about Wiseacre's next?" Katie asked after her giggling subsided.
"Sounds good to me," Angelina smiled widely, and Alicia nodded. Katrina however, sighed.
"Actually, I think I'm gonna go back to the castle," she heftily adjusted her many bags, "My arms are getting tired."
"I really ought to owl my Mum, too," Cora agreed. Something about the way she said it made Katrina know she was only finding an excuse to accompany her (besides the fact that Hogsmeade had its own post office), and she shot her a grateful glance. She hated walking alone.
"Alright," Angelina nodded understandingly, "We'll see you back at Hogwarts, then?"
"You bet!" Cora grinned, and they parted ways again.
Walking back to the school was much more troublesome than both Katrina and Cora had anticipated. Cora had also bought a good load of things and it was quite apparent that the two of them were incredibly tired by the time they reached school grounds.
Relief washed over Katrina like a tidal wave. All she had to do now was get up the spiral staircase of Ravenclaw Tower (which was tiring enough) and put her things down, then she was free to take a nap and —
But something caught her eye. Or somethings, rather. Shoving her elbow into Cora's arm, who exclaimed loudly, she pointed at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, where three boys — one with dark skin and the others with flaming hair — where looking around wildly before slipping between the trees.
She and Cora both stiffened. Sharing a quick stare between them, they took sharp intakes of breath before rapidly sprinting to the area where Fred, George, and Lee had disappeared.
It was quiet and dark. In the distance, they could just see the back of one of the twins' heads before It ducked behind a tree. Without another thought, Katrina and Cora bolted forward, hardly realizing their bags were swinging wildly on their arms.
"What are they doing?" Katrina gasped in outrage, and Cora only shook her head as the Ravenclaw's hair burned bright white. "They could get killed! We could get killed! I swear to God if they — if they —"
But she didn't finish. The boys had stopped. Ahead, Katrina could just barely see the fence of a paddock, and she felt herself slowing. They were only hardly in the forest, so danger was surely not much to worry about — but she was still angry.
"What are you doing?" she screeched, and the boys all jumped and faced her with identical looks of terror etched on their faces.
"Katrina!" they all yelped in surprise, looking behind them and then back at her.
"We were just —" Fred began.
"We wanted to —" George continued.
"It's not anything dangerous —"
"Well, maybe a bit —" George raised his fingers in a pinching motion.
"But not really!"
"What are you doing?" Katrina asked again, stomping over and dropping her bags onto the ground as gently as she could in her anger.
The boys were silent.
"We were — we heard —" Lee started.
"Spit it out."
Lee gulped. "We heard Hagrid still had the hippogriffs tied up somewhere back here. Gonna ship 'em out any day now, but we just — we just had to see them, Katrina!"
"Hippogriffs!" Katrina screeched, "Hippogriffs! He doesn't have any bloody hippogriffs, you dolts! All those third years were spreading rumors is all!"
"Ron wouldn't lie about hippogriffs!" George shouted back, "He was at the lesson!"
Katrina sniffed stubbornly, but clenched her jaw and shut her mouth. Fred was looking nearly as mad as she was.
"I'm going to go and find them," he said, looping his bag on one of the fence posts and marching off, followed by George. Lee kicked a pebble, looking down at the ground, and slowly, Cora walked up to join him.
Eventually, Katrina followed in suit. She picked up her bags and walked forward, setting them down again at the fence and leaning on it with an unamused face.
"You're a bunch of bloody idiots," she mumbled to Lee, and to her surprise, he only laughed.
"D'you think we don't know that?" he asked, and to further surprise Katrina, she laughed, too. After a sigh, she dropped her head and stared at the ground. Hopefully, the twins would come back empty-handed.
But her spirits dropped to an ultimate low as noises hit her ears. Chains jangling, rough, rhythmic thuds — her stomach fell to her feet as she raised her eyes and looked up to see Fred and George and four ginormous beasts.
As they grinned smugly to themselves and opened the gate to the paddock, leading the hippogriffs in, Katrina got a better look of them. They looked like giant eagles, or some sort of bird, at first glance — their front feet were long and taloned and the whole of their face, neck, chest, and shoulder were covered in feathers. Their wings were the largest she had ever seen, and after them were the hindquarters of horses. Sighing, she rubbed her face with her hand. Here she was, in the Forbidden Forest with the twins and Lee and the hippogriffs that had nearly gotten Hagrid fired on the first day of school.
"Wow," Cora breathed from beside her, and Katrina didn't have to look at her to know that she was smiling in amazement. Cora had always had a thing for animals.
Katrina frowned as the twins came up, still looking smug. "Told you," they said, and she buried her face in her hands.
"I'm going to suffocate you all in your sleep," she muttered into her palms, and she could hear the twins slapping hands in front of her in triumph.
"Anyways," Lee said as he jumped the fence, "We were wanting to touch them, at least. But we're not stupid, so we know we can't just — you know — pet them."
"No, of course you can't," Cora said, shaking her head. "Hippogriffs are really proud. If I remember right, you have to let them judge you, or something along the lines of that."
Katrina grumbled and, against the thoughts in her head telling her not to, leaned down and picked up The Handbook of Hippogriff Psychology. The others looked at her in interest as she flipped through the chapters until falling on a page labeled "HOW TO APPROACH A HIPPOGRIFF".
"This says," she muttered, "that you have to keep eye contact and bow. Then you have to wait for it to bow, and when it does, you're free to touch it. But if it doesn't," she looked up at the boys, whose grins may have faltered just the slightest, "you need to get out of reach."
"Sounds easy enough," Fred clapped his hands together, rubbing them as he walked up to the four hippogriffs and made to take off the strawberry roan's leather collar.
"Wait!" Katrina began, but Cora quickly stopped her from continuing.
"Ease up, Katrina," she said as she climbed over the fence to join George and Lee, "They're perfectly safe, so long as you don't disrespect them!"
"Yeah!" George and Lee chimed, and Katrina frowned. Slowly, though, she slipped a leg over the fence and walked over to stand by them.
Remarkably, Fred had slipped off the hippogriff's collar without it snapping and biting his arm off.
"I give you," he announced, motioning towards the strawberry roan with his hands, "Redrump!"
"Redrump?" Lee laughed as the hippogriff snorted, "Was that all you could think of?"
"Better that Butterboobs," Cora whispered to Katrina, and she found herself choking on air. Disguising it as a cough, she shot Cora a glare, which only resulted in her giggling.
"Well, it's much better than Cherryarse, isn't it?" Fred asked, and Redrump squawked indignantly. With a roll of his eyes and an exasperated motion that said "Easy, easy!", he approached Katrina.
"So, why don't we have little Miss Know-it-all show us how it's done?" he smirked, and Katrina felt her blue hair burn violet. She had begun to stop noticing when it was changing, and the thought suddenly made her worrisome — more than before, at least.
"What?" she croaked, looking behind Fred and at the huge animal. "M-me? But — but I'm horrible with animals!"
"Rubbish," she said as he shoved her in Redrump's direction, "It's just a bow! Now get on with it, George and I want a go!"
She took a gulp and looked up at the hippogriff.
Redrump looked curious, for a brutal, humongous, magical beast. Curious, yet pompous. Very pompous. Katrina's first thought when she looked him in the eye was of Percy Weasley, and she nearly scowled. However, she kept her face in a straight line, and slowly bowed, never looking away from his eyes.
He tilted his head for a moment, and she could've sworn his eyes narrowed. Her breath caught in her throat and her heart began to beat wildly at her ribs. And then, he leaned forward, and bowed.
Relief was becoming more and more of a familiar feeling to Katrina as the day rolled on. Sighing, she rose, as did Redrump, and approached him cautiously. Holding out her hand, she gently touched the feathers that met the edge of his beak, and might have smiled just a bit as the great hippogriff leaned into her touch.
Fred, George, Lee, and Cora all whooped enthusiastically behind her. Gaining some miraculous confidence, Katrina raised her hand and scratched the middle of Redrump's feathered head, which he also leaned into.
"You're not so bad," she mumbled, and felt her scalp prickling just a bit to tell her that her hair had returned to normal. Redrump shook his head with a light snort, as if saying that he could be quite as bad as he wanted to be.
"Alright!" George chimed, "Our turn!"
"Get your own hippogriff!" Katrina shouted over her shoulder with a grin, and they did just that. Untethering the others, the four of them spread out a bit and chose a hippogriff. Lee and Katrina were with the relaxed chestnut, George with the more-than-prideful black, and Fred with the playful palomino. To all their luck, they bowed one after another, and soon enough they were each patting and scratching a hippogriff.
"I'll call this one Bronzefeather," Cora said, patting the chestnut on the neck as he made a soft squawking sound.
"Mine'll be Darkness the Great and Powerful!" George roared, and the black hippogriff reared in approval. "Darky for short." Darky, suddenly disapproving, landed on his feet again and shot George a glare.
"And what about yours, Fred?" Katrina called. By the looks of it, he had gotten the female of the group. Fred shrugged.
"Goldy?"
"Goldy?" Katrina laughed. Fred raised his hands in exasperation.
"What? Can't I go for something simple?"
"No! We've got Redrump, and that's simple enough!" Redrump seemed to nod in agreement. It was odd, how smart the animals were.
"Fine then!" Fred faced the palomino, determined and thoughtful. "Copperclaw?"
"You've got a thing for alliteration," Katrina said mostly to herself, and Fred looked at her over his shoulder.
"Alliter-what?"
"Nothing," she dismissed it with a wave of her hand. "I like Copperclaw. We'll keep it."
Fred faced his hippogriff with a smirk and scratched its beak. "Copperclaw it is!"
And the hippogriff gave his hand a playful nip in approval.
END OF CHAPTER SEVEN
Hello all! I've got a nice, long chapter for you uwu
I was a little on edge about putting in the hippogriffs. Didn't know how you all would like it, y'know. Stuff like that. But I put it in anyways because we needed a little mischief o; I'm sure most of you will agree.
Happy Apocalypse, by the way!
You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you? c;