Hagrid

The next day I had ancient runes, after which I had transfigurations. I walked into the classroom and sat down next to Pansy. She smiled at me. "Well, I am glad you're not helping Greg," she says seriously. "It was horrid Draco, if you had been there you would have gone to your father to demand the things head." Pansy sniffs. I shift uncomfortably in my chair. "The horrid beast just attacked Smith. I can't believe Dumbledore lets that oaf teach here. Daphne thinks so too."

I don't know how to react.

Class comes as a welcome distraction. Then the professor claps in her hand. "Welcome students," She then starts, "I teach study of ancient runes here at Hogwarts. My name is Bathsheda Babbling." She then goes through the list of names.

Professor Babbling seems to be easily distracted and very talkative. "Draco Malfoy?" I curtly say yes. She smiles broadly at me. "Your mother is Narcissa Black right?" I nod, confused. People asked after my father. "Well, I guess it must be Malfoy now," she says. "She was a few years my senior at Hogwarts. I saw her a couple time at Slughorn's parties. He was very fond of her. She always looked dashing."

She then goes back to the names on her list, occasionally taking a detour. Then when she has called all names, she waves her wand and ten runes appear before us. "As an introductory question I'd like to know if someone might recognise these runes and can tell me a bit about them?"

I kind of expect Granger to stick up her hand, but we have classes with the Hufflepuffs, so I raise my hand as do some others.

Professor Babbling smiles broadly. "Good. Good. I see quite some raised hands. Miss Parkinson, why don't you tell us what you know?"

"These are the runes that symbolise numbers," Pansy answers."

"Very good, miss Parkinson," professor Babbling says, "Ten points to Slytherin. These runes indeed symbolise the numbers." She then waves her hand again, making all the numbers switch. "Now, these runes, which symbolise zero to nine are mixed up, to make things a bit harder. Mister Finch-Fletchey, do you know which of these runes stands for the number zero an how it symbolizes for it?"

He looks a bit warily at the runes. "No professor," he answers a bit embarrassedly.

Professor Babbling still smiles kindly at him. "Well, no matter, mister Finch-Fletchey. You are here at Hogwarts after all to learn something." He looks relieved. "Anyone else who might know the answer?"

She then points at Susan Bones, who had raised her hand. "The number zero is symbolised by a demisguise, a magical creature that has the ability to make itself invisible. As if there is nothing and thus symbolising zero." She then points at the rune that ought to symbolise it.

Professor Babbling nods excitedly. "Very good, may I ask your name? It is after all still the first class. I will try to remember them as soon as I can."

"Susan Bones," she then answers."

Professor Babbling waves her hand, putting the rune of the demisguise on the first place. "Very good, miss Bones. Fifteen points to hufflepuff. Mister Finch-Fletchey, I'd like to give you another shot. Can you recognise the number one?"

Professor Babbling looks patiently towards the hufflepuff. Really, how difficult could this one be. The unicorn depicted should be quite obvious. "I'll help you a bit. Which of the runes depicts an animal that could stand for the number one?"

"The unicorn," mister Finch-Fletchey then answers hesitantly.

Professor Babbling looks very pleased and gives him fifteen points for his answer. We go through the rest of the alphabet. After zero symbolised by the demisguise and one symbolised by the unicorn, we go through them a bit more smoothly. The two long horns from a graph horn symbolise the number two. The three heads of a runespoor stand for the number three. Four is depicted by the different colours of a fwooper, which appears to be some bird. Five by the five club footed legs of a quintaped. Six by how long salamanders can survive outside fire. For seven the rune is known, but not why it depicts seven. Eight by the eyes of an acromantula. And lastly nine depicted by the heads of an Hydra.

Then professor babbling disappears the runes. "Very well. I think this was a very good start for a first lesson. I would like you to learn these ten runes by heart, so later on this course you will not confuse them with runes that depict words. Furthermore I'd like to ask you to translate these three runes before next class. Some of you might immediately recognise these runes as they are quite famous. I'd also like to know who wrote these words down."

I did recognise them and was pretty sure even the introductory text mentioned them. The runes were written down by Merlin himself.

"Now before the ending of the class I'd like to tell you a bit about how we will use our following lessons. First we will go over a few runes that you will encounter a lot during these lessons as to make translations a little bit easier on all of you and some basic rules that can help you get the hang of it. During classes we will practice a lot with translations. Your end exam this year will also feature an ancient runic script that you will have to translate and a more difficult script that you will have to answer some questions about. Then we will mostly look at important runic texts and go through them together and talk about the historic value of these texts. After each class I will always give you some runes that you will have to learn and sometimes a few to translate."

She smiles broadly at the class. "Well," she then concludes. "I hope today I have been able to make clear what will be expected and learned during ancient runes and that you have enjoyed your first lesson in ancient runes."

When we reach the transfiguration classroom, most seats are already filled. I slide in a seat near the front, next to Greg, who looks sulkily at me. I feel a bit annoyed. Can't he just get over it?

The students are awfully quiet. Strange. Then professor McGonagall stands up transforms into a cat and then back into herself, looking through the class slightly confused. That is pretty cool. I feel impressed. Professor McGonagall really is one of the best teachers, of course bleak compared to professor Snape and a real shame she favours her Gryffindors so much.

McGonagall then seems to understand something. "You had your first divination class, didn't you?" Her hawk-like eyes go through the class. Some students mutter back a disheartened yes. "Well, that settles it. I have never before achieved such down reactions on transforming into my animagicus form. Well, then, Mister Malfoy, who was the unlucky student Trewlaney this year predicted would die before the end of the school year?'

I look a bit shocked. Wait- what, she can't possible mean someone was going to die. She gives Greg a pitying look. Well it did make sense why the class was so unnaturally silent. "I don't know, professor. I have chosen arithmancy and ancient runes as electives, they seemed a lot more useful."

Professor McGonagall gives me a clear look that shows that she actually seems appreciative of my words for once, normally she does not seem to think much of me. Even when I am doing a spell perfectly.

She looks into the class. "Well, someone else please enlighten me who professor Trewlaney chose as her unlucky victim?"

Patil then softly answers. "Harry Potter is dying before the end of the school year." She sounds upset.

"Well, mister Potter," professor McGonagall then says, "I am sure you are very happy to hear that I have seen my colleague predict the death of one student each subsequent year and none of them have ever dropped dead. So I expect you like all other students have properly done your summer homework."

Potter nods. With a wave of her wand, professor McGonagall collects all the homework assignments and starts our lesson about animagicus. It is interesting, but the sulking of Greg keeps distracting me. He obviously was not upset because of Potter's predicted death.

"Look," I whisper annoyed, "What do you expect me to do? I am sure that Hagrid will be fine. The headmaster will just back him up. And who cares what happens whatever happens to that hippogriff. It shouldn't have attacked a student." I sigh. Looking at Greg's face that obviously did not help.

"Hagrid is a good teacher," Greg reacts stubbornly. "He told us to be respectful to the hippogriffs and that idiot wasn't. It was his own fault and now he is trying to weaken Hagrid's teaching position and kill of Buckbeak. I tried to visit Hagrid and he looked a mess, kept talking on and on how he shouldn't have showed us such dangerous magical creatures. You should have seen him, Draco. Now he'll probably only let us handle flubberworms, because of that idiot. And he just got away with it, with barely a scratch on his arm!"

I feel frustrated. This is not my problem. Why does he expect my help. Just because my father is on the board as a school governor, does not mean I have a lot of influence. I want to say: the oaf shouldn't even be teaching, but really that would be hardly helpful.

"I'm sorry," I then say. "Look, I can't just go to father with this, he'll hardly care more for some beast then a pureblood. Maybe if it wasn't Zacharias Smith, but some muggleborn." Wow, that sounds awful. "If it was Granger I am sure I could have helped. But it isn't."

Greg now looks less sulkily. "Did you really have to use Hermione as an example? Besides she would have never done that."

I sigh. "Fine, just not a pureblood student."

Greg now looks a bit fiery. "Still, you could help. We don't need your father. What if we just give him a good case and with your support.. I am sure that will help."

I sigh. I look at Greg. He seems extraordinarily determined. He was always quite passionate about magical creatures. "I guess so."

Greg looks happily again. "Good, after DADA we'll go to the library. After that we'll visit Hagrid. I am sure Hagrid will be delighted to have your support."

Fine. At least now I can finally concentrate on transfigurations again. Wait. What? I will not meet that oaf. What would father say?