"Really, what has gotten into you all today?" asked Professor McGonagall.

Their class had been rather on edge and tense since their first Divination lesson and therefore there had been no reaction the first time they witnessed Professor's McGonagall's animagi form.

"Not that it matters but that is the first time my transformation has not gotten an applause from a class."

Everyone's eyes turned to where the six of them sat at the back of the classroom, all staring at Harry but no one spoke a word. Then Hermione raised her hand.

"We've just come from our first Divination lesson, Professor, and we were reading tea leaves, and -"

"Ah, of course." said Professor McGonagall. "There is no need to say anymore, Miss Granger. Tell me, which of you will be dying this year?"

Everyone stared at her but no one said a word.

"Me." said Harry flatly.

"I see." fixing Harry with her hard stare. "Then you should know, Potter, that Sybil Trelawney has predicted the death of one student a year since she arrarrived at thus school. None of them have yet succumbed to their fate. Seeing death omens is her favourite way of welcoming a new class. If it were not for the fact that I never speak ill of my colleagues -" Professor McGonagall released a shaky breath of frustration. She continued on, more calmly. "Divination is one of the more imprecise branches of magic. I shall not conceal from you that I have very little patience with it. True Seers are very rare, and Professor Trelawney..."

Professor McGonagall stopped again, and then continued with a matter-of-fact tone, "You look in excellen health to me, Potter, so you will excuse me if I don't let you off homework today. I assure you that if you die, you need not hand it in."

Hermione laughed. So did Bella.

"See, I told you Harry. No Grim." grinned Bella.

After Transfiguration they joined the crowd heading to the Great Hall for lunch. Ron's face was sour, as it had been all morning, but Harry had cheered up slightly.

"Cheer up, Ron." said Hermione, pushing a bowl full of stew across the table towards him. "You heard what McGonagall said."

"Harry." said Ron in a nervous voice. "You haven't seen a great black dog anywhere, have you?"

"Of course he hasn't. Harry doesn't have the Grim. Right, Harry?" said Bella.

"I have actually." replied Harry. "I seen one the night I left the Dursley's."

Ron's fork fell to his plate with a clatter.

"Probably a stray." said Hermione.

Ron looked at Hermione in horror.

"You don't understand Hermione - if Harry's seen the Grim, that's bad." he said.

"Bella doesn't believe in the Grim and she's Pureblooded." replied Hermione.

"Bella's daft." cried Ron.

"Hey!" replied Bella in offense.

"You are!" replied Ron. "Our uncle Bilius seen the Grim and - and he died twenty four hours later! and yet you still don't believe."

"Oh Ron, come on." sighed Bella.

"Merely a coincidence." said Hermione calmly, pouring herself some pumpkin juice.

"You don't know what you're talking about!" said Ron, beginning to get angry. "Grims scare the living daylights out of most wizards!"

"Not me." replied Bella.

"I'm with Ron on this one." said Emily. "The Grim is a terrifying omen."

Bella sighed and Hermione shook her head in exhasperation.

"The Grim isn't an omen, it's the cause of death! A wizard sees a great black dog and dies of fright. Harry's still with us because he's not stupid enough to see a dog and think oh well better pop my clogs now!" cried Hermione, her voice becoming more shrill the more she spoke.

Ron mouthed wordlessly at Hermione who took her new Arithmancy textbook from her bag and propped it open against the juice jug.

"What about you? What do you think?" Bella asked Freya.

"If I'm being honest, I don't really know what I think." she replied. "My mum believed in all that stuff but I haven't really thought about it all since -" Freya stopped speaking and lowered her head, a sad look on her face.

"Are you okay?" asked Bella. She put her hand atop Freya's arm that was resting on the table and squeezed it comfortingly.

"Yeah." replied Freya with a laugh as she wiped her eyes quickly. "Sorry about that."

"Don't apologise, it's okay." Emily assured her.

Hermione smiled down the table at Freya and rolled her eyes when she realised Ron was still glaring hatefully at her.

"If you ask me, Divination seems like a waste of time." said Hermione. "It's not really magic."

"Hermione, the Grim is very real!" huffed Ron.

"You didn't seem so confident when you were telling Harry it was only a sheep." replied Hermione coolly.

"You just don't like being rubbish at something for a change!" he spat.

His words had clearly struck a nerve. Hermione slammed her Arithmancy book closed on the table with such force that Ron's stew flew everywhere and the jug of pumpkin juice flooded the table as it toppled over.

"If being good at Divination means pretending to see death omens in a lump of tea leaves, I don't think I'll be studying it much longer! That lesson was absolute rubbish compared to my Arithmancy class!" Hermione snatched her bag from the bench beside her and stalked out of the hall. Ron frowned.

"What is she talking about? She hasn't had Arithmancy yet."


After lunch, they had their first ever Care of Magical Creatures lesson. Bella was excited to see Hagrid in action and she walked with a spring in her step across the damp courtyard towards Hagrid's hut. Ron and Hermione still weren't speaking to each other and they walked at opposite ends of the group, in silence, leaving the others feeling extremely awkward.

Bella spotted a flash of platinum blond hair in the sun light and huffed, the spring in her step now absent. It was clear that Bella wouldn't enjoy this class as much as she would have done if they weren't sharing with the Slytherins. Hagrod was waiting for his class at the door of his hut. He stood in his moleskin overcoat, with Fang the boarhound at his heels, looking eager to start.

"C'mon now, get a move on!" he called as the rest of the class approached. "Got a real treat for yeh today! Great lesson comin' up! We got everyone? Right, follow me!"

Bella froze, thinking Hagrid was ready to lead them into the forest; if she never set foot in there again for the rest of her life it still wouldn't be enough. Thankfully, Hagrid led them not into the forest but around the trees and five minutes later they stopped beside a large patch of empty ground, enclosed by a small fence.

"Everyone gather 'round the fence here!" he called. "That's it - make sure yeh can see. Now firs' things firs', let's open yer books -"

"How?" drawled Draco.

"Eh?" said Hagrid.

"How do we open our books?" Draco asked again. He pulled his copy of The Monster Book of Monsters from his bag which he had bound shut with a length of rope. Others followed his lead it seemed everyone had bound their books shut with some kind of contraption. Bella had bound hers shut with one of Ron's belts.

"Hasn' - hasn' anyone bin able ter open their book?" asked Hagrid, looking downheartened.

Everyone shook their heads.

"Yeh've got ter stroke them." said Hagrid as if this was the most obvious thing in the world.

Hagrid took Bella's copy from her hand and pulled the belt from around it. The book tried to bite him but Hagrid ran his large forefinger down the spine, and the book shivered. Then it fell open and lay dormant in Hagrid's large palm.

"Oh, how silly we've all been!" sneered Draco. "We should have stroked them! Why didn't we guess!"

"Shut up Malfoy." spat Bella, glaring venemously at him.

"I - I thought they were funny." said Hagrid doubtfully to Bella and the others.

"Oh, tremendously funny!" said Draco loudly. "Really witty, giving us books that try to rip our hands off."

"What part of shut up don't you understand?" cried Bella, stomping over to him. Though her tone of voice may have been intimidating, her height let her down. She hardly made it to his chin.

"Not here." he replied.

Bella huffed, turning away from him. "You're not even worth it."

"Righ' then," said Hagrid who seemed to have lost his enthusiasm. "so... so yeh've got yer books an'... an'... an' now yeh need the Magical Creatures. Yeah. So I'll go an' get 'em. Hang on." Hagrid disappeared into the trees of the forest.

"God, this place is going to the dogs." said Draco. "That oaf teaching classes, my father'll have a fit when I tell him -"

"Shut up, Malfoy." growled Harry as Bella rolled her eyes.

Lavender Brown squealed, drawing everyone's attention from the ensuing row. Trotting towards them were a dozen of the most strange creatures Bella had ever seen. They had the bodies, hind legs and tails of horses but the front legs, wings and head of what looked like a large eagle, with sharp, steel-grey beaks and eyes of vibrant orange. The talons on it's front legs looked deadly and were longer than Bella's forearm. Each creature had a thick leather collar around it's neck, attatched to a long chain and the ends of the chains were clasped in Hagrid's large hands as he jogged into the empty space behind them.

"Gee up there!" he yelled, shaking the chains and urging the creatures towards the fence where the class stood. Everyone took a few steps back as Hagrid brought the creatures to them and tethered them to the fence.

"Hippogriffs!" he cheered, waving a hand towards the creatures. "Beau'iful aren' they?"

Once you were over the inital shock of seeing a half-horse, half-bird hybrid, Hagrid was right, you could appreciate it's beauty. From the way it's eagle feathers effortlessly blended into the hair of the horse, each a different colour; from stormy grey to bronze, pinkish to inky black.

"So." said Hagrid, rubbing his hands together and grinning at the assembled group. "If yer wan' ter come a bit closer."

Bella took another large step backward. She could appreciate the Hippogriffs beauty but that didn't mean she wanted to be in close proximity to it. Harry, Ron and Hermione approached the fence cautiously, Freya and Emily hung back with Bella.

"Now, firs' thing yeh gotta know abou' Hippogriffs is they're proud." said Hagrid. "Easily offended. Hippogriffs are. Don't never insult one, cause it might be the last thing yeh do."

Bella heard Draco whispering behind them with Crabbe and Goyle and she had a funny feeling they were plotting the best way to disrupt Hagrid's lesson.

"Yeh always wait fer the Hippogriff ter make the firs' move," Hagrid continued on. "bow an' yeh wait. If he bows back yer allowed to touch him. If he doesn' bow, then ger away from him sharpish, 'cause those talons hurt."

"Righ' - who wants ter go first?"

Almost everyone back further away. Even Harry, Ron and Hermione looked conflicted. The Hippogriffs were tossing their large heads and flexing their powerful wings; they didn't look as though they would take too kindly to anyone getting too close.

"No one?" said Hagrid sadly.

"I'll do it." said Harry.

There was a sharp gasp from beside Bella and both Lavender and Parvati whispered "Oh, Harry. Remember your tea leaves." Harry ignored them.

"Good man, Harry." said Hagrid cheerily, clapping Harry on the back with his giant hand and nearly sending him toppling to the ground.

"Righ' then - let's see how you get on with Buckbeak."

Hagrid untied the chains, pulled the grey Hippogriff from the others and slipped the large collar from around its neck.

"Easy now Harry." said Hagrid quietly. "Yeh've got eye contact, now try not ter blink - Hippogriff's don' trust yeh if yeh blink too much."

Harry stood with his back to the class for many tense seconds. Being so far away, and being so short, Bella couldn't see what was happening, all she could hear were Hagrid's encouraging words. More tense seconds later and the unthinkable happened; Buckbeak sank onto his front front knees into what was an unmistakable bow.

"Well done Harry!" said Hagrid. "Righ' yeh can pet him, pat his beak, go on."

Harry took a few slow steps towards Buckbeak and raised his hand tentatively, stroking his beak gently. Bella clapped enthusiastically, along with nearly everyone else, when Buckbeak closed his eyes lazily and leaned into Harry's touch.

"I reckon he migh' let yer ride him."

Harry's eyes widened in alarm as Hagrid's giant hands graped his upper arms and plopped him down atop Buckbeak. He slapped Buckbeak's hindquarters and the large creature soared upwards, Harry's yells of terror following him into the sky. Bella backed away from Freya and Emily and perched atop the crumbling wall behind them.

"What do you want?" she asked when Draco appeared beside her suddenly.

"What's wrong with you?" he said.

"I don't know, you tell me." she retorted.

"I didn't tell Parkinson about on the train." he sighed.

"Why are you lying? It was clearly you. You're the only person that could've told her." retorted Bella, glaring at him.

"I didn't tell her, I swear. She over-heard me talking to -"

"Oh, so you were just busy telling everyone else?" snapped Bella.

"Would you let me finish?" replied Draco. "She heard me telling Blaise, and only Blaise, about what happened on the train."

"But why were you telling Blaise in the first place? Do you realise you've basically betrayed me?"

"Do you have to be so dramatic?" asked Draco with a roll of his eyes. "I told Blaise because I was worried about you. There, is that what you want to hear?"

Bella's jaw dropped open slightly, taken aback by his confession, but then she shook her head to snap her out of it.

"Come off it Malfoy, you don't care about anyone but yourself." huffed Bella, pushing off of the wall, leaving him standing there alone.

Just as Bella reached her friends again, Harry and Buckbeak had returned to the ground. Harry had a huge grin on his bright red face and he was panting slightly.

"Good work Harry!" cheered Hagrid.

Encouraged by Harry's success, the rest of the class ambled over the fence. Hagrid released the other Hippogriffs one by one and soon the entire class were bowing to and petting the Hippogriffs. Bella, still wary of the creatures, leaned against the fence while Freya and Emily cooed over one of the smaller, yet still large, Hippogriffs.

Draco, Crabbe and Goyle had taken Buckbeak and surprisingly the Hippogriff had bowed to Draco who was patting his beak with a look of disdain on his face.

"This is extremely easy." he said loudly. "If Potter could do it then it had to be easy. I bet you're not dangerous at all, are you?" he said to Buckbeak. "You great ugly brute."

It all happened in a matter of seconds. Draco let out a high pitched scream and the next thing they knew, Hagrid was wrestling Buckbeak back into his collar as he fought to get to Draco who lay wailing on the gorund, clutching his arm.

"I'm dying!" he yelled. "Look at me! It's killed me."

"Yer not dyin!" said Hagrid who had gone awfully white.

Bella walked over to where Draco was thrashing around on the ground and rolled her eyes.

"Stop being such a big baby Malfoy, it's your own fault anyway." she huffed.

"Someone help me - gotta get him outta here -" said Hagrid, panicking.

Hermione ran to open the gate as Hagrid scooped Draco up in his arms. Bella noticed the deep gash on Draco's arm as Hagrid held him in his arms; his blood rained down on the grass and Hagrid ran up the slope, with Draco in his arms, heading quickly for the castle.

"He ruined Hagrid's first class!" cried Emily.

"I'm going to kill him." growled Ron.

"Not if I kill him first." replied Bella.