Someday, I'll own something of great worth. This will not be Harry Potter, as J K Rowling already owns that.
The Afternoon
Ryua and Hermionie left Arithmancy together, chatting about the lesson. Both were very enthusiastic about the new course, and Ryua was going over plans to see if her brother's name turned up very different results. Hermionie suddenly clapped a hand to her forehead, and said, "Oh, Merlin's beard, I forgot my bag. Just go on to lunch, I'll see you in potions," and walked back to the classroom.
Ryua shrugged and went down to lunch. Ten minutes later, Hermionie finally arrived in the Great hall. Oddly enough, she came through the east door, at the tail end of a group of Hufflepuffs. Strange, Ryua thought, I don't recall any Hufflepuffs in our class. And how did she get to the east wing from Arithmancy anyways? Unfortunately, she wasn't going to get a chance to ask, as they didn't have Potions or Arithmancy again for a few days. Crabbe and Goyle came and sat down, pockets full of what looked like sugar-coated quills, pebbles, and numerous other small objects. "What have you been up to?" Ryua asked as Draco joined them.
"Food Spelling really is all it's cracked up to be. You really should have signed up, you know. We learned this excellent spell, it turns anything you want into candy..." Draco kept talking, obviously on a sugar high, "It turned out to be a charm even the goons can do, but they just mugged half of the Hufflepuffs for theirs anyways..." He was still talking, "We have to be careful using it out of class, though, Professor Specht said he'd expel us if we turned a first year or something valuable into candy..." Merlin's beard, she'd finished two sandwitches and he still hadn't shut his mouth.
"We've got Care of Magical Creatures after lunch, right?" Ryua asked, loud enough to cut across his hyper chatter. This did stop the praise of candy charms speech, but didn't stop the talk.
"Yeah, should be kind of interesting, eh? But I doubt it'll be any good with that oaf Hagrid teaching it..."
Ryua gave up, and just went downstairs to get her Monster Book of Monsters. Oh, great, it was acting up again, having migrated from her messed up drawers to her bed. For some reason, it liked Parsyl, and would occasionally calm down for her. Unfortunately, Parsyl hated the book, as it had a nasty habit of trying to eat her tail, and she was nowhere to be seen. Ryua pounced on it, tying it up with the sash from her housecoat, and said, "Thanks Parsyl, you were really helpful," to the empty room. She stuffed the still struggling book into her bag and went up to the entrance hall. Draco's sugar rush had worn off, as he was no longer vibrating. Apparently, wrestling his own book had taken care of the extra energy.
The sun shone on them as the Slytherins made their way across the grounds towards the small Gamekeeper's hut for their lesson. Not five minutes later, they were joined by the Gryffindor third years. Ryua saw both groups sigh, obviously frustrated with yet another class together. Hermionie gave her a small smile, however.
Hagrid came out of the hut to meet them all, obviously very cheerful about his first lesson. "Now, the firs' thing yeh'll want ter do is open yer books..."
"How?" Draco's voice came clear and arrogant over Hagrid's.
"Eh?"
"How do we open our books?" he repeated. Ryua had to admit, he had a point.
"Yeh've got ter stroke 'em!"
Well, that explained how Parsyl had opened it. She must've slithered over it one night, but unfortunately, it didn't last long, and Ryua hadn't been able to convince Parsyl to go near it again. Draco was talking again. Actually, if it wasn't so cruel, it would be almost funny to see such a pathetic, whiny little kid intimidate such a big, strong professor. He lumbered off into the Forbidden Forest, coming back a moment later leading a dozen hippogriffs. They looked oddly different from the ones at home, though Ryua couldn't guess why.
"Hippogriffs! Beau'iful, aren' they?" Hagrid was back to being confident and excited again. Unfortunately, he lost his momentum briefly asking for volunteers, as no one seemed keen to get closer to them. Ryua was actually about to volunteer when Potter stepped forward, much to the excitement of his classmates. From what she could gather, his death had been foretold in Divination, or something like that. He didn't exactly look confident either, but was obviously determined that his friend's first class would be a success. Nice of him...
"Now, the firs' thing yeh gotta know abou' Hippogriffs is they're proud. Easily offended, hippogriffs are. Don't never insult one 'cause it might be the last thing yeh do." Hagrid was cheerfully lecturing a rather pale looking Harry as he pushed him into the paddock.
Proud? Easily offended? Our hippogriffs are meek and obedient. What's he talking about? Then she got it. Just like he was trying to do with his children, Lucius had simply beat out all possibility of rebellion. Well, these hippogriffs weren't in the slightest bit meek. The one called Buckbeak was staring Potter down with a glare akin to a Malfoy, clearly measuring him up. Then, to everyone's surprise, especially Potter, it knelt, allowing him to pet it. Of course, Hagrid then had him up riding the creature, although Potter clearly wanted nothing more than to go back and let the other students take over. When he landed, everyone broke into applause, even Ryua who made sure she wasn't directly in the line of sight of anyone dangerous. She moved up to join Hermionie and Weasley, officially because they had the less crowded hippogriff. "Hi."
"Hi. Oh, Ron, this is Ryua, she's really a lot better than Draco. We've got Arithmancy together." Hermionie was trying to convince Ron she wasn't about to kill him where he stood, but Ryua wasn't actually sure she was getting through to him.
"I guess you probably hate me, from the look on your face. Honestly, though, I don't have anything against you or Hermionie. And anyways, it's just a name thing, right? Some family feud my Father is intent on continuing has nothing to do with me. I wouldn't mind having some intelligent, decent human beings for friends." Ryua held out her hand.
Ron took it. Gingerly, but he took it. Ryua smiled at him, relieved she had been able to speak with someone else and get a positive response. "Now, lets go be very polite to this beautiful chestnut creature standing so majestically beside us." She wasn't about to let her day get cut short by having an arm ripped off.
Of course, Draco had no such plans. He hadn't been paying attention to the lecture, and assumed these were hippogriffs who had been beaten into submission. Ryua just heard "...you great ugly brute?" from Draco's direction, and rolled her eyes in exasperation.
"What an idiot," she muttered, turning to face him. Well, it was a lot of blood, so she could actually understand his screams of panic and pain. Hermionie opened the gate as Hagrid scooped him up and ran off with great loping strides to the castle. "Just great. Wonderful. Just what my day needed to finish it off. Nice to meet you, Ron, I'll see you both around sometime, but I've got to go act sympathetic towards my useless brother. Bye!"
Author's Note: I've been completely unable to find names of people in either Ravenclaw or Slytherin. I've therefore borrowed some from people. If anyone feels like becoming a student in my books, please send in a name (or two or three) and I'll write you in eventually. It would be nice to have a full quidditch team, for example.
And Food Spelling is a class I made up. I needed somewhere for Draco and group to go while Ryua was in Arithmancy, and they weren't in Divination or would be at all likely to take Muggle Studies. The teacher's name is actually one from my own school who teaches Food Prep. In the magic course, they turn everyday objects into food, food into everyday objects, food into different food, learn how to present a feast... all that good stuff. Just in case you wanted to know.
