'What is wrong with you both?' Hermione eventually demanded, slapping her self-inking quill down on her parchment. Harry had spent almost the entire lunch hour sulking in his seat in the transfiguration classroom. Neville kept shooting him nervous glances and hadn't made a single comment on Hermione's frankly abysmal sketch of a helios flower.
'We had divination this morning.' Neville said, as if that explained anything. Hermione raised an eyebrow across the table at Theo, then McGonagall sighed heavily from her desk at the front of the room.
'So who is dying this year?' The teacher asked. Five sets of surprised eyes flicked towards the front of the classroom.
'Pardon?' Hermione asked dubiously.
'I am.' Harry admitted, fiddling with his ring.
'Well, Mr. Potter. Sybill Trelawney has predicted the death of one student every year, none of whom have so far died.' McGonagall informed him.
'But there was a Grim in his cup!' Neville moaned. 'Even I saw it.'
'Mr Longbottom, do think.' McGonagall sighed. 'What else might a Grim represent?'
There was a moment of silence, then both Gryffindor's eyes widened.
'Hermione!' Harry breathed, looking far more cheerful.
'Exactly, Mr. Potter. Divination is a particularly woolly subject and open to interpretation, particularly for those of us without the gift of the sight.' The professor's eyes flicked briefly to Hermione before returning to the two Gryffindors.
Already, Harry seemed much happier and he quickly settled into his work, pulling out his copy of unfogging the future and taking a sandwich from the platter in the middle of the table.
'What do you think Hagrid will be teaching in Care of Magical Creatures?' Neville asked after a moment, a clear note of nerves in his voice. Hagrid had a reputation for fearsome beasts and a sense of danger that wasn't quite inline with every else's.
'Hopefully bowtruckles, maybe unicorns if he really wants to make an impression.' Hermione mused, pulling her copy of The Monster Book of Monsters from her bag. Four runes gleamed a cheerful baby blue on the cover, painted on with some leftover paint from when her father had been repainting the fence. It snored heavily as she opened it, pages ruffling in enchanted breath.
Neville watched warily - she'd done the same to all of their books, but Neville had received a nasty bite from his beforehand and had been forced to drink two doses of foul skelegro to regrow all the shattered bones in his fingers.
She glanced down the contents page, discovering creatures such as Thestrals, Werewolves, Hippogriffs, Fwoopers and Lethifolds but very few of the more benign creatures that Gellert and Berg had been studying in their first lessons. It was concerning, particularly because most British wixen seemed to spend very little time around anything more magical than a post owl.
'Hopefully, it will be unicorns.' Hermione decided. McGonagall's lips had gone slightly pale.
It wasn't.
They parted with Ginny just outside the classroom - the younger witch heading off to charms whilst the four of them descended into the bright sunlight of the grounds. The sun was blindingly bright and instantly made their black robes incredibly warm, despite all of them wearing lighter summer versions rather than the heavy woollen ones that Madam Malkin sold.
They were among the last to arrive and Hagrid strode from the forest a moment later. Malfoy's lip curled at the sight of him, casually swinging a brace of pheasants.
'Not unicorns.' Neville muttered, eyeing the bedraggled birds. There was a reasonably high chance that whatever they were going to learn about was carnivorous. Hermione bit her lip, remaining studiously silent as Ron made his way over to them; whilst Harry was very protective of Hagrid, he could recognise that the massive groundskeeper did possess some less desirable traits. Ron, however, could be completely irrational in his defence of the half-giant against Slytherins, particularly since he'd learned that Hagrid had been framed by one.
Hagrid beckoned to them, and bellowing about treats and how great his lesson was going to be, he led them off in the direction of the forest. Neville had gone even paler.
'There's no werewolves in there.' Hermione assured him under her breath. 'And even if there were for some reason, it's midday on a waning gibbous. You'd be safe.'
'I'm more worried about the giant spiders.' Neville muttered, gathering his courage and trailing after her. His wand was clutched in his right hand and his left almost shimmered with gathered magic incase he needed to form a shield in a hurry. The young priestess' chest warmed with pride.
Fortunately, instead of taking them into the shadowy depths of the ominous trees, Hagrid turned left and followed the border between grass and pine needles. The light shade was a relief and the path that meandered between the boulders was really very pleasant. They reached a fence soon enough, which looped around to form a large paddock. It was empty, but full of lush green grass and speckled with large daisies.
The class gathered around the fence as Hagrid unlatched a large gate and slipped through. He instructed them to get their books out and turn to page two hundred and six. Hermione and her friends quickly complied, balancing the heavy books on the roughly hewn fence as they settled on the requested page. They were the only ones to do so. Malfoy's was strapped shut by a belt and one of the Gryffindors had used a number of woodworking clamps.
Hagrid hesitated, his eyes wide with horrified disbelief. Then he noticed Harry, who was scanning the requested page obliviously. The Boy-Who-Lived jumped when he was addressed, almost dropping his book.
'Go on, 'arry. Tell Mister Malfoy how you opened yer book.'
Harry blinked twice, then lifted it to show the brightly painted runes.
'Hermione painted a slumbering curse on it.' He explained awkwardly. Hagrid looked crestfallen.
'So none of yeh've been able to open your books?' He asked, plucking Ron's out of his hands. There was a collective shaking of heads. 'Yeh've just got to stroke them.' Hagrid informed them all. He tore off the spellotape that was wrapped firmly around Ron's book. It snapped viciously at his fingers, which he moved deftly out of the way, running one massive finger down the spine as the book fought. It calmed instantly, flopping open in his palms.
'Oh obviously... we should have stroked it. Why didn't we guess?' Malfoy drawled. Crabbe and Goyle guffawed loudly. Most people were intelligent enough to stroke their book's spines before they unbound them but one of the Gryffindor boys ended up with a nasty bruise on his wrist and Parkinson tore her robes when her manicured nails failed to be gentle enough in her stroking.
'I... I thought they were funny.' Hagrid sounded crestfallen.
'Very funny.' Theo drawled. 'A book that almost ripped Neville's hand off.'
'Shut it, Nott!' Ron said aggressively. Theo opened his mouth, perhaps to say something back, but Neville nudged him firmly in the ribs. He shut up.
'Alright...' Hagrid had clearly lost his train of thought, along with a significant amount of his confidence. 'Yeh've got books...and...and now yeh need creatures! Yeah, I go and get them.'
With that, Hagrid disappeared off into the dark, forbidden forest.
'Hippogriffs.' Hermione muttered, running her fingers over the line drawing in the book. They were spectacular, and relatively simple to handle if they'd been trained. Even Berg's, which was notoriously bad tempered, would only react to a direct insult. But if someone did somehow fail to perform... the results would be devastating.
'Ooh.' One of the Gryffindor girls pointed at the treeline where Hagrid was reemerging. No less that six spectacular hippogriffs trotted behind him on long chains which led to bulky collars around their necks. He jostled the leads aggressively enough that he would have earned a solid snap if he'd done it to Berg's beast. Most of the class edged backwards cautiously, leaving Hermione standing out in front as she surveyed the beasts critically. They were unfit - pets, unlike the muscular working animals of the 17th Century. They were differently proportioned to Berg's as well; smaller wingspans and bulkier bodies, closer to the wild hippogriffs and with none of the selective breeding that made them capable of carrying a rider over a long distance.
'First thing yeh gotta know about Hippogriffs is; they're proud.' Hagrid explained. Hermione wasn't listening, nor were Malfoy and his cronies.
'Right? Who wants to go first?' Hagrid asked and Hermione was too slow to even register what was said. She'd never even imagined that he'd be actually getting them to approach the hippogriffs, particularly not in the first lesson. Singled out and with no way to subtly back out, Hermione shrugged off her summer robe and ducked beneath the fence.
Hagrid didn't like her; he was one of Dumbledore's devout and he was almost as adamant as Ron Weasley in his hatred of Slytherins. She also suspected that the half-giant resented that she'd made friends with Harry, and considered her a bad influence... but as far as she was concerned, he could join the queue.
As she crossed the grass, Hagrid separated a grey one out from the herd and fastened the other chains to a peg on the fence. Hermione eyed it, doubting that even the sturdily built fence would be able to hold that many beasts if something happened. They were close to the forest where Hogwarts kept a herd of thestrals, and hippogriffs were notoriously the favoured prey of thestral herds - it took intense training to teach the solitary eagle-hybrids to remain calm around the skeletal beasts.
To her horror, Hagrid, with no more instruction than "be polite", then pulled the beast's collar off. It's not like he even had a wand to subdue the thing if it decided it didn't like her!
Fortunately, she already knew the basics. She curtsied deeply and flawlessly, maintaining eye contact to show that she was not afraid and certainly not submissive, despite the courtesy she was showing. It seemed that Beakly, or whatever the bird's name was, was even worse tempered than Berg's and didn't appreciate being considered her equal. It tossed it's head and squarked, eyeing her menacingly.
'Ah...' Hagrid sounded decidedly nervous, 'back away now, back away.'
Hermione didn't. She'd challenged the Hippogriff by meeting it's eye and now she needed to prove herself. Of course, having brown hair made things more difficult; black, white and grey birds tended to be descended from the more aggressive high altitude hippogriffs, whilst the tans and browns were their more sedate woodland peers. Hippogriffs were, for want of a better word, racist.
For several long, fraught moments, Hermione faced the grey hippogriff. Neither of them blinked, the class behind barely stirred and Hagrid worried his feet, twigs crunching beneath his massive feet.
Then the bird inclined his head. It wasn't quite a bow, but it was an acknowledgement of her and it was enough that she would be allowed to approach him. She offered up a hand and stepped closer, ignoring the startled movement from Hagrid, ghosting her fingers over the glossy feathers of the beast's neck. Quickly, she slipped closer and rubbed gently behind the joint of the wing in the spot that Katana had always loved. The massive beast practically melted.
'Well done, Hermione!' Hagrid boomed, startling both her and the hippogriff. The class broke into applause behind her. 'I reckon he might let you ride him!'
Before she could react, and without a thought to appropriateness or propriety, Hagrid beefy hands closed around her waist and lifted her clean off the ground, high over the wings of the beast and landed her unnecessarily hard on the beast's bare back. Thankfully, she was too shocked to screech in protest, so she didn't spook any of the beasts. Then before she'd even had a chance to cast a sticking charm, Hagrid slammed his hand down onto the gleaming rump behind her.
The hippogriff launched into the air and Hermione threw herself desperately forwards, wrapping her arms around the beast's neck and clinging on for dear life as they surged up above the trees.
She knew that her legs were clamped uncomfortably tight against the beast's rib cage and her knees were hooked awkwardly over the wing joins, making it incredibly difficult for the animal to move it's wings but at least holding her somewhat in place. She muttered a sticking charm into her shoulder between gasps for air, then negotiated her legs into the appropriate spot behind the joints before finally relaxing enough to take a look around.
Unlike Katana, whose massive, leathery wingspan allowed for smooth gliding and sharp acrobatic manoeuvres, the smaller hippogriff had to work much harder to keep them aloft. It's wings beat rapidly, jerking them up before it's dense mass pulled them back down again. Hermione hated it. Hippogriffs weren't the best mounts even when they were bred and trained for the purpose; there was a reason that people bred Granians so extensively. At least with a sticking charm she didn't feel quite so much like she was about to plunge to her death at any moment as she was jolted back and forth.
Yet even with her uncomfortable ride, Hermione had to admit that it was a spectacular day for flying. The sun was wonderfully warm against her skin and it gave the rolling lawns a lazy summer glow. The lake sparkled invitingly and Hermione could only dream of flying Katana over it's smooth surface and diving into the refreshing water. The hippogriff seemed to think the same, angling towards it and dipping so low that the wingbeats whipped up spray around them. Then, when Hermione was just beginning to wonder whether the beast had decided to make a bid for freedom despite the passenger on its back, it climbed back up and looped over the forbidden forest. Even the dark trees failed to look ominous in the golden sunlight - pinecones speckled the branches and several parasitical yet pretty floss moss plants crawled along the most sheltered boughs, their little blue blooms winking in draping, gossamer waterfalls.
They swept further around, then dropped through the pinprick hole in the trees to land in a tangle of legs and wings in middle of the grassy paddock. The class applauded as she cancelled her sticking charm and dismounted as gracefully as one could without a saddle.
When Hagrid asked who wanted to go next, everyone rushed forwards and they were assigned a beast each in their groups. Hermione trailed her friends over to the black one as Malfoy and his cronies were assigned the one she'd just ridden.
'This is unbelievably dangerous.' Hermione muttered nervously, eyeing the class as they bowed nervously.
'What are you talking about?' Ron demanded, almost tripping over his own robes as he attempted to bow. 'This is brilliant.'
'So far... but all it takes is...'
'This isn't difficult at all!' Malfoy declared loudly, his voice ringing across the paddock - too loudly to be genuine conversation. 'I mean, if Longbottom could do it?'
Neville scowled at him across the black hippogriff's back, rubbing at the spot that Hermione had shown him. The beast looked far more content than the grey, which was eyeing up Malfoy as if it couldn't decide whether to go for his intestines or his eyeballs.
'I bet you're not dangerous at all, you-'
Harry struck so quickly that Hermione almost missed his movement, his arm arching up and over like he was bowling a cricket ball. Instead of a ball, an orb of crimson light shot from his hand and collided solidly with Malfoy's torso. The pureblood crumpled on the spot, his knees folding and letting him topple forwards into a deep, supplicating bow aw the hippogriff's feet. His nose was planted painfully into the hard dirt.
'Arry!' Hagrid bellowed, charging between stunned students who'd hardly even noticed that something was happening.
'He was saying something rude to the hippogriff, Professor.' Harry said angrily.
'But yeh can't just attack another student!' Hagrid bellowed, rolling Malfoy over. A nasty bruise was already beginning to discolour his cheek where it had hit a stone.
'I didn't.' Harry answered resolutely. 'I stopped him doing something stupid.'
It was no good; as well intentioned as he may have been, Pansy Parkinson was already wailing in outrage. Hagrid scooped up the unconscious student easily and instructed Harry to follow him up to the castle to speak to McGonagall. The rest of the class was dismissed, scooping up their biting books and following them up to the castle at a far more subdued rate.
'That could have gone better.' Theo muttered under his breath, peering up at the retreating forms of Harry and Hagrid.
'Brilliant stunner though.' Neville commented, nudging their arms until the broke away from the rest of the class and strolled to the stone seats they'd created early on in their Hogwarts careers.
'Yeah, that was pure witchcraft.' Theo agreed, sweeping a couple of fallen leaves off the closest stone and dropping his and Hermione's bag at the base. 'And powerful - Draco was out like a candle.'
'He is a powerful wizard.' Hermione pointed out. 'We're all powerful.'
'And that's why you picked us.' Theo laughed, scooping his snoring book out of his bag and turning to the page on hippogriffs. 'He'll be fine anyway; McGonagall loves him and hopefully Hagrid will learn not to trust someone who's out to get him with such an easy way to discredit him?'
'I doubt it.' Hermione answered wryly, lounging back onto the sunniest rock and letting it bake her like a lizard as she pulled out her Herbology textbook and the sketch of the Helios flower that she'd done during lunch. Neville snorted in disbelief at the sight of it.
'Is that a tentacle or a petal?' He asked, poking at an uneven, wavering line that wriggled out from the base of her flower. Hermione glanced down and bit her lip.
'Not sure.' She admitted. Theo snickered and Neville plopped down next to her. Internally, Hermione smiled. It couldn't be a much more enjoyable afternoon.