Chapter Thirty-Two: New Classes
The next morning, Daphne saw that Malfoy was entertaining people by pretending to faint. She sat down next to Harry, but kept her eye on Malfoy and his audience.
Malfoy seemed to be encouraging Pansy to say something, but she seemed reluctant, casually deflecting his suggestions. Eventually, Malfoy shrugged and kept talking.
Daphne smiled. She was pretty sure that last year, Pansy wouldn't have hesitated to shout something nasty.
George handed Harry a stack of papers. "New third-year course schedules," he said. "What's up with you, Harry?" he added, with a look at Harry's dark expression.
"Malfoy," Ron said.
George looked up in time to see Malfoy pretending to faint with terror again.
"That little git," he said calmly. "He wasn't so cocky last night when the Dementors were down at our end of the train. Came running into our compartment, didn't he, Fred?"
"Nearly wet himself," Fred said, with a contemptuous glance at Malfoy.
"I wasn't too happy myself," George said. "They're horrible things, those Dementors."
"Sort of freeze your insides, don't they?" Fred said.
"You didn't pass out, though, did you?" Harry said in a low voice.
"Forget it, Harry," George said. "We'll see how Happy Malfoy looks after our first Quidditch match. Gryffindor versus Slytherin, first game of the season, remember?"
Harry did seem to remember, and he looked a bit more cheerful when he began loading up breakfast.
"Ooh, good, we're starting some new subjects today," Hermione said, examining her new schedule.
"Hermione," Ron said. "They've messed up your schedule. Look, they've got you down for about ten subjects a day. There isn't enough time."
"I'll manage," Hermione said with a shrug. "I've fixed it all with Professor McGonagall."
"But look," Ron said. "See this morning? Nine o' clock: Divination. Then underneath that, nine o' clock: Arithmancy."
Daphne glanced over at the schedule. It did look a bit cramped, but Hermione seemed to know what she was doing, so she took a glance at her own schedule, which had once again been put in with the Gryffindors because Snape seemed to have accepted Daphne was basically in two Houses at this point.
She wondered why he was so lenient with her, given his intense dislike of Gryffindors and Harry and Ron in particular. It couldn't just be because she was in Slytherin. She amused herself with the notion he might actually like her. Snape didn't really seem to truly like anyone, so she was quite certain that went for her as well. Still, him being so easy with her definitely came in handy.
At that moment, Hagrid came into the Great Hall. He was wearing his long moleskin overcoat and was absentmindedly swinging a dead polecat from one enormous hand.
"All righ'?" he said eagerly, pausing on the way to the staff table. "Yer in my firs' ever lesson! Right after lunch! Bin up since five gettin' everythin' ready…Hope it's okay…Me, a teacher…hones'ly…"
He grinned broadly at them and headed off to the staff table, still swinging the polecat.
"Wonder what he's been getting ready?" Ron said, a note of anxiety in his voice.
He checked his course schedule. "We'd better go, look, Divination's at the top of North Tower. It'll take us ten minutes to get there."
They quickly finished their breakfast and got up. Daphne went with them.
"I'm the only Slytherin who's taking Divination," she said, when Harry and gave her curious looks.
"So you get to choose which class to join?" Harry asked.
"Snape actually put me in this one because he knows we're friends," Daphne said, then laughed at the incredulous looks Harry and Ron got from trying to imagine Snape being anything but hateful.
Finding the classroom turned out to be pretty difficult. They ended up asking directions to a portrait of a slightly belligerent and possibly mad knight called Sir Cadogan, but in the end they reached their destination, a tiny landing where the Gryffindors had already gathered. It looked like all of them had elected to take Divination. If Daphne hadn't been so used eating at Gryffindor table, she'd have felt a bit out of place.
Just when Daphne was beginning to wonder if the class had been canceled, the trapdoor in the ceiling opened and a silver ladder descended right in front of Harry's feet.
"After you," Ron said with a grin, so Harry began to climb the ladder, followed by everyone else.
Daphne closed her eyes for a moment when she entered the classroom. It was very hot, and the heavy scent of perfume in the air immediately began to give her a headache. The reddish light didn't help, either, and she was already wondering if choosing this class had been a smart thing to do.
"Where is she?" Ron wondered.
"Welcome," a soft voice suddenly said from the shadows. "How nice to see you in the physical world at last."
Professor Trelawney moved into the firelight. Daphne blinked a couple of times at her unusual appearance, adorned from head to toe in chains, beads, and bangles, and wearing oversized glasses.
"Sit, my children, sit," she said, and Daphne joined Harry, Hermione, and Ron at a round table surrounded with poufs.
Professor Trelawney gave a short introduction to Divination, and by the end Daphne already felt slow and sluggish from the heat and the perfume. That probably didn't bode well for the rest of the lesson.
Eventually, Trelawney got to the point. "I want you all to divide into pairs. Collect a teacup from the shelf, come to me, and I will fill it. Then sit down and drink, drink until only the dregs remain. Swirl these around the cup three times with the left hand, then turn the cup upside down on its saucer, wait for the last of the tea to drain away, then give your cup to your partner to read. You will interpret the patterns using pages five and six of Unfogging the Future. I shall move among you, helping and instructing. Oh, and dear…"
She caught Neville by the arm as he made to stand up.
"…after you've broken your first cup, would you be so kind as to select one of the blue patterned ones? I'm rather attached to the pink."
When Neville indeed broke his first cup not even a few seconds later, Daphne, even in her foggy state, was almost impressed.
She and Hermione got their cups filled, went back to the table, and drank the tea as soon as they could. They swilled the dregs around and as Trelawney had instructed, then drained the cups and swapped over.
"Okay," Hermione said. "What do you see?"
"An urgent need to pee if we're going to be drinking tea for an hour," Daphne said. She was having a lot of trouble focusing on anything, let alone shapes in tea dregs.
"Come on, surely you see something?" Hermione pressed.
Daphne sighed. "Okay, okay, let's see…This looks a bit like an…hourglass, I think? That means…you'll be short on time for something…And…er…a sword pointing down…which means you'll be under great pressure. I seem to be predicting you during exam time," she said. "So what do you see in mine?"
Hermione looked into Daphne's cup. She remained silent for a long time, and Daphne saw her expression change as she frowned and rotated the cup.
"I can't make anything of this," she said angrily. "I mean, it could be anything. Muggles have a word for that: pareidolia. It means seeing patterns where there are none."
At that moment, Trelawney interrupted the reading Ron and Harry were doing, and took Harry's cup from Ron.
"The falcon…my dear, you have a deadly enemy."
"But everyone knows that," Hermione said. She still seemed very irritated at not having seen anything in Daphne's cup.
Trelawney stared at her.
"Well, they do," Hermione said. "Everyone knows about Harry and You-Know-Who."
Daphne grinned at Harry and Ron, who were both gaping at Hermione for talking to a teacher like that.
"The club…an attack. Dear, dear, this is not a happy cup…"
"I thought that was a bowler hat," Ron said sheepishly.
"The skull…danger in your path, my dear…"
Trelawney turned the cup a final time, then screamed.
Daphne nearly jumped off her pouf and Neville broke a second cup.
Trelawney sank into a vacant armchair, her glittering hand at her heart and her eyes closed.
"My dear boy…my poor, dear boy…no…it is kinder not to say…no…don't ask me…"
"Just say it," Daphne said. She had a headache and the unnecessary hysterics really didn't make it any better.
"My dear…you have the Grim," Trelawney said.
Some people, like Harry himself, were confused. Most others clapped their hands to their mouths.
Daphne, however, sighed. "Does he, now? Well, better pack it in then, Harry, you've had it, I'm afraid. The real Grim is a spectral hound and an omen of death, but I'm sure this tea leaf representation is just as scary as the real thing. Maybe you'll only almost die, and that's pretty much your thing, by now…."
To her surprise, Hermione was the first person to laugh, followed shortly after by Harry himself. Ron, and most of the rest of the class, however, remained deeply shocked.
Trelawney looked from Daphne to Hermione. "You'll forgive me for saying so, dears, but I perceive very little aura around you two. Very little receptivity to the resonances of the future."
Daphne shrugged. "Don't worry, that's kind of my thing. My predictions only come true when I'm as flippant as possible, see," she said.
"You…have predicted future events?" Trelawney asked with a surprised look.
Daphne began to count on her fingers. "I sarcastically suggested staging a mountain troll fight to get my friends to talk again, and a mountain troll was set loose in the school which they ended up fighting, I said Harry and Ron would ram their flying car into the Whomping Willow, and they did, I said that Ginny Weasley would have her own adventures here at school, and she very much did…yeah, I've had a few moments," she said.
She didn't mention her — at the time — joking suggestion that Ginny was behind the attacks, or the bitter observation that Hermione had the entire solution to the problem when she got Petrified.
Even so, Trelawney seemed to reconsider her earlier assessment. "Well, then perhaps you do have a certain aptitude…" she said. "In any case, I think we will leave the lesson here for today…Yes, please pack away your things…"
They descended the ladder, and once Daphne was out of the heavy heat and perfumed air, she began to feel much better and much more awake. She made her way downstairs to Muggle Studies, and was surprised to see Hermione there as well.
"Don't you have Transfiguration with the others right now?" she asked.
Hermione, who still looked a bit annoyed over Divination, said, "Please don't start that; I just got Ron to stop. How I manage my time is my business, okay?"
Daphne held up her hands in surrender. "Okay, okay, I won't ask. I mean, this is a magic school I suppose," she said.
At that moment Professor Burbage arrived and let everyone into the classroom. On the walls were Muggle posters, showing — presumably — famous Muggle tourist locations. The images were a bit faded and didn't move, and Daphne wondered how much of an advertisement for the Muggle world it was to use such lifeless things for it. On a table in the front of the class were a number of Muggle objects, which Daphne recognized from the book Hermione had given her.
"Good morning, everyone," Professor Burbage said. "I am Charity Burbage, and I will be teaching you about Muggle society, and how it differs from ours in various ways. Now, I find it useful to begin a first lesson by gauging how many people have some knowledge of the Muggle world, so please raise your hand if you're at least a bit familiar with Muggles."
Hermione's hand shot up, of course, as did a few others' — the class seemed to be filled by people from all Houses, and Daphne didn't know everyone — and Daphne hesitantly raised her own hand as well. Most, though, remained down.
"Good, that's quite a few, then," Professor Burbage said with a smile. "Since this is our first class, I'll be explaining some ways Muggles use to make up for their lack of magic. For instance…"
She walked over to the table and held up a phone. Daphne had looked them up in her book after Harry had given his phone number to Hermione and Ron the year before.
"Where a wizard might use Floo powder to communicate quickly over a distance, Muggles use this. It's called a 'telephone', which is a word from Greek roots, 'tele-', far and 'phone', voice. You will see this sort of utilitarian naming quite often with Muggle words. Later, we'll see something similar with the 'television', which is part-Greek and part-Latin, although we all probably know what the word 'vision' means. In that case, then, can anyone tell me what a television might be used for, if we know that a telephone is meant to talk at a distance?"
Daphne, who'd read about televisions in her book, kept quiet, as did Hermione, who was looking around the class with interest.
A Ravenclaw girl raised her hand.
"Yes, Miss MacDougal?" Professor Burbage said.
"Seeing each other across a distance?" MacDougal suggested.
"Well reasoned, but not entirely correct. You're close, though!"
"Seeing…events across a distance?" A Hufflepuff boy asked.
"Essentially correct, Mr. Macmillan," Professor Burbage said with a nod. "One of the key differences between telephone and television is the level of interaction. While on a telephone, you speak to a person, on television, you merely watch. There is no further interaction between the viewer and what's on the screen, though Muggles are often quick to forget this when their favorite sports team is playing. On that subject, who can tell me some Muggle sports?"
The rest of the class was surprisingly interesting. Though Daphne had read a lot about different Muggle inventions in her book, she hadn't really known much about the context in which they would be used; as the book was written for Muggles, it simply assumed the reader would know those things.
After an hour, Daphne had a much better understanding of some of the things she'd read about than before, although obviously they hadn't really gone into complex subjects yet.
"That was a much better lesson than Divination," Daphne said as she and Hermione walked to the Great Hall for lunch.
"Well, it doesn't take much for a class to be better than Divination," Hermione said huffily. "But yes, I did enjoy the lesson. It was interesting to see everyone's responses to Professor Burbage's questions."
At that moment they were separated by a wave of passing second-years, and when Daphne caught back up with Hermione at the Gryffindor table, she was already in a heated discussion with Ron about death omens.
"This has been going on since Transfiguration," Harry said tiredly when Daphne sat down.
"But…Hermione was with me in Muggle Studies just now," Daphne said.
She shook her head. Without a doubt, before the year was out, she'd find out exactly what Hermione was doing, probably at an incredibly crucial moment, if her previous years were anything to go by.
"Excited for Hagrid's first class, then?" Daphne asked Harry while Hermione and Ron were still bickering in the background.
Harry nodded. "I am. I'm a bit anxious to see what he'll have for us, but I'm looking forward to it."
He glanced darkly at the Slytherin table. "I just hope they don't ruin it."
"Don't worry about it. I'll take care of them," Daphne said.
By the time they went down to Hagrid's hut for class, Hermione and Ron had stopped talking to each other. Daphne and Harry walked just ahead of them, feeling a bit awkward.
Hagrid was waiting for the class at the door of his hut. He stood in his moleskin overcoat, with Fang the boarhound at his heels, looking impatient to start.
"C'mon, now, get a move on!" he called as the class approached. "Got a real treat for yeh today! Great lesson comin' up! Everyone here? Right, follow me."
Hagrid took them to an empty paddock a few minutes away. "Everyone gather 'round the fence here," Hagrid said. "That's it, make sure yeh can see…Now, firs' thing yeh'll want ter do is open yer books–"
"How?" Malfoy said, pulling out his tightly bound book.
Far from producing his desired result, however, everyone else, even most of the Slytherins, took out their books and opened them. Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle were the only ones whose books had been bound shut.
"Didn' listen ter the manager at the store, did yeh?" Hagrid said in an amused tone. He grinned at Daphne, who gave him a thumbs-up. "Here, lemme show yeh," Hagrid went on, taking Malfoy's book from him and tearing off the rope. The book immediately tried to bite him, but Hagrid ran his finger down the book's spine, and it meekly allowed itself to be read.
"Fer anyone else havin' trouble with their books, try an' stroke 'em every so often if yeh need to read a long chapter. They'll warn yeh when they're abou' ter bite; they'll ruffle their pages at yeh. Anyway, I'm not here to explain yer books to yeh…"
The Gryffindors and Daphne snickered at Malfoy's annoyed expression.
"…so I'll go an' get the real subjects fer today…"
Hagrid strode away from them into the forest and out of sight, and Daphne saw Malfoy muttering to Crabbe and Goyle, probably intending to regain some of their lost prestige during the real lesson.
At that moment, Hagrid returned, carrying with him twelve hippogriffs. Daphne had never seen them in real life, and she was mesmerized by their beauty, despite the mismatched bodies. The beaks and talons looked formidable. She wouldn't want to end up on the wrong side of that.
The Hippogriffs were all chained, and Hagrid tethered all of them to the fence of the paddock.
"Hippogriffs!" he said happily. "Beau'iful, aren' they? So, if yeh wan' ter come a bit nearer…"
Most people looked apprehensive, which Daphne understood, but she wanted to show support, so she, Harry, Hermione, Ron cautiously got closer.
"Now, firs' thing yeh gotta know about hippogriffs is, they're proud," Hagrid said. "Easily offended, hippogriffs are. Don't never insult one, 'cause it might be the last thing yeh do."
Daphne saw that Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle were still talking, and not listening to Hagrid at all.
"Yeh always wait fer the hippogriff ter make the firs' move," Hagrid continued. "It's polite, see? Yeh walk toward him, an' yeh bow, an' yeh wait. If he bows back, yeh're allowed to touch him. If he doesn' bow, then get away from him sharpish, 'cause those talons hurt. Right, who wants ter go first?"
In response, most people took a step backward. Even Harry, Hermione, and Ron seemed hesitant.
Daphne was afraid as well, but was determined to make Hagrid's first class a success, so she said, "I'll do it."
She stepped forward and climbed over the paddock fence.
"Good job, Daphne!" Hagrid roared. "Right then…let's see how yeh get on with Buckbeak."
He untied one of the chains, pulled a gray hippogriff away from its fellows, and slipped off its leather collar.
"Easy now, Daphne," Hagrid said quietly. "Yeh've got eye contact, no try not ter blink…Hippogriffs don' trust yeh if yeh blink too much…"
Daphne's eyes began to water, but she kept them open. Buckbeak had turned his great, sharp head and was staring at Daphne with one fierce orange eye.
"Tha's it," Hagrid said. "Tha's it, Daphne…now, bow…"
Deciding she should probably do it right, and hoping Hagrid would protect her if things went wrong, she bowed as low as she could while maintaining eye contact. Buckbeak regarded her imperiously for a moment…and then bent his scaly front knees and returned the bow.
"Well done, Daphne!" Hagrid said, ecstatic. "Right, yeh can touch him! Pat his beak, go on!"
Encouraged by Hagrid's enthusiasm, Daphne stepped a bit closer and patted Buckbeak's beak. Buckbeak closed his eyes and seemed to enjoy the attention.
"Righ' then, Daphne," Hagrid said. "I reckon he might let yeh ride him!"
"Ride him?" Daphne repeated. She could barely manage a broomstick; how would she be able to deal with a hippogriff?
"Yeh climb up there, jus' behind the wing joint," Hagrid instructed. "An' mind yeh don' pull any of his feathers out, he won' like that…"
Daphne put her foot on the top of Buckbeak's wing and hoisted herself onto his back. Buckbeak stood up, and Daphne leaned forward into his neck a bit, having no idea where to hold on.
"Go on, then!" Hagrid roared, slapping the hippogriff's hindquarters.
Buckbeak unfurled his twelve-foot wings, and before Daphne knew it, he'd taken off. With the first few wingbeats, Daphne feared she'd be thrown off, but then she realized that the motion was fairly rhythmic and that she'd probably be fine.
Buckbeak's feathers were a bit slippery, but she kept herself low, and although she slid back and forth a bit, it was a pretty secure position. She strained her neck a bit to look out over the Hogwarts grounds.
Knowing that Buckbeak was taking care of the flying was oddly comforting; she could afford to look everywhere without accidentally changing direction, like she might do on a broomstick.
Buckbeak flew once around the paddock, and then headed back to the ground. Daphne tried to lean back, but she figured that Buckbeak probably wouldn't land too heavily on his front legs. Indeed, right before he landed, he flared his wings, putting his equine hooves on the ground before dropping his weight down on all four legs. It was still a pretty big jolt, but mostly downward, not forward, so Daphne wasn't too afraid of falling off.
The entire class cheered, even most of the Slytherins, but Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle looked angry at her safe landing.
Daphne got off Buckbeak.
"Good work, Daphne!" Hagrid roared. "Okay, who else wants a go?"
Emboldened by Daphne's success, the rest of the class climbed cautiously into the paddock. Hagrid untied the hippogriffs one by one, and soon people were bowing nervously, all over the paddock.
Neville ran repeatedly backward from his, which didn't seem to want to bend its knees.
Harry, Hermione, and Ron practiced on a chestnut-colored hippogriff, while Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle had taken over Buckbeak. Buckbeak had bowed to Malfoy, who was now patting his beak, looking disdainful.
Perhaps it was a lingering effect of the Divination class, but Daphne felt like she knew what was going to happen, and she casually moved closer to them.
"This is very easy," Malfoy drawled. "I knew it must have been, if Greengrass could do it…I bet you're not dangerous at all, are you? Are you, you great ugly brute?"
Malfoy had barely finished speaking when Daphne forcefully shoved him out of the way, and a split second later she felt a searing pain in her arm, as though someone had cut her with a hot sword. She screamed in pain and fell over, momentarily unaware of what was happening because of the intense pain.
"Daphne!"
Harry, Hermione, and Ron had gathered around her. She could vaguely hear Hagrid wrestling Buckbeak into his collar in the background. Malfoy lay on the ground, a few feet away, looking stunned.
Daphne clutched her arm and sat up. It felt very warm and wet, and she was determined not to look at it. She tried to move her arm, and the pain intensified.
"Daphne! Are yeh…?" Hagrid asked.
"I'm fine," Daphne said through gritted teeth.
She wasn't, and she knew it, but there was no way she'd give Malfoy the satisfaction of seeing her admit that. Malfoy still seemed to be a bit dazed, though.
"Someone open the gate fer me," Hagrid said. "I got ter get Daphne ter the hospital wing."
He picked her up surprisingly gently and began to carry her to the castle.
"I'm sorry, Daphne," he said. "I didn' mean yeh ter get hurt…"
"Not your fault," Daphne said.
The pain in her arm was making it very difficult to talk. It hurt in a very different way from the Skele-Gro. It was much more localized, but also much more intense.
"Malfoy insulted him."
They reached the hospital wing, and Madam Pomfrey fixed the cut almost immediately, then handed Daphne a potion.
"Drink it. It will replenish the blood you lost."
She sighed. "Really, hippogriffs on day one…" She gave Hagrid a reproachful look.
"Don't blame Hagrid," Daphne said. Now that her arm was healed, the pain was completely gone. Aside from a faint scar, and her blood-drenched robes, she couldn't even tell she'd been bleeding profusely moments before.
"Malfoy insulted the hippogriff after having been told not to. I knew he would do something like that, so I took the hit for him."
She grinned at Hagrid. "I'm not going to let him use something like this against you. How's Buckbeak?"
"Er, he was still tryin' to go after Malfoy. He seemed even angrier tha' he'd hurt you instead of Malfoy," Hagrid said. He still sounded downcast.
"Hagrid, I'm fine," Daphne said.
Madam Pomfrey siphoned off most of the blood from Daphne's robes and repaired with another flick of her wand, and then said, "I still think it's irresponsible, but I suppose there's nothing I can do about it. Do try to keep your arms intact, by the way, you'll be needing them and you seem to be hurting them regularly."
Daphne grinned sheepishly. "I know. I'll try to be a bit better about it."
She turned back to Hagrid. "Come on, let's go back outside," she said. "I want to tell everyone I'm fine, before Malfoy recovers what little wit he has and begins spreading stupid rumors about you."
Hagrid didn't say anything, and when they said goodbye in the entrance hall, Daphne didn't think she'd managed to convince Hagrid not to worry too much about what happened. Instead, she tracked down Malfoy, who was surprisingly quiet when she found him.
"Even for you, that was incredibly stupid," Daphne said. "Would you really get yourself killed just to get Hagrid sacked?"
When he didn't reply, Daphne shook her head. "Whatever. Just leave Hagrid alone, got it? He's been falsely accused often enough. I won't let you do it again."
She met up with her Gryffindor friends again at dinner.
"Are you okay?" Hermione asked anxiously.
"That was a lot of blood," Ron added.
"Madam Pomfrey had it healed in about two seconds," Daphne said. "The blood replenishment potion was nasty, but that was about the worst of it."
The only person who hadn't said anything yet was Harry. He was looking at Daphne with a surprisingly grim look.
When Daphne was just about to ask him what was wrong, he said, "Come with me for a moment."
Hermione and Ron gave him curious looks, but Harry said, "I'll explain in a moment."
Daphne followed him out into the hallway and waited anxiously.
"Why'd you do that?!" Harry exploded. "I told you, in the Chamber of Secrets, not to act like your own life doesn't matter, but you just keep putting yourself in harm's way!"
"Harry, I'm fine, I just couldn't let Malfoy–"
"Did you know you'd be fine?" Harry interrupted her. He looked seriously angry.
"I– No, but–"
"Then don't give me 'I'm fine' as a justification! Look, I'm the last one to talk about heroics to help others, but you…you seem almost like you want it. Like you want to get hurt. Malfoy's life isn't worth yours. Hagrid's job isn't worth your life, either. We can help Hagrid get his job back, if it would come to that. We can't help you get your life back."
He gritted his teeth. "In the first year, you told Ron to sacrifice you in the chess match, because you said he'd be more helpful to me. In the second year, you told Riddle first to kill you instead of me, and then to kill you instead of Ginny. Now, you risked your life to save Malfoy's, but the real reason you jumped in was for Hagrid's sake, because you care less for what happens to Malfoy than I do, and that's not even mentioning all the times in class where you deliberately tried to get points deducted from Slytherin, or the whole Norbert thing where you took the full blame for everything."
Harry grabbed her shoulders and looked into her eyes. "Daphne, do you really think that's all you are to us? Someone to take the hits, who has no other value than to be sacrificed whenever things get dangerous? Please start thinking of yourself, too. Please stop acting like you're worthless. You're our friend, one of our closest friends. None of us want to see you get hurt. I don't want to see you get hurt."
He let go of her shoulders and took a deep breath.
"That's…that's all I had to say," he finished rather lamely, his face slightly flushed.
Harry went back into Great Hall. Daphne remained in the hallway alone, wondering why she was crying.
Okay, couple of remarks, as usual. I put Muggle Studies an hour later than in canon, and even then I got in trouble with the Gryffindors having Transfiguration that hour. I don't know how these classes are meant to function without a Time Turner, but I'm just going to pretend they do.
I know the whole Buckbeak meeting was supposed to be Harry's moment, but I wanted to give it to Daphne for something I might do much later on in the story. Harry will get his chance.
Lastly, Daphne constantly putting herself in harm's way is a bit of a thing for her, but obviously her friends aren't going to be thrilled when she does, so I figured another callout was in order. Whether she will learn from it or not remains to be seen, of course. It's also probably a bit influenced by my current music choices, as I've been listening to the song Fire Out by Call Me Karizma quite a bit these past few days, and while it doesn't match completely, the gist of it fit pretty well.