It began as this miniscule seed of emotion buried deep inside of me. But slowly this seed was beginning to sprout. Every time he laughed, every time he smiled, every time he yelled and he screamed, I felt this seed growing. Perhaps one day, it would consume me entirely.
Hermione awoke in the morning feeling slightly apprehensive. Today was the day Hagrid was going to be observed by Umbridge and the odds were simply not in his favour. Umbridge had already sacked Trelawney, and while she loathed Umbridge with every fiber of her being, Hermione had to secretly agree with her just this once.
The thought made her feel dirty.
Sighing to herself, Hermione drew the curtains open around her four poster, got out of bed, and trudged off to the bathroom to wash her herself of all thoughts of coalition with the toad. She smiled slightly despite of herself. Hermione was never one to call people names, but she supposed there was a first for everything.
Upon seeing her reflection in the bathroom mirror, however, the smile was soon wiped off her face. Her hair seemed to have reached a new level of bushiness this morning, and she was simply not in the mood for it.
She stepped into the shower, wondering vaguely what it would be like to have the silky smooth hair that her shampoo bottle advertised. Then she remembered how much she hated false advertisement. Then she got annoyed.
After showering and dressing, Hermione climbed through the portrait hole and headed down to breakfast, feeling that same air of annoyance hovering over her like a cloud.
She was surprised to find Harry and Ron already in the Great Hall.
"Morning," she greeted, half-heartedly, throwing her bag on the ground and taking her place at the Gryffindor table.
Harry looked up from his toast with surprise. "Good morning," he replied, "Did you sleep in? You're later than usual."
"Am I?" she asked with confusion.
Harry held out his watch for her to see. Grabbing his wrist a litter rougher than she intended, Hermione squinted to check the time. She was indeed a quarter of an hour later than she usually was. Letting go of his arm, she shrugged her shoulders.
"I don't know, I guess I lost track of time in the shower."
"Happens to the best of us," said Harry, shaking off his wrist with a slightly pained expression.
Ron looked up swiftly from his eggs with a scandalized look on his face as if the subject of Hermione in the shower should not be discussed at the breakfast table.
"Today just isn't my day," she declared.
"It's not even eight o'clock yet!" exclaimed Ron.
"Well I can feel it already."
"And since when have you ever gone off feelings?" Harry replied with a half smile.
"Well there you go then! That proves my point exactly."
Ron looked at her with a confused expression but seemed to decide it was better not to dwell on the subject.
"Well I'm just hoping you're wrong about this feeling of yours, Hermione. The last thing we need is bad omens while Umbridge is observing Hagrid today," Harry replied.
"Oh don't you dare suggest I would ever believe in those silly things," Hermione said.
"What about Harry's Grim in third year?" Ron replied through a mouthful of food.
"Oh for Merlin's sake, Ronald. Don't be thick," Hermione said impatiently. "That big black dog Harry was seeing was Sirius not the Grim," she whispered furiously to him.
"I know, I know," Ron said, lifting his hands up in surrender. "But what about the one in his tea leaves, and in the sky during that Quidditch match," he said, looking over at Harry for support.
"Oh please," Hermione replied, rolling her eyes. "Weren't you the one who said that reading tea leaves was all a bunch of rubbish anyway? And I'm sure if we go outside right now I can point you to a cloud shaped like a dog and we can call it the Grim."
"And anyway," Hermione added as an afterthought. "I thought the Grim was supposed to be an omen of death. The last time I checked, Harry was very much alive. Am I mistaken?" She looked over at Harry as if waiting for him to prove he was alive, then turned to Ron with a look of satisfaction.
"Okay you proved yourself right, as always, are you happy?" Ron said grumpily.
"I'm just stating the facts, Ron," she said, buttering her toast matter-of-factly.
The rest of breakfast, Ron could be seen periodically throwing Hermione dirty looks.
All too soon, however, they were heading down the snowy grounds to Hagrid's hut for their Care of Magical Creatures lesson. Yet when they reached, Umbridge was nowhere to be seen. Hermione breathed a sigh of relief and looked over to Harry and Ron to see that they too had noticed her absence.
Hagrid was waiting for the class by the edge of the forest which could only mean that whatever dangerous creature they were to study today would be hidden in there.
"We're workin' in here today!" Hagrid called happily to the approaching students, "Bit more sheltered! Anyway they prefer the dark…"
"He is joking, isn't he?" cried Pansy Parkinson from somewhere behind her. "We can't go in there!"
Hermione smiled to herself. Anything that caused Pansy discomfort couldn't be all that bad.
"Now what we're studyin' today is pretty rare, I reckon I'm probably the on'y person in Britain who's managed ter train 'em—"
"And you're sure they're trained, are you?" said Malfoy. "Only it wouldn't be the first time you'd brought wild stuff to class, would it?"
A very, very small part of Hermione had to silently agree with Malfoy's words. And just like this morning, she felt dirty. She made a mental note to shower again tonight.
"'Course they're trained," said Hagrid, scowling. "Now if yeh've finished askin' stupid questions, follow me!"
Hagrid turned and strode straight into the forest leaving the class standing quite stationary behind him. Harry glanced at her and Ron and she sighed, nodding her head. The three of them set off to follow Hagrid into the forest, leading the rest of the class.
After about ten minutes, they reached their destination.
"Gather roun', gather roun'," said Hagrid encouragingly. "Now they'll be attracted by the smell o' the meat but I'm goin' ter give 'em a call anyway, 'cause they'll like ter know it's me…"
Hagrid gave an odd, shrieking cry that echoed through the forest. A minute passed and he gave another cry. And then again a third time. But still, nothing appeared to happen.
Hermione saw her same confused expression mirrored on the faces of her classmates. Most people seemed to be looking around, waiting for the unknown creatures to appear. Then she saw Harry nudge Ron and point into the empty darkness.
She looked at him curiously. It was almost as if he saw something. But no, there was nothing there to see. Hermione looked around her, searching but finding nothing. Then she glanced back again at Harry. There was something in his eyes, something like…relief?
"Why doesn't Hagrid call it again?" Ron whispered by her side.
Giving a slight gasp, Hermione watched as the cow carcass Hagrid had been carrying was now being stripped of its flesh by what seemed to be invisible mouths. Invisible…
"Oh an' here comes another one!" said Hagrid proudly, staring into what seemed like nothingness. "Now…put yer hands up, who can see 'em?"
Hermione watched as Harry raised his hand. Looking around she saw that both Neville and a Slytherin boy had their hands raised as well.
"Yeah…yeah, I knew you'd be able ter, Harry," he said seriously. "An' you too Neville, eh? An'—"
"Excuse me," said Malfoy with a sneering voice, "but what exactly are we supposed to be seeing?"
As an answer, Hagrid simply pointed to the cow carcass being devoured on the ground. Several people gasped and Parvati even shrieked.
"What's doing it?" Parvati demanded in a terrified voice.
Suddenly, something clicked inside Hermione's head.
"Thestrals," said Hagrid proudly.
Thestrals. Of course! Hermione thought.
"Now who can tell me why some o' you can see them an' some can't?" asked Hagrid.
Hermione raised her hand slowly.
"Go on then," said Hagrid, beaming at her.
"The only people who can see thestrals," she said, "are people who have seen death."
"Tha's exactly right," said Hagrid solemnly, "ten points Gryffindor. Now, thestrals—"
"Hem, hem."
Hermione inwardly cringed as if by reflex. Professor Umbridge had arrived. And very quickly everything began to go downhill.
Umbridge began taking all of Hagrid's words and actions and twisting them into a complete bundle of absurdity. Hermione wanted nothing more than to take the clipboard in Umbridge's hands and use it to knock the sickening smile off her face.
And as if that wasn't enough, she was acting as if Hagrid could not understand English, as if he was not even human.
And Hermione's insides burned with fury and there was a lump in her throat that she could not swallow and there were tears in her eyes that were threatening to spill over.
"You hag, you evil hag!" she whispered fiercely, as Umbridge walked towards Pansy Parkinson.
"Well, Hagrid," she turned to look up at him again, speaking in that loud, slow voice, "I think I've got enough to be getting along with...You will receive"—she mimed taking something from the air in front of her—"the results of your inspection"—she pointed at the clipboard—"in ten day's time." She held up ten stubby little fingers, then, her smile wider and more toadlike than ever before, she bustled from their midst, leaving Hermione actually shaking with fury.
"That foul, lying, twisting old gargoyle!" stormed Hermione half an hour later, as they made their way back up to the castle. "You see what she's up to? It's her thing about half-breeds all over again—she's trying to make out Hagrid to be some kind of dim-witted troll, just because he had a giantess for a mother—and oh, it's not fair, that really wasn't a bad lesson at all. Thestrals are fine—in fact, for Hagrid, they're really good!"
"Umbridge said they were dangerous," said Ron.
"Well it's like Hagrid said, they can look after themselves," said Hermione impatiently, "But, they are very interesting, aren't they? The way some people can see them and some can't! I wish I could."
"Do you?" Harry asked her quietly.
Hermione stopped in her tracks, horrorstruck. She felt as if a ton of bricks had just been dropped into her stomach. She looked into Harry's eyes, at a loss for words.
"Oh Harry—I'm sorry—no , of course I don't—that was a really stupid thing to say—"
"It's okay," he said quickly, "don't worry…"
But for the rest of the walk up to the castle, she remained silent, glancing at Harry now and then when he wasn't looking.
He was only fifteen years old. And he'd seen another human being, a classmate, a friend, murdered before his own eyes. Yet here he was, standing beside them. Harry, just Harry.
And she wondered if she would ever see the thestrals. She wondered if she would ever have to watch someone die or watch someone murdered. And as a silent tear rolled down her face, she wished with all her heart that she wouldn't.
A/N: Anybody else find the the Hunger Games reference? ;) Sorry I couldn't help it. But anyways um I wanted to make this chapter a lot longer but I'm just going to make the next part that I was going to include its own chapter. Please tell me what you think. Did you like it...did you hate it...? This one was kinda meh for me. If it was meh for you too I would love to hear it! Okay unecessarily long author's note is now finished. #review