Chapter 2

The Siberian Ice Bull

Wednesday passed into Thursday, and then it was Friday, Ginny's birthday. Harry, Ron and Hermione smiled down the breakfast table at the cluster of fourth years that huddled around Ginny, who thanked and hugged each person who wished her a happy birthday or presented a gift.

            "Reckon we should go now?" Ron asked.

            Hemione looked at the group appraisingly. "Not just yet. Let's give them a few more minutes."

            Harry smiled slightly in agreement then winced, putting a hand to his head.

            "All right there, Harry?" said Ron.

            "Fine," Harry replied, rubbing his temple for a moment before picking up his fork again. "Just a bit of a headache."

            Though first period was still twenty minutes away, students who had their first classes some distance from the Great Hall began picking up their bags and books and departing while they finished their bacon and eggs. Once the table had cleared somewhat, Ron and Hermione decided to give Ginny her presents, but they stopped when they noticed Harry heading for the door.

            "Coming, Harry?" asked Hermione.

            "You two go ahead," he said. "I have to send an owl. Meet you in class."

***

            "Headache any better?"

            It was the last period before lunch, and Ron and Harry were climbing the tower stairs to Divination.

            "The same," Harry replied.

            "Maybe you should go to the Hospital Wing."

            "It's not that bad."

            Professor Trelawney spent the first part of the class reviewing the crystal gazing notes from their last session. They went over their notes with the rest of their classmates, but Harry wasn't really concentrating. Breathing the thick, pungent atmosphere of the room was making his headache worse.

            Trelawney finished her review, added some comments about a few points from her last lecture, and set them all to practicing with crystal balls. Harry leaned back in his chair and massaged his temples. Ron gazed at him worriedly.

            "You sure you're all right?" he said in a low voice.

            "I need to get out of this room," Harry said murmured.

            Ron checked his watch. "Not much longer," he said reassuringly.

            Professor Trelawney was stopping at all the tables to check the progress of the exercise. Seated at the back of the room, Harry and Ron's was the last table she came to.

            "How's it coming, boys?" she asked.

            Ron, hoping to keep her attention away from Harry, who he really thought seemed ill, asked, "Could you walk me through the procedure again, Professor?"

            "Certainly, Mr. Weasley…"

            Harry stared at the crystal ball, pretending to concentrate as Professor Trelawney rattled on. The orb looked red, the color of the room's furnishings. Dark shapes of students reflected oddly in the crystal. There was a stocky reflection of a red-haired person, probably just Ron's, distorted by the shape of the crystal…

            Harry gave a faint gasp as a roaring noise sounded in his ears. A roar, a low growl, a crash, faraway tinny noises like…screams…?

            "Thanks, Professor."

            He snapped back to reality, shuddering, to see Professor Trelawney going back to the front of the classroom.

            "Very good, class, that's all for today."

            The two boys gathered their things and left with their classmates. Harry took a deep breath of fresh air as they got to the bottom of the ladder. Ron put a hand on his shoulder as they went down the stairs to meet Hermione.

            She was waiting for them at the bottom. "Ready for lunch?" She stopped as she caught sight of Harry's face, which was slightly pale. "Are you okay?"

            "You two go on," Harry said a little tiredly. "I think I'll go and lie down until after lunch."

            Ron and Hermione, both concerned, opened their mouths to speak, but Harry went on, "Don't worry. I probably just need to let the air of Trelawney's room clear out of my head."

            "Are you sure?" asked Hermione.

            "Yeah," said Harry. "I'll see you after lunch."

***

            "I think it's just the fumes," Ron said to Hermione at lunch. "Trelawney's room was so thick today I don't know how we stayed awake. The smell probably made his headache worse. He seemed all right until we went up there."

            Hermione's brow was furrowed in concern. "Did you ask if he wanted to see Madam Pomfrey?"

            "He said no."

            "Well, maybe a good lie-down is all Harry'll need. But if he doesn't get any better, we should make him go to the Hospital Wing."

            "Ron, Hermione!" a voice called. Ginny hurried over, smiling. She plopped down next to Hermione and asked, "Where's Harry?"

            "He had a headache, so he went to have a rest," Hermione answered.

            "Oh," said Ginny, her face falling a little. "I wanted to thank him for this morning. Is he okay?"

            "Probably," Ron said. "Thank him for what?"

            "My present, of course!"

            Ron and Hermione looked at each other, perplexed.

            "We didn't see him give you anything," Ron said.

            "It was after you left for class," Ginny explained. "I was just getting ready to go myself, and Hedwig flew in and dropped it off with a birthday note. I thought you knew."

            Hermione smiled. "All he said was that he needed to send an owl. What did he give you?"

            "Look!"

            They looked. Ginny was wearing a pair of red gold earrings in the shape of roses with silver leaves edged in gold. She held out her hand, and they saw a matching silver ring with a red gold rose on it.

            "I couldn't believe it!" Ginny went on happily. "It was so sweet of him, he said it was to thank me for the gift I sent him for his birthday!"

            "So that's what he didn't want to show me at the shop," Ron chuckled.

            "Shop?" asked Hermione.

            "Last weekend. We were shopping for gifts, and there was one that he wouldn't let me see."

            "Well, I still want to thank him," Ginny said.

            "We've got Care of Magical Creatures last today," Hermione told her. "Why don't you come down and meet us by the lake after school?"

            "All right," said Ginny, as they got up to return to class. "See you then!"

***

            "Finally, last class," Ron said, hitching himself up to sit on the paddock fence outside Hagrid's hut next to Harry and Hermione. "And the best one of the day."

            "The best except that we have to have it with Slytherin, that is," Harry responded, glancing a short distance down the fence. He seemed to be feeling a bit better since lunch, though he had met up with his friends afterward looking preoccupied.

            They had gotten to Hagrid's hut a bit early and were waiting for the others. Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle were skulking near the paddock gate twenty yards away from them.

            "What's Hagrid got for us today?" asked Hermione.

            "I don't know, but he seemed happy about it," answered Harry. "I'm not sure if that's good or bad."

            Ron nodded in agreement. Hagrid in that kind of mood usually meant something of a toss-up.

            "Hey, you three!" Hagrid greeted them cheerfully as he came out of his hut. The other students were arriving now. "Goin' ter have a good class today! Got summat special fer ya!"

            Something special turned out to be a Siberian Snow Bull. It was a lot prettier than a normal bull, snowy white, gleaming slightly in the sun. It ambled up to where Hagrid was leaning on the fence and prodded the half-giant's sleeve with its nose.

            "Ain't he lovely?" Hagrid sighed happily, petting the animal's nose.

            The bull seemed calm enough, so the three of them reached over to stroke its head, which felt cold and smooth under their hands. It closed its eyes lazily and sidled closer to them so they could continue petting, and stuck out a large tongue to give Hagrid an affectionate lick.

            "Why do you have blankets wrapped around his horns, Hagrid?" Hermione questioned.

            "You'll see," he replied.

            The rest of the class had arrived and Hagrid instructed them to sit up on the fence as Harry and his friends were before launching into his lecture. The bulls came from the icy plains of Siberia, where their color helped them to blend into the landscape, and they were highly valued by potion makers for their ability to find a certain type of lichen that was used in a remedy for an infant illness common to children of magic birth.

            "It's one o' their fav'rite foods," Hagrid said as the bull wandered back and forth along the fence, allowing the students to pet it. "All the potion maker has ta do is follow it aroun', and there ya go. It's the fastest way."

            "But what's magical about it?" asked Lavendar Brown.

            "Watch." Hagrid unwound the blankets from the bull's horns, which gleamed like icy crystal in the sunlight. He picked up a log that lay on the ground beside the fence and held it out to the bull, which lowered its head and touched the log with its horns.

            The piece of wood instantly turned white, then transparent. Hagrid let it drop, and it shattered on the ground. The pieces began to vanish into the grass.

            "It can use its horns ta turn things ta ice if it wants."

            Murmurs of interest went up and down the line of students on the fence. Hagrid added a few more facts and then said, "For next class, one an' a half feet on the bulls' habitat, magic powers, and relevance to the wizardin' community. Have a good weeken'."

            The class began packing up their things when there was an angry bellow. What happened next was so fast and unexpected that afterward, it took Harry a little while to sort out on his head what had happened.

            The bull had wandered back to where he and his friends were sitting. There was the sound of a loud slap, and suddenly the fence rail beneath them froze and cracked, spilling the three of them to the ground. Harry landed face forward on the grass and heard the crack of his glasses breaking.

            The impact caused the pain in his head, which had lessened slightly after his lunchtime nap, to return with startling speed. Screams and yells and the sounds of running feet and hooves filled his ears as he struggled to see without his glasses. He could just make out a gap in the fence above him where they had been perched a second before. Black blurs were leaping away from the light-colored smear of the fence. The fuzzy white shape of the bull turned and charged at another black shape on the ground inside the paddock.

            Several people shouted in horror. Without stopping to think, Harry whipped his wand from his robes, pointed at the dark shape, and roared, "WINGARDIUM LEVIOSA!"

            The black blur shot into the air to float above the paddock, safely out of the bull's reach.

            Thundering footsteps, and Harry saw the huge dark shape of Hagrid running past him and jumping through the gap in the fence to the bull. He quickly got an arm around its neck, bringing it to a halt before stroking its head and talking to it softly to calm it.

            Harry sat up carefully, his wand arm still outstretched. Passing his wand in front of him, he floated the person he was levitating over to the safe side of the fence before lowering his arm, moving the student slowly to the ground. He let out a sigh of relief and turned to Ron and Hermione.

            "You two okay?"

            "Fine," said Ron shakily.

            "We're okay," Hermione said in a slightly quavering voice. Harry could vaguely see her gathering something up from the ground. "Occulus reparo!"

            Harry's world slid back into focus as she slipped his now repaired glasses back onto his face. "Thanks, Hermione."

            "That was quite some levitation charm," she told him.

            "Who fell over the fence?" asked Harry. "Are they all right?"

            "YOU BLOODY IDIOTS!"

            "Yeah, I think so," Ron said dryly.

            Harry looked for the source of the shout and found Malfoy yelling furiously at Crabbe and Goyle.

            "ALL RIGH'!" Hagrid called angrily from the paddock, where the bull was calming down now, standing still and breathing hard. "WHO DID THAT?!"

            The three of them stood up as the rest of the class glared at Goyle.

            "What happened?" Harry asked softly.

            "I think Goyle slapped the bull and it got angry," Ron whispered back

            "And I saw Crabbe accidentally knock Malfoy into the paddock when he tried to jump off the fence," Hermione added.

            "Was that you, Goyle?!" Hagrid demanded, striding over. Standing under the angry scowls of both Hagrid and Malfoy, Goyle quailed and nodded.

            "Detention and fifty points from Slytherin, and be glad it ain't more! That stupid stunt almos' killed someone!" Hagrid turned away from the quaking Slytherin and addressed the rest of the class. "Who did that levitation charm?"

            "Harry did, Professor," said Hermione.

            "Good save, Harry. Fifty points to Gryffindor."

            Relieved, the shaken class dispersed into little groups and began making their way back to their common rooms or to other after-school spots. Malfoy met Harry's eyes, giving him a cold nod, which Harry returned, before stalking away, Crabbe and Goyle cowering behind him.

            "Good job, Harry," Ron said. Waving to Hagrid, who was leading the bull to the makeshift shelter he had built for it, the three of them walked away to the lake.

            "At least it'll probably stop him bothering us for a while," said Harry, rubbing his forehead.

            "Still got that headache?" Hermione asked.

            "Yeah, sort of. I hit my head on the ground when we fell off the fence. Nothing to worry about."

            Ron and Hermione stared at him dubiously.

            "Honestly, if it isn't better by tomorrow morning, I'll go to the Hospital Wing," Harry promised.

            "See that you do, or we'll drag you there ourselves," Ron threatened jokingly.

            They wandered slowly down to the lake, where the giant squid basked languidly in the shallows. Fred and George Weasley, along with their friend Lee Jordan, were chatting on a rock near the shore and waved at them as they passed.

            "Seen Ginny?" Fred called.

            "Not yet," Ron called back.

            "We've got one more birthday present for her from Mum and Dad," said George. "Tell her if you see her, okay?"

            "Okay. Just don't do anything to it before you give it to her, all right?"

They waved to the twins and Lee and continued walking. A few minutes later a voice called, "Hi guys!"

Ginny hurried up from the direction of the castle. Harry suddenly looked shy.

"Hi Ginny," Hermione said.

"Fred and George say they've got another gift for you from Mum and Dad," Ron told his sister.

"Thanks Ron, I'll talk to them later." She turned to Harry, and he saw that she was wearing the present he'd given her. "Can I talk to you for a few minutes?"

Harry glanced nervously at Hermione and Ron, who smiled back at him. "See you in a bit," Ron said. He and Hermione moved on ahead.

When they were gone, Ginny shyly stepped toward Harry and gathered him into a hug, wrapping her arms around his neck. Quickly getting over his momentary surprise, he gently returned the hug, patting her back.

"Thank you," she said softly into his ear before letting go.

"You're welcome," he said, giving her a small smile as she stepped back again. "I'm glad you liked them."

"They're perfect. Did you choose them?"

Harry shrugged sheepishly. "Yeah."

"You really didn't have to."

"Neither did you," Harry said, holding up a hand and showing her the watch she had given him, strapped to his wrist. Ginny blushed a little, but smiled. "And they reminded me of you."

"Why?" asked Ginny.

"When I got to the Burrow this summer, and you came out to greet me, you were wearing a red rose in your hair," Harry said hesitantly. "I kind of got the image stuck in my head because it was so pretty." Here, Harry colored too while Ginny's smile widened at the compliment. "I just saw that picture in my head again when I found the jewelry, so that's why I picked it."

"But you really shouldn't have though," Ginny said. "The watch wasn't a very big gift. This…" Her earrings glittered as she gazed down at the rose ring on her finger.

"It wasn't just the watch." Harry thought for a moment, trying to think of how to make her understand. "You don't realize what it means to know that you and your family are thinking of me. When you've been alone with people who loathe you as long as I have, receiving gifts from people who care means a lot, even if they are small. That you thought of me enough to give me anything makes it invaluable."

Ginny squeezed his hand briefly in sympathy, then let go. Harry gave her a small smile, then grimaced.

"Harry?" Ginny said in concern.

Now that he had said everything he had wanted to, Harry found that his head was pounding. "Just a headache," he said, trying to reassure her. "I've had it all day." He rubbed his forehead.

Ginny stopped walking, reached over, and gently turned his face toward her. "You're really pale, Harry," she said worriedly. Her hand moved up to his forehead. "And you're warm too. I think you need to see Madam Pomfrey."

"It's okay, Ginny, I-ah!"

Harry suddenly staggered backward against a tree as if someone had struck him, both hands flying to his head. The pain in his head was so bad he could barely see.

"Harry! Harry, what's wrong?!"

He sank dizzily to his knees, the world swaying drunkenly before his eyes, the pain coalescing to a single point in his head.

His scar.

Ginny's hands raised his face. "What is it, what can I do?" she said frantically.

Harry tried to answer, but his words choked off as the sound of a familiar cold laugh filled his ears.

***

"What d'you think they're talking about?" Ron asked Hermione.

"Something pleasant I hope," she replied. "After all-"

They were abruptly interrupted by the sound of Ginny's shrieks.