Chapter X
Maimed
Karida came back into the castle from her walk just in time for dinner. She decided she would like a good meal, and didn't really care that she'd have to sit by Malfoy's posse to get it. It meant not walking as far, and for her stiff joints, it was a good thing.
As soon as she sat down, Malfoy started whining. "Oh, great!" He drawled. "That great brute is back," he sneered in the direction of the Staff table. Karida followed his gaze, and instantly noticed Professor Hagrid's massive figure at the front. "Ugh, but what's happened to him? Gone to find another dragon egg?" Malfoy laughed maliciously at the sight of Hagrid's many cuts and bruises.
Karida tried not to look at Professor Hagrid for too long, the effect was starting to make her stomach churn a bit.
"Damn, I wrote to Father at the start of the year to tell him the half-breed had finally been replaced with a contempt teacher!" Malfoy's lip curled. "He'll hear about this. He won't be happy." He said, poking his once-slashed-open arm.
Pansy picked up on this and closed the gap between them instantly, to coo over him and pet his healed arm. Daphne sat across the table, looking mutinous.
So, that's who won that fight.
The next Tuesday, the Slytherins and Gryffindors had their Care of Magical Creatures class with its real teacher for the first time of the year. Karida made sure to strengthen her Waterproofing charm as they set out in the snow, heavily bundled. She was worried that Umbridge might show up to interrogate Professor Hagrid, and worried even more that Hagrid would come back to his teaching career with a bang – namely some dangerous creature.
Hopping in the footprints already made by everyone else, Karida made it to the clearing next to Hagrid's hut. She set down her pack in the gathering spot and avoided looking in Professor Hagrid's face. His cuts only seemed to have gotten worse, and that bruise on his forehead hadn't been there before, had it? Half of a dead cow was draped unceremoniously over his shoulder, and Karida cringed at the sight of it.
"We're workin' in here today!" Professor Hagrid called when most of his students had arrived, jerking his head toward the canopy of trees leading into the Forbidden Forest. "Bit more sheltered! Anyway, they prefer the dark…"
Malfoy's voice rang out through the apprehensive silence of the crowd. "What prefers the dark?" He asked, flustered. "What did he say prefers the dark – did you hear?" Pansy inched toward him and started petting his arm.
Karida had to stand by the group of Slytherins, but she made eye contact with Hermione at Malfoy's panic. They both rolled their eyes. Covering her mouth, Karida started giggling.
"What?" Malfoy demanded, his voice cracking. He'd noticed.
"Oh, nothing," Karida shook her head, badly concealing her grin.
Professor Hagrid hadn't seen. "Ready?" He scanned the class brightly. "Right, well, I've bin savin' a trip inter the forest fer yer fifth year. Thought we'd go an' see these creatures in their natural habitat."
Karida got nervous goosebumps.
"Now, what we're studyin' today is pretty rare, I reckon I'm probably the on'y person in Britain who's managed ter train 'em –"
"And you're sure they're trained, are you?" Malfoy sneered, his confident mask disappearing. "Only it wouldn't be the first time you'd brought wild stuff to class, would it?"
Karida avoided Hermione's eyes at this, she knew Malfoy was right. Those blast-ended skrewts the last year were not fun to care for.
"'Course they're trained," Hagrid grunted.
"So what happened to your face, then?" Malfoy sneered, diverting attention from how scared he was to Hagrid's odd state.
"Mind yer own business!" said Hagrid heatedly. "Now if yeh've finished asking stupid questions, follow me!" He turned slowly, so the cow wouldn't fly off his shoulders perhaps, and marched into the forest. The rest of the class looked hesitant to follow, but Harry, Ron, and Hermione led the way, and the class slowly trickled in.
The snow began thinning as they walked farther on the path, until they were only walking on a mushy bed of leaves. The tree branches cast zigzagged shadows over the underbrush, until there were too many overlapping each other and everyone was shrouded in eerie darkness. After about ten minutes of walking, Hagrid stopped and deposited the cow on the ground. The class fanned out as much as they could to get a good view. This was difficult though, as the trees stood so close together and it was difficult to stand in so much in pairs without your sight being cut off by a tree or bush.
"Gather roun', gather roun'," Hagrid said reassuringly, probably noticing that some students were drawing back a bit. "Now, they'll be attracted by the smell o' the meat, but I'm goin' ter give 'em a call anyway, 'cause they'll like ter know it's me…" With that, he turned his back on the class to face the trees, shook out his great mane of hair, and gave a weird sort of screeching cry. The class stayed silent.
Nothing happened, and everyone in the class shifted their weight from foot to foot uncomfortably. They weren't exactly happy to not know what might be appearing at any moment. Malfoy looked pale, but it could have easily been because of the dim lighting.
Hagrid made the call again with not so much as a reply back from whatever creature he was trying to contact or a rustle of the bushes. As he was preparing for a third cry, however, he relaxed his shoulders.
The creature's blank white eyes shone eerily through the dark as it stepped out of the shadows. The rest of its gaunt body followed, revealing its two skeletal wings. The thestral observed the class for a few seconds before starting to dine on the lovely dead cow.
Karida smiled at the thestral, he was really quite beautiful. Most of the class hadn't noticed the animal tearing off chunks of its late lunch, however, and was still staring at the forest around themselves. Karida surveyed everyone in the class, and the only three people who seemed to have noticed the thestral were Potter, Longbottom, and Nott.
Hagrid welcomed a second thestral into their presence, and it set to work on the meat as well. "Now… Put yer hands up, who can see 'em?"
Karida tepidly raised her hand and sniffed.
When she was little, Karida never really understood all the conversations she overheard. As she grew up though, they began making more and more sense. In her third year she demanded straight answers from her father about their family's past, and he could do nothing but oblige.
Dmitri Lestrange had been Death Eater sympathetic before You-Know-Who's Fall. He never really was a Death Eater himself, but he had gone to some of their meetings and never talked his brothers out of joining. He supported their decisions.
"Until you were born," her father had said gravely. "It made me more responsible."
Directly after You-Know-Who's fall, his brothers, Rabastan and Rodolphus, and Rodolphus' wife, Bellatrix, arrived at their house. They tried to convince Karida's father to go with them to entice the Dark Lord's whereabouts out of a couple from the Order of the Phoenix. He refused. They were furious.
Her father always detracted who they were going to torment when he told the story.
Karida had been safe in her nursery at the time. Her mum was reading her nursery rhymes to be put to sleep, until she heard the commotion downstairs. She tucked Karida into her crib and rushed down the elegant staircase to see a vexed Bellatrix Lestrange. She tried to talk reason into the intruders, but Bellatrix lost it.
Karida's own aunt cast the spell that would leave her mother incapacitated for the rest of her life.
Afterwards the trio left, saying that they'd be able to find someone else to take Dmitri's place.
"I couldn't have taken her to St. Mungo's," her father would say indignantly. "I didn't have a good reputation with most of the Wizarding community at the time. Showing up there while people were celebrating would be bad. Very bad." He'd then pause the story for a few minutes and sit in silence.
When Karida was old enough, she understood that taking Mum to St. Mungo's at that time would have been impossible. But when the dust cleared from He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's departure, it was evident that it was too late to take action.
From then on, Karida's mother would always be how she remembered her– Too weak to get out of bed, not able to speak much, and prone to dangerous stress-induced headaches. As a child, Karida wasn't allowed to see her often, for risk of upsetting her.
Her father still had to work, so he hired nannies to take care of his daughter every day. He didn't get to spend much time with her himself.
Even though the Lestranges were instantly arrested and taken into Azkaban, word got out to other Death Eaters that Dmitri Lestrange had betrayed his brothers' wishes. They were angry with him, even though he was living in exile just like the rest of the Dark Lord's supporters.
They accused him of not being loyal. "I was never truly loyal in the first place," her father would say, pushing his hair back. "I never claimed to be under the Imperius Curse. I never publicly denounced my beliefs, although my actions seemed to speak for themselves."
Tensions between Dmitri and the pureblood community augmented so much that they were bound to shatter at some point.
The rest Karida could take from her own memory, punctured though it was. She was six years old when late one night, there was a resolute knock on the door.
The visitor didn't wait for a response, but forced open the antique door and started up the stairs. Karida was petrified. Dare she get out of bed to see who this intruder was? She sat up in bed and listened intently for the sound of their footsteps, quivering when they drew near her room. She deliberately remembered thinking how the man – by the sound of their footfalls – wasn't even trying to be quiet.
The man walked farther down the hall, and opened a door. Karida whimpered when she realized it must be her mother's room, and no one was allowed in there! But dad wasn't coming… What if he had locked himself in his study and hadn't heard anything? Mum could be in trouble!
With that thought, Karida shoved her blankets off her bed and placed her toes softly on the ground. She'd never been up this late before, and she couldn't help yawning. She pushed her door open just far enough to slip through, then tip-toed down the few feet in the hall.
Mum's door was ajar. When she first walked by, she saw her mother propped up on pillows, weeping, her entire body wracking with sobs. The scary man wore a dark cloak, and was standing alone in front of her mum. His voice was too deep and quiet for Karida to hear fully, and he was using big words that she didn't understand. She recognized later that even if she had understood the conversation, she probably would have forgotten it a moment later. That's not what she was worried about.
Karida waited next to the doorway, flattened against the wall, breathing shallowly. The man was going to hurt Mum, give her one of her headaches, and Father wasn't there to help! She couldn't figure out what to do – should she find her dad? What if he wasn't in the house? What if the man heard her? What if - ?
A door down the hall creaked, and Karida had to stop herself from jumping. But only her dad emerged, and she instantly relaxed. Once Dmitri noticed his daughter was eavesdropping and out of bed, he put a finger to his lips and gave her a gentle scolding look. Karida knew she couldn't dart back to her room safely now, the strange man might see her retreating. Her dad could see into the room through the doorway, and as soon as the man was facing the opposite direction he motioned desperately for Karida to run to her room.
Karida didn't dare refuse, and she scampered back to her room back down the hall.
As soon as she had climbed back into bed, Karida's father's voice rang through the house. He first calmly asked the man to leave, saying he was distressing his wife. The man must have refused, as her father had to command him, saying he had no right to be in his house at this hour. Karida hunched in her bed at this. Father was scary when he was angry.
The man's heavy footsteps once again beat through the hall. The front door slammed, and he was gone.
Instead of a resounding silence after the intruder's departure, Karida heard her mum wailing a few times before going quiet. She sat up in the dark, eyes wide, lips parted. Light streamed into the room as her dad turned on the hall lights and pushed her door open. He stood in the doorway for only an instant before Karida was back on her feet, and they rushed back into her mother's room together.
She looked the worst Karida had ever seen her. It wasn't a sight six-year-olds should have to see. Her face was white as a sheet, and she didn't so much as blink as her husband removed pillows from under her so she was laying down instead of sitting upright. She closed her eyes slowly, and reopened them with what seemed like massive effort. She turned her head to the side painfully slow, and she made eye contact with Karida, who rushed to her bedside immediately.
"Mummy?" Karida had whimpered helplessly. "Daddy, what's going on?"
Her father shook his head, more solemn that usual, and sat on the other side of the bed to caress his wife's face. He picked up her hand delicately, as if it were made of brittle glass, and kissed it.
Karida leaned farther onto the bed, starting to cry. She was so confused. Her mother lifted a hand to brush through her only daughter's hair, and Karida's head was so close that she kissed it.
"Daddy?" Karida had begged again, breaking away from her mother.
She had never seen her father cry. Never. And she never did again. But in that moment, a single tear slid gently down his face.
Her mum's eyes flicked back and forth between her family, trying to absorb as much of them as possible. Her lips moved without any sound coming out before she whispered, so softly that Karida could only hear because the room was quiet, "I love you."
Her eyes fluttered shut. And she didn't move again.
This all flashed before Karida's eyes before she was snapped to reality by that terrible noise.
"Hem, hem."
"Oh hello!" Hagrid boomed kindly at the horrid woman in her green hat.
"You received the note I sent to your cabin this morning?" Umbridge said very slowly and loudly, as if she were speaking with a toddler.
"Oh yeah," Hagrid replied. "Glad yeh found the place all righ'! Well, as you can see – or, I dunno – can you? We're doin' thestrals today – "
"I'm sorry?" Umbridge said loudly, cupping her stubby, ringed hand around her ear. "What did you say?"
"Er – thestrals!" He replied loudly, baffled. "Big – er – winged horses, yeh know!" He flapped his great arms up and down.
Umbridge looked sickly with pleasure. She made a tick mark on her clipboard, which Karida could hear distinctly, since the woman was standing not that far away from her. She started scribbling feverishly, muttering as she was writing, quite loudly: "'has… to… resort…to…crude…sign…language…"
Karida went from very sad to very angry, very fast. Malfoy was grinning maliciously, which instantly made her unhappy. And across the path, Hermione looked as if she were going to burst at the seams with fury.
Though Karida wouldn't hesitate in saying she preferred Professor Grubbly-Plank over Professor Hagrid, she was livid. No one deserved to be treated that way.
As Umbridge once again went around asking questions, Karida avoided her eyes, trying to look absolutely fascinated by the thestrals so she'd skip her, like she knew she would.
After Umbridge tried to question Longbottom and saying Hagrid intimidated him too much to answer properly – (Poor boy, what else was he supposed to say? Though Karida enjoyed the look of the thestrals, they were still rather daunting.) – She jabbed her ten stubby fingers in Hagrid's face to inform him of the date he would be receiving the results of his inspection, and shuffled back toward the castle.
Hagrid continued the lesson awkwardly. Karida didn't really listen too intently, as she became re-overwhelmed with her memories. It was odd for her to be thinking of it now, as she usually was able to find solace in her mother's passing. The lesson finished about ten minutes early, but Hagrid insisted that it was over and that they all needed to get back to the castle.
As the students started trickling back toward the light, Karida couldn't choose whether to speed ahead of the group of Slytherins or to lag behind them, so she could hide the tears forming in her eyes.
She decided to go with the latter; it was less suspicious, and Malfoy seemed keen to get out of the Forest as quickly as possible anyways.
As everyone left, Karida just stood still, staring at the thestrals.
Hagrid eventually noticed her still standing there, and he might have seen that her eyes were puffy. "They're not goin' teh hur' yeh, really…" He said carefully.
Karida's eyes widened. She had never spoken to Professor Hagrid before. "I – I know." She said shakily, finding her throat had gone all scratchy. She sniffed. "I've been able to see them since second year… Was really – " she hiccupped " – interested in them, after I got over the shock, of course. Read all about them." She said, giving a small, sad smile to Hagrid. "I think they're lovely." She said, carefully observing them, but her voice shook.
Hagrid nodded knowingly, and seemed to smile under his tangle of a beard. "Well, tha's somethin'." Hagrid appraised her. "Best be headed off now, yeh don' want it to get dark 'fore yeh get inside the castle."
Karida nodded and smiled gloomily again. She turned away before wiping her eyes, and started winding her way back through the path.
Some memories were better left untouched.
AHHHHHH YEAHHHHHH FINISHED THIS CHAPTER IN RECORD SPEED.
I felt you guys deserved it after I keep making you wait so long.
If you review any chapter, PLEASE PLEASE review this one. I really need input.
How was the flashback? Were the transitions okay? It was really awkward to write. I really need to know.
If you're ghost-reading this, you're not helping me. Please review, even if it's short, I don't care.