Oh, Matty boy! You have no idea what fangirls are, do you? Of course we put our fave characters into a lot of misery so they can come seem like awesome heroes when they get through it all! Seriously! And whatever you say, I'm sticking to my plot, but none of you are going to be upset by the end of it, I promise.
Kay, guys, well, I'm pretty upset about not going as far as I expected, and I talked to my friend about it. She say I update too quickly...Maybe I do? Anyway, I hope things get better because honestly, I'll have to update once every couple weeks if things keep going this way. Next chapter'll be intersting, I promise! But for now, I just hope you enjoy this:
It was a very intersting Care of Magical Creatures class Nico was headed for that day. Of course, most of their classes since term began were with Professor Grubby-Plank, but since Hagrid was back in the game, Nico knew he favored him. Not that he did anything- he was just more used to magical creatures than the rest of his classmates were. Today, however, no matter how interesting their lesson was, Nico had resist to urge to shadow-travel as far away from there as possible (he might just ghostify her if he wasn't too careful, therefore staying away being a better option), because Professor Dumbridge would be there.
As much as Nico loathed her, he knew he couldn't do anything about her. Not now, at least. Of course, the toad wouldn't show up right away, so they would have five minutes of a decent lesson.
"Ready?" said Hagrid cheerfully, looking around at the class. "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. 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?" said Malfoy, the panic in his voice even more pronounced. "Only it wouldn't be the first time you'd brought wild stuff to class, would it?"
Coward, Nico thought angrily.
The Slytherins murmured agreement and a few Gryffindors looked as though they thought Malfoy had a fair point, too.
"Course they're trained," said Hagrid, scowling and hoisting the dead cow a little higher on his shoulder.
"So what happened to your face, then?"demanded Malfoy.
"Mind yer own business!" said Hagrid, angrily, at the same time that Nico said, "That's not your problem." Hagrid gave Nico half an aproving smile.
He turned and strode straight into the Forest. Nobody seemed much disposed to follow.
They walked for about ten minutes until they reached a place where the trees stood so closely together that it was as dark as twilight and there was no snow at all on the ground. With a grunt, Hagrid deposited his half a cow on the ground, stepped back and turned to face his class, most of whom were creeping from tree to tree towards him, peering around nervously as though expecting to be set upon at any moment.
"Gather roun', gather roun'," Hagrid encouraged. "Now, they'll be attracted by the smell o the meat but I'm going ter give em a call anyway, 'cause they'll like ter know it's me."
He turned, shook his shaggy head to get the hair out of his face and gave an odd, shrieking cry that echoed through the dark trees like the call of some monstrous bird. Nobody laughed: most of them looked too scared to make a sound.
Hagrid gave the shrieking cry again.
A minute passed in which the class continued to peer nervously over their shoulders and around trees for a first glimpse of whatever it was that was coming. And then, as Hagrid shook his hair back for a third lime and expanded his enormous chest, Harry nudged Ron and pointed into the black space between two gnarled yew trees.
A pair of blank, white, shining eyes were growing larger through the gloom and a moment later the dragonish face, neck and then skeletal body of a great, black, winged horse emerged from the darkness. It surveyed the class for a few seconds, swishing its long black tail, then bowed its head and began to tear flesh from the dead cow with its pointed fangs.
"Why doesn't Hagrid call again?" Ron Weasley whispered.
Most of the rest of the class were wearing expressions as confused and nervously expectant as Ron's and were still gazing everywhere but at the horse standing feet from them. There were only three other people who seemed to be able to see them besides Nico, a stringy Slytherin boy standing just behind Goyle was watching the horse eating with an expression of great distaste on his face, Neville, whose eyes were following the swishing progress of the long black tail, and Harry who had an expression of mild relief on his face.
"Oh, an' here comes another one!" said Hagrid proudly, as a second black horse appeared out of the dark trees, folded its leathery-wings closer to its body and dipped its head to gorge on the meat. 'Now...put yer hands up, who can see 'em?"
Nico raised his hand. Neville, Harry, and the Slytherin boy followed suit.
"Yeah . . . yeah, I knew you'd be able ter, Harry. Of course, Nico, bin expectin' yeh too see 'em, too." he said seriously. "An' you too, Neville, eh? An' - "
"Excuse me," said Malfoy in a sneering voice, 'but what exactly are we supposed to be seeing?"
Before Nico could answer, Hagrid pointed at the dead cow.
The whole class stared at it for a few seconds, then several people gasped and Parvati squealed. Nico understood why: bits of flesh stripping themselves away from the bones and vanishing into thin air had to look very weird.
"What's doing it?" Parvati demanded in a terrified voice, retreating behind the nearest tree. "What's eating it?"
Thestrals,' said Hagrid proudly and Hermione gave a soft "Oh!" of comprehension at Harry's shoulder. 'Hogwarts has got a whole herd of 'em in here. Now, who knows - ?"
"But they're really, really unlucky!' interrupted Parvati, looking alarmed. They're supposed to bring all sorts of horrible misfortune on people who see them. Professor Trelawney told me once - "
Nico frowned. "That's not true," he said. "It's just a superstition. Not everything dark is bad, you know?" Why, oh why, did people think that everything from the Underworld brought negative results? It was so...well, discriminating, and stereotypical.
"Right yeh are, Nico." Hagrid said, looking pleased with himself for setting up today's lesson with Thestrals.
Two more horses came quietly out of the trees, one of them passing very close to Parvati, who shivered and pressed herself closer to the tree, saying, "I think I felt something, I think it's near me!"
"Don' worry, it won' hurt yeh,' said Hagrid patiently. "Righ', now, who can tell me why some o' yeh can see 'em an' some can't?"
Hermione and Nico raised there hands.
"Go on, then, Nico." Hagrid encouraged. Hermione put her hand down, looking a little displeased.
"Only people who have seen death can see Thestrals," Nico explained.
"Good, good. Ten points ter Gryffindor."
'Hem, hem.'
Oh, great! Nico thought, goraning.
"Oh, hello!" Hagrid said, smiling, having located the source of the noise.
"'You received the note I sent to your cabin this morning?" said Umbridge, in a loud, slow voice, as though she were addressing somebody both foreign and very slow.
"Oh, yeah," said Hagrid brightly. "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?' said Professor Umbridge loudly, cupping her hand around her ear and frowning. 'What did you say?"
Hagrid looked a little confused.
"Er - Thestrals" he said loudly. "Big - er - winged horses, yeh know!"
He flapped his gigantic arms hopefully. Professor Umbridge raised her eyebrows at him and muttered as she made a note on her clipboard: "Has...to...resort...to...crude...sign ...language."
Nico opened his mouth to say something, but Hermione;s hand on his shoulder stopped him. He scowled at her and mouthed 'That's not fair.'
Hermione nodded, and mouthed back, 'I know.'
"Well . . . anyway . . " said Hagrid, turning back to the class and looking slightly flustered, "erm . . . what was I sayin?"
"Appears...to...have...poor...short...term...memory,"muttered Umbridge, loudly enough for everyone to hear her. Draco Malfoy looked as though Christmas had come a month early; Hermione, on the other hand, had turned scarlet with suppressed rage. Nico frowned at her. Hermione shook her head, as if reading his mind.
"Oh, yeah," said Hagrid, throwing an uneasy glance at Umbridge's clipboard, but ploughing on valiantly.
"Yeah, I was gonna tell yeh how come we got a herd. Yeah, so, we started off with a male an' five females. This one,' he patted the first horse to have appeared, 'name o' Tenebrus, he's my special favorite, firs' one born here in the Forest - "
"Are you aware," Umbridge said loudly, interrupting him, 'that the Ministry of Magic has classified Thestrals as 'dangerous'?" Umbridge pointedly looked at Nico after saying 'dangerous'.
Nico was fuming, but Hagrid merely chuckled.
Thestrals aren' dangerous! All righ', they might take a bite outta yeh if yeh really annoy them - '
"Shows...signs ...of...pleasure...at...idea...of...violence,' muttered Umbridge, scribbling on her clipboard again.
"No - come on!" said Hagrid, looking a little anxious now. "I mean, a dog'll bite if yeh bait it, won' it - but Thestrals have jus' got a bad reputation because o' the death thing - people used ter think they were bad omens, didn' they? Jus' didn' understand, did they?"
Nico nodded solemnly. He looked at Hagrid, and gave him a tight smile of both appreciation and encouragment, and Hagrid looked relief that Nico at least understood.
Umbridge did not answer; she finished writing her last note, then looked up at Hagrid and said, again very loudly and slowly, "Please continue teaching as usual. I am going to walk," she mimed walking (Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson were having silent fits of laughter) "among the students' (she pointed around at individual members of the class) 'and ask them questions." She pointed at her mouth to indicate talking.
Hagrid stared at her, clearly at a complete loss to understand why she was acting as though he did not understand normal English. Hermione had tears of fury in her eyes now.
"You hag, you evil hag!' she whispered, as Umbridge walked towards Pansy Parkinson. "I know what you're doing, you awful, twisted, vicious - " Nico threw her a look that said 'I told you so!'
'Erm . . . anyway,' said Hagrid, clearly struggling to regain the flow of his lesson, 'so - Thestrals. Yeah. Well, there's loads o' good stuff abou' them . . .'
'Do you find,' said Professor Umbridge in a ringing voice to Pansy Parkinson, 'that you are able to understand Professor Hagrid when he talks?'
Just like Hermione, Pansy had tears in her eyes, but these were tears of laughter; indeed, her answer was almost incoherent because she was trying to suppress her giggles.
'No . . . because . . . well . . . it sounds . . . like grunting a lot of the time . . .'
Umbridge scribbled on her clipboard. The few bruised bits of Hagrid's face flushed, but he tried to act as though he had not heard Pansy's answer.
'Er . . . yeah . . . good stuff abou' Thestrals. Well, once they're tamed, like this lot, yeh'll never be lost again. 'Mazin' sense o' direction, jus' tell 'em where yeh want ter go - '
'Assuming they can understand you, of course,' said Malfoy loudly, and Pansy Parkinson collapsed in a fit of renewed giggles. Professor Umbridge smiled indulgently at them and then turned to Neville.
'You can see the Thestrals, Longbottom, can you?' she said.
Neville nodded.
'Who did you see die?' she asked, her tone indifferent.
"You can't just ask him that!" Nico growled. Umbridge ignored him.
"My...my grandad," said Neville.
"And what do you think of them?' she said, waving her stubby hand at the horses, who by now had stripped a great deal of the carcass down to bone.
"Erm," said Neville nervously, with a glance at Hagrid. "Well, they're . . . er . . . OK . . ."
"Students . . . are . . . too . . . intimidated . . . to . . . admit . . . they . . . are . . . frightened," muttered Umbridge, making another note on her clipboard.
"No!" said Neville, looking upset. "No, I'm not scared of them!"
"It's quite all right," said Umbridge, patting Neville on the shoulder with what she evidently intended to be an understanding smile, though it looked more like a leer . "Well, Hagrid," she turned to look up at him again, speaking once more in that loud, slow voice, "I think I've got enough to be getting along with. You will receive" (she mimed taking something from the air in front of her) 'the results of your inspection' (she pointed at the clipboard) "in ten days' time.' She held up ten stubby little fingers, then, her smile wider and more toad-like than ever before beneath her green hat, she bustled from their midst, leaving Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson in fits of laughter, Hermione actually shaking with fury and Neville looking confused and upset.
Nico glared at Hermione, but he couldn't manage to stay angry at her for long; not when she was crying.
"I hate her," Hermione muttered, watching Umbridge walk away. "I hate her, so, so, much!"
"Don't we all?" Ron asked, frowning.
Next chapter'll be interesting! It will include, St. Mungos, Arthur Weasley, and one kick-ass son of Hades! If I'm satisfied and not feeling too lazy, then I might update tomorrow.