A/N: Mask with a truth: thanks for the tips ;) I know my English isn't the best, but I try I think I'm going to let my sister read it first. She's really good at languages. Thanks for pointing out that Gryffindor wasn't spelt correctly :p I was thinking that something wasn't right and now I know.
Indigo Lily: Thanks, I will keep writing. Didn't know that it would take so long to write 1 chapter so please don't be mad when it takes some time
Cassia4u: Hey thanks
Sadly I don't own anything
Chapter 2 : The first day
Waking up to laud talking and laughter isn't very pleasant, let me tell you that. I opened my curtain and saw Parvati and what was her name again, looking in a magazine. Oh great, now I know what Hermione meant with she didn't like the girls in her dorm. I totally agree with her, I hate brainless girls. Thinking of Hermione I turned the other way to see if she was still sleeping. Impossible with those girls I thought. But her bed was empty and she wasn't in the room anymore. Great so I'm on my own then.
I stood up, took my clothes and went to the bathroom. Having a warm shower in the morning always made me feel better. Standing before the mirror, I was thinking: what to do with my hair today. Leave it down? Probably not, don't know which classes we have to day and I don't won't to lose my hair. Up In a ponytail then. Even in a ponytail my hair was long. O well it's the best I can do for now.
Fully dressed and prepared for a day full of classes I went downstairs to the common room. What I saw there blew my mind. Harry, Ron and Hermione were waiting for me, or so I was hoping. I saw them looking up and they smiled, or I should say Hermione and Harry smiled. Ron just grimaced.
"Good morning Aurora, sorry I didn't wait for you upstairs but Parvati and Lavender were driving me insane" Hermione said. Lavender that was her name.
"It's ok, but if you don't mind waking me up when you get up, I don't want to be awaking by those two again. It was horrible. How do you it?" I said.
"Haha, I just get up early. I'll just wake you up then and save you from them." She smiled.
"Ok, enough of the talking, I'm hungry so let's get going!" Ron said.
"Ron you're always hungry." Harry said, shaking his head.
"Well I'm a growing boy so I should eat!" Ron replied and he walked to the portrait. "You lot coming?"
I laughed and together with Harry and Hermione I followed him.
When we entered the Great Hall for breakfast, the first thing we saw was Draco Malfoy, who seemed to be entertaining a large group of Slytherins with a very funny story. As we passed, Malfoy did a ridiculous impression of a swooning fit and there was a roar of laughter.
"Ignore him," said Hermione, who was right behind Harry. "Just ignore him, it's not worth it..."
"Hey, Potter!" shrieked a Slytherin girl with a face like a pug. "Potter! The Dementors are coming, Potter! Woooooooo!"
We all dropped into a seat at the Gryffindor table, Harry next to a boy with red hair. He must be a brother of Ron.
"New third-year timetables," said the boy, passing them over. "What's up with you, Harry?"
"Malfoy," said Ron, sitting down on the boy's other side and glaring over at the Slytherin table.
The boy looked up in time to see Malfoy pretending to faint with terror again.
"That little git," he said calmly. "He wasn't so co cocky last night when the Dementors were down our end of the train. Came running into our compartment, didn't he, Fred?"
"Nearly wet himself," said another boy identical to the other boy, with a contemptuous glance at Malfoy. They must be twins.
"I wasn't too happy myself," said the first one again. "They're horrible things, those Dementors..."
"Sort of freeze your insides, don't they?" said Fred.
"You didn't pass out, though, did you?" said Harry in a low voice.
"You weren't the only one, Harry, remember me? I fainted as well. It's nothing to be ashamed of. I'm surprised their not including me in their stupid games." I said to him, grabbing myself a piece of toast.
"I believe we haven't met before, my name is Forge and this handsome guy is Gred." Said the first boy with a flourish hand gesture. "You must be the daughter of Black, Miss Aurora."
"Why yes I am. And if I remember correctly, he's Fred that makes you George, unless you switch names to confuse other people and that would make you Fred and him George. Am I right?" I asked in a sweet voice.
George was looking at me with his mound wide open, the same look has his twin.
"Close your mound, you will catch flies and I heard that they aren't that tastefull."
"How did you know?" Fred asked me.
"Simple, my uncle is a prankster, I know a few twins and they do the same thing. Believe me, you would have to do something extreme to surprise or confuse me" I said winking at them.
They both got these wide identical smiles on their faces.
"You, my fair lady, are a girl after our hearts." They said at the same time.
"Anyway, we'll see how happy Malfoy looks after our first Quidditch match," said Fred. "Gryffindor versus Slytherin, first game of the season, remember?"
Hermione was examining her new timetable.
"Ooh, good, we're starting some new subjects today," she said happily.
"Hermione," said Ron, frowning as he looked over her shoulder, "they've messed up your timetable. Look - they've got you down for about ten subjects a day. There isn't enough time."
"I'll manage. I've fixed it all with Professor McGonagall."
"But look," said Ron, laughing, "see this morning? Nine o'clock, Divination. And underneath, nine o'clock, Muggle Studies. And-" Ron leaned closer to the timetable, disbelieving, "look - underneath that, Aritmancy, nine o'clock. I mean, I know you're good, Hermione, but no one's that good. How're you supposed to be in three classes at once?"
"Don't be silly," said Hermione shortly. "Of course I won't be in three classes at once."
"Well, then -"
"Pass the marmalade," said Hermione.
"But -"
"Oh, Ron, what's it to you if my timetable's a bit full?" Hermione snapped. "I've told you, I've fixed it all with Professor McGonagall."
Just then, Hagrid entered the Great Hall. He was wearing his long moleskin overcoat and was absent-mindedly 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 OK... 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?" said Ron, a note of anxiety in his voice.
The Hall was starting to empty as people headed off towards their first lesson. Ron checked his timetable.
"We'd better go, look, Divination's at the top of North Tower. It'll take us ten minutes to get there..."
We finished our breakfast hastily, said goodbye to Fred and George and walked back through the Hall. As we passed the Slytherin table, Malfoy did yet another impression of a fainting fit. The shouts of laughter followed Harry into the Entrance Hall. The journey through the castle to North Tower was a long one. Apparently two years at Hogwarts hadn't taught them everything about the castle, and they had never been inside the North Tower before. And because it's my first year here, I didn't know the way either.
"There's - got - to - be - a - short - cut," Ron panted, as we climbed the seventh long staircase and emerged on an unfamiliar landing, where there was nothing but a large painting of a bare stretch of grass hanging on the stone wall.
"I think it's this way," said Hermione, peering down the empty passage to the right.
"Can't be," said Ron. "That's south. Look, you can see a bit of the lake out of the window..."
I saw Harry watching the painting. A fat, dapple-grey pony had just ambled out of the grass and was grazing nonchalantly. I was used to the subjects of paintings moving around and leaving their frames to visit each other, but it always enjoyed me watching them. That way they are never the same and you could talk to them, get to know them. I was looking forward to speak to some of the paintings here, they know everything of Hogwarts.
A moment later, a short, squat knight in a suit of armour had clanked into the picture after his pony. By the look of the grass stains on his metal knees, he had just fallen off.
"Aha!" he yelled, seeing Harry, Ron, Hermione and me. "What villains are these that trespass upon my private lands? Come to scorn at my fall, perchance? Draw your knaves, you dogs!"
We watched in astonishment as the little knight tugged his sword out of its scabbard and began brandishing it violently, hopping up and down in rage. But the sword was too long for him; a particularly wild swing made him overbalance; and he landed face down in the grass.
"Are you all right?" said Harry, moving closer to the picture.
"Get back, you scurvy braggart! Back, you rogue!"
The knight seized his sword again and used it to push himself back up, but the blade sank deeply into the grass and, though he pulled it with all his might, he couldn't get it out again. Finally he had to flop down into the grass and push up his visor to mop his sweating face.
"Listen," said Harry, taking advantage of the knight's exhaustion, "we're looking for the North Tower. You don't know the way, do you?"
"A quest!" The knight's rage seemed to vanish instantly. He clanked to his feet and shouted, "Come follow me, dear friends, and we shall find our goal, or else shall perish bravely in the charge!"
He gave the sword another fruitless tug, tried and failed to mount the fat pony, and cried, "On foot then, good sirs and gentle ladies! On! On!"
And he ran, clanking loudly, into the left-hand side of the frame and out of sight. We hurried after him along the corridor, following the sound of his armour. Every now and then we spotted him running through a picture ahead.
"Be of stout heart, the worst is yet to come!" yelled the knight, and we saw him reappear in front of an alarmed group of women in crinolines, whose picture hung on the wall of a narrow spiral staircase.
Puffing loudly, we climbed the tightly spiralling steps, getting dizzier and dizzier, until at last we heard the murmur of voices above us, and knew we had reached the classroom.
"Farewell!" cried the knight, popping his head into a painting of some sinister-looking monks. "Farewell, my comrades-in-arms! If you ever you have need of noble heart and steely sinew, call upon Sir Cadogan!"
"Yeah, we'll call you," muttered Ron, as the knight disappeared, "if we ever need someone mental."
We climbed the last few steps and emerged onto a tiny landing, where most of the class were already assembled. There were no doors off this landing; Ron nudged Harry and pointed at the ceiling, where there was a circular trap door with a brass plaque on it.
"Sybill Trelawney, Divination teacher," Harry read. "How're we supposed to get up there?"
As though in answer to his question, the trap door suddenly opened, and a silvery ladder descended right at Harry's feet. Everyone went quiet.
"After you," said Ron, grinning, so Harry climbed the ladder first.
When came up, I emerged into the strangest-looking classroom he had ever seem. In fact, it didn't look like a classroom at all; more like a cross between someone's attic and an old fashioned teashop. At least twenty small, circular tables were crammed inside it, all surrounded by chintz armchairs and fat little poufs. Everything was lit with a dim, crimson light; the curtains at the windows were all closed, and the many lamps were draped with dark red scarves. It was stiflingly warm, and the fire which was burning under the crowded mantelpiece was giving off a heavy, sickly sort of perfume as it heated a large copper kettle. The shelves running around the circular walls were crammed with dusty-looking feathers, stubs of candles, many packs of tattered playing cards, countless crystal balls and a huge array of teacups.
Ron appeared at my shoulder, as the class assembled around us, all talking in whispers.
"Where is she?" Ron said.
A voice came suddenly out of the shadows, a soft, misty sort of voice.
"Welcome," it said. "How nice to see you in the physical world at last."
My immediate impression was of a large, glittering insect. Professor Trelawney moved into the firelight, and we saw that she was very thin; her large glasses magnified her eyes to several times their natural size, and she was draped in a gauzy spangled shawl. Innumerable chains and beads hung around her spindly neck, and her arms and hands were encrusted with bangles and rings.
"Sit, my children, sit," she said, and we all climbed awkwardly into armchairs or sank into poufs Harry, Ron, Hermione and me sat ourselves around the same round table.
"Welcome to Divination," said Professor Trelawney, who had seated herself in a winged armchair in front of the fire. "My name is Professor Trelawney. You may not have seen me before. I find that descending too often into the hustle and bustle of the main school clouds my Inner Eye."
"Thank God" I said to the others and Harry and Ron laughed. Hermione looked at me with a stern face. "What?" I whispered.
Professor Trelawney delicately rearranged her shawl and continued, "So you have chosen to study Divination, the most difficult of all magical arts. I must warn you at the outset that if you do not have the Sight, there is very little I will be able to teach you. Books can take you only so far in this field..."
At these words, both Harry and Ron glanced, grinning, at Hermione, who looked startled at the news that books wouldn't be much help in this subject. I must admit I looked startled two, I lover reading and I love to learn new things. Harry saw my face and nudged Ron. Ron looked at me two and shaked his head. What, I thought, is wrong with reading?
"Many witches and wizards, talented though they are in the area of loud bangs and smells and sudden disappearings, are yet unable to penetrate the veiled mysteries of the future," Professor Trelawney went on, her enormous, gleaming eyes moving from face to nervous face. "It is a Gift granted to few. You, boy," she said suddenly to Neville, who almost toppled off his pouf, "is your grandmother well?" I learned his name last night and he's also the friendly boy from on the train who pointed me to the bathroom.
"I think so," said Neville tremulously.
"I wouldn't be so sure if I were you, dear," said Professor Trelawney, the firelight glinting on her long emerald earrings. Neville gulped.
Professor Trelawney continued placidly, "We will be covering the basic methods of Divination this year. The first term will be devoted to reading tea leaves. Next term we shall progress to palmistry. By the way, my dear," she shot suddenly at Parvati, "beware a red-haired man."
Parvati gave a startled look at Ron, who was right behind her, and edged her chair away from him.
"In the summer term," Professor Trelawney went on, "we shall progress to the crystal ball- if we have finished with fire-omens, that is. Unfortunately, classes will be disrupted in February by a nasty bout of flu. I myself will lose my voice."
"So there is really a God." I said. Again Ron and Harry laughed and I even saw a little smile on Hermione's lips.
"And around Easter, one of our number will leave us forever."
A very tense silence followed this pronouncement, but Professor Trelawney seemed unaware of it.
"I wonder, dear," she said to Lavender, who was nearest and shrank back in her chair, "if you could pass me the largest silver teapot?"
Lavender, looking relieved, stood up, took an enormous teapot from the shelf and put it down on the table in front of Professor Trelawney.
"Thank you, my dear. Incidentally, that thing you are dreading- it will happen on Friday the sixteenth of October."
Lavender trembled.
"Now, 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. Swill 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 and 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."
Sure enough, Neville had no sooner reached the shelf of teacups than there was a tinkle of breaking china. Professor Trelawney swept over to him holding a dustpan and brush and said, "One of the blue ones, then, dear, if you wouldn't mind... thank you..."
When we had our teacups filled, we went back to our table and tried to drink the scalding tea quickly. We swilled the dregs around as Professor Trelawney had instructed, then drained the cups and swapped them. Harry and Ron swapped and Hermione and me swapped.
"Right," said Ron, as we opened their books at page five and six. "What can you see in mine?"
"A load of soggy brown stuff," said Harry.
The heavily perfumed smoke in the room was making me feel sleepy and stupid. Was this supposed to be the lesson?
"Broaden your minds, my dears, and allow your eyes to see past the mundane!" Professor Trelawney cried through the gloom.
I tried to pull himself together.
"Right, you've got a wonky sort of cross..." Harry said, consulting Unfogging the Future. "That means you're going to have 'trials and suffering' - sorry about that - but there's a thing here that could be the sun. Hang on... that means 'great happiness'... so you're going to suffer but be very happy..."
"You need your Inner Eye tested, if you ask me," said Ron, and we had to stifle their laughs as Professor Trelawney gazed in our direction.
"My turn..." Ron peered into Harry's teacup, his forehead wrinkled with effort. "There's a blob a bit like a bowler hat," he said. "Maybe you're going to work for the Ministry of Magic..."
He turned the teacup the other way up.
"But this way it looks more like an acorn... what's that?" He scanned his copy of Unfogging the Future. "'A windfall, unexpected gold.' Excellent, you can lend me some. Aad there's a thing here," he turned the cup again, "that looks an animal. Yeah, if that was its head... it looks like a hippo... no, a sheep..."
Professor Trelawney whirled around as Harry and I let out a snort of laughter.
"Let me see that, my dear," she said reprovingly to Ron, sweeping over and snatching Harry's cup from him. Everyone went quiet to watch.
Professor Trelawney was staring into the teacup, rotating it anti-clockwise.
"The falcon... my dear, you have a deadly enemy."
"But everyone knows that," said Hermione in a loud whisper. I had to hold back some laughter. Man this class was a joke. Why did I choose this again?
Professor Trelawney stared at her.
"Well, they do," said Hermione. "Everybody knows about Harry and You-Know-Who."
Harry and Ron stared at her with a mixture of amazement and admiration. It appeared that they had never heard Hermione speak to a teacher like that before. Professor Trelawney chose not to reply. She lowered her huge eyes to Harry's cup again and continued to turn it.
"The club... an attack. Dear, dear, this is not a happy cup..."
"I thought that was a bowler hat," said Ron sheepishly.
"The skull... danger in your path, my dear..."
Everyone was staring, transfixed, at Professor Trelawney, who gave the cup a final turn, gasped, then screamed.
There was another tinkle of breaking china; Neville had smashed his second cup. Professor 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..."
"What is it, Professor?" said Dean Thomas at once. Everyone had got to their feet, and slowly, they crowded around our table, pressing close to Professor Trelawney's chair to get a good look at Harry's cup.
"My dear," Professor Trelawney's huge eyes opened dramatically, "you have the Grim."
"That what?" said Harry.
Harry could tell he wasn't the only one who didn't understand; Dean Thomas shrugged at him and Lavender Brown looked puzzled, but nearly everybody else clapped their hands to their mouths in horror. I stared at the cup. No way, I thought, this could not be happening, it can't be true. This would mean that …, no it's must be a lie.
"The Grim, my dear, the Grim!" cried Professor Trelawney, who looked shocked that Harry hadn't understood. "The giant spectral dog that haunts churchyards! My dear boy, it is an omen- the worst omen- of death!"
Lavender Brown clapped her hands to her mouth, too. Everyone was looking at Harry; everyone except Hermione, who had got up and moved around to the back of Professor Trelawney's chair.
"I don't think it looks like a Grim," she said flatly. I took the cup from her hands and looked for myself.
"I agree with Hermione, it doesn't look like the grim, it looks more like a sheep like Ron said."
Professor Trelawney surveyed Hermione and me with mounting dislike.
"You'll forgive me for saying so, my deares, but I perceive little aura around you two. Very little receptivity to the resonances of the future."
"When you've all finished deciding whether I'm going to die or not!" said Harry, taking everyone by surprise.
Now nobody seemed to want to look at him.
"Ooh, Harry, you're not going to die. You're way to young and to good looking to die now." I clamped my hand over my mouth. I didn't just said that, did I? Seeing everyone's faces, I must have.
Harry began to laugh. "Thanks Aurora."
"I think we will leave the lesson here for today," said Professor Trelawney, in her mistiest voice. "Yes ... please pack away your things ..."
Silently, the class took their teacups back to Professor Trelawney, packed away their books and closed their bags. I could see that even Ron was avoiding Harry's eyes. Pore Harry.
"Until we meet again," said Professor Trelawney faintly, "fair fortune will be yours. Oh, and dear-" she pointed at Neville, "you'll be late next time, so mind you work extra hard to catch up."
We descended Professor Trelawney's ladder and the winding staircase in silence, then set off for Professor McGonagall's Transfiguration lesson. It took us so long to find her classroom that, early as they had left Divination, we were only just in time.
Harry chose a seat right at the back of the room and I went to sit next to him; the rest of the class kept shooting furtive glances at him and at me, as though he was about to drop dead at any moment and probably me the one who kills him.
I hardly heard what Professor McGonagall was telling us about Animagi (wizards who could transform at will into animals), and wasn't even watching when she transformed herself in front of their eyes into a tabby cat with spectacle markings around her eyes.
"Really, what has got into you all today?" said Professor McGonagall, turning back into herself with a faint pop, and staring around them all. "Not that it matters, but that's the first time my transformation's not got applause from a class."
Everybody's heads turned towards Harry again, but nobody spoke. Then Hermione raised her hand.
"Please, Professor, we've just had our first Divination class, and we were reading tea leaves, and-"
"Ah, of course," said Professor McGonagall, suddenly frowning. "There is no need to say any more, Miss Granger. Tell me, which of you will be dying this year?"
Everyone stared at her.
"Me," said Harry, finally.
"I see," said Professor McGonagall, fixing Harry with her beady eyes. "Then you should know, Potter, that Sybill Trelawney has predicted the death of one student a year since she arrived at this school. None of them has died yet. Seeing death omens is her favourite was of greeting a new class. If it were not for the fact that I never speak ill of my colleagues -" Professor McGonagall broke off, and they saw that her nostrils had gone white. She went on, more calmly, "Divination is one of the most 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..." She stopped again, and then said, in a very matter-of-fact tone, "You look in excellent 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 and I laughed. Not everyone was convinced, however. Ron still looked worried, and Lavender whispered, "But what about Neville's cup?"
When the Transfiguration class had finished, we joined the crowd thundering towards the Great Hall for lunch.
"Ron, cheer up," said Hermione, pushing a dish of stew towards him. "You heard what Professor McGonagall said."
Ron spooned stew onto his plate and picked up his fork but didn't start.
"Harry," he said, in a low, serious voice, "you haven't seen a great black dog anywhere, have you?"
"Yeah, I have," said Harry. "I saw one the night I left the Dursleys."
Ooh no, he couldn't have. This was bad. Stop thinking like this Aurora, I told myself. It could be a stray dog.
Ron let his fork fall with a clatter.
"Probably a stray," I said calmly. Good keep your emotions in check.
Ron looked at me as though I had gone mad.
"Aurora, if Harry's seen a Grim, that's- that's bad," he said. "My- my Uncle Bilius saw one and- and he died twenty-four hours later!"
"Coincidence," said Hermione airily, pouring herself some pumpkin juice.
"You don't know what you're talking about!" said Ron, starting to get angry. "Grims scare the living daylights out of most wizards!"
"There you are, then," said Hermione in a superior tone. "They see the Grim and die of fright. The Grim's not an omen, it's the cause of death! And Harry's still with us because he's not stupid enough to see one and think, right, well, I'd better pop my clogs then!"
I laughed at that. "Good one Hermione." She gave me a smile.
Ron mouthed wordlessly at Hermione, who opened her bag, took out her new Arithmancy book and propped it open against the juice jug.
"I think Divination seems very woolly," she said, searching for her page. "A lot of guesswork, if you ask me."
"There was nothing woolly about the Grim in that cup!" said Ron hotly.
"You didn't seem quite so confident when you were telling Harry it was a sheep," said Hermione coolly.
"Professor Trelawney said you didn't have the right aura! You just don't like being rubbish at something for a change!"
He had touched a nerve. Hermione slammed her Arithmancy book down on the table so hard that bits of meat and carrot flew everywhere.
"If being good at Divination means I have to pretend to see death omens in a lump of tea leaves, I'm not sure I'll be studying it much longer! That lesson was absolute rubbish compared to my Arithmancy class!"
She snatched up her bag and stalked away.
Ron frowned after her.
"What's she talking about?" he said to Harry and me. "She hasn't been to an Arithmancy class yet."
I was pleased to get out of the castle after lunch. Yesterday's rain had cleared; the sky was a clear, pale grey and the grass was springy and damp underfoot as they set off for their first ever Care of Magical Creatures class. Ron and Hermione weren't speaking to each other. Harry walked beside me in silence as we went down the sloping lawns to Hagrid's hut on the edge of the Forbidden Forest. It was only when I spotted three only-too-familiar backs ahead of them that I realised we must be having these lessons with the Slytherins.
Malfoy was talking animatedly to Crabbe and Goyle, who were chortling. I was quite sure I knew what they were talking about.
Hagrid 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 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!"
For one nasty moment, I thought Hagrid was going to lead us into the Forest.
However, Hagrid strolled off around the edge of the trees, and five minutes later, we found ourselves outside a kind of paddock. There was nothing in there.
"Everyone gather round the fence here!" he called. "That's it - make sure yeh can see. Now, firs' thing yeh'll want ter do is open yer books-"
"How?" said the cold, drawling voice of Draco Malfoy.
"Eh?" said Hagrid.
"How do we open our books?" Malfoy repeated. He took out his copy of The Monster Book of Monsters, which he had bound shut with a length of rope. Other people took theirs out, some had belted their books shut; others had crammed them inside tight bags or clamped them together with bullclips. I took mine out with nothing. I knew how to open them. Uncle Moony told me.
"Hasn'- hasn' anyone bin able ter open their books?" said Hagrid, looking crestfallen.
"I did" I said. Hagrid beamed at me.
"How'd you did it?" he asked?
"You have to stroke them down their spine. My uncle told me" I replied.
"Very good. 10 points to Gryffindor."
"Oh, how silly we've all been!" Malfoy sneered. "We should have stroked them! Why didn't we guess!"
"I... I thought they were funny," said Hagrid uncertainly to me.
"Oh, tremendously funny!" said Malfoy. "Really witty, giving us a book that tries to rip our hands off!"
"Shut up, Malfoy," said Harry quietly.
Hagrid was looking downcast.
"Righ' then," said Hagrid, who seemed to have lost his thread, "so... so yeh've got yer books an'... an'... now yeh need the Magical Creatures. Yeah. So I'll go an' get 'em. Hang on..."
He strode away from them into the Forest and out of sight.
"God, this place is going to the dogs," said Malfoy loudly. "That oaf teaching classes, my father'll have a fit when I tell him-"
"Shut up, Malfoy, Hagrid isn't an oaf." I said. "Leave him alone"
"Or what, Black, set your crazy father on us. Where is he anyway, shouldn't you join him. That way you can bond, over killing I mean," Malfoy said smirking.
"Leave her alone, Malfoy" Harry said angrily.
Malfoy just smirked my way. Ooh I wish could punch that evil smile of his face. I took a step forward but Harry grabbed my arm before I could any further. "He's not worth it," he whispered in my ear.
"Oooooooh!" squealed Lavender, pointing towards the opposite side of the paddock.
Trotting towards them were a dozen of the most bizarre creatures I had ever seen. They had the bodies, hind legs and tails of horses, but the front legs, wings and heads of what seemed to be giant eagles, with cruel, steel-coloured beaks and large, brilliantly orange eyes. The talons on their front legs were half a foot long and deadly-looking. Each of the had a thick leather collar around its neck, which was attached to a long chain, and the ends of all of these were held in the vast hands of Hagrid, who came jogging into the paddock behind the creatures.
"Gee up, there!" he roared, shaking the chains and urging the creatures towards the fence where the class stood. Everyone drew back slightly as Hagrid reached them and tethered the creatures to the fence.
"Hippogriffs!" Hagrid roared happily, waving a hand at them. "Beau'iful, aren' they?"
I could sort of see what Hagrid meant. Once you had got over the first shock of seeing something that was half-horse, half-bird, you started to appreciate the Hippogriffs' gleaming coats, changing smoothly from feather to hair, each of them a different colour; stormy grey, bronze, a pinking roan, gleaming chestnut and inky black.
"So," said Hagrid, rubbing his hands together and beaming around, "if yeh want to come a bit nearer..."
No one seemed to want to. Harry, Ron and Hermione, however approached the fence cautiously. I followed them.
"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."
Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle weren't listening; they were talking in an undertone and I had a nasty feeling they were plotting how best to disrupt the lesson.
"Yeh always wait fer the Hippogriff ter make the firs' move," Hagrid continued. "It's polite, see? Yeh walk towards him, and 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?"
Most of the class backed further away in answer. Even Harry, Ron, Hermione and I had misgivings. The Hippogriffs were tossing their fierce heads and flexing their powerful wings; they didn't seem to like being tethered like this.
"No one?" said Hagrid, with a pleading look.
"I'll do it," said Harry.
There was an intake of breath from behind him and both Lavender and Parvati whispered, "Oooh, no, Harry, remember your tea leaves!"
I rolled my eyes, ooh please, they really believed that crap.
Harry ignored them. He climbed over the paddock fence.
"Good man, Harry!" roared Hagrid. "Right then- let's see how you get on with Buckbeak."
He untied one of the chains, pulled the grey Hippogriff away from his fellows and slipped off his leather collar. The class on the other side of the paddock seemed to be holding its breath. Malfoy's eyes were narrowed maliciously.
"Easy, now, Harry," said Hagrid quietly. "Yeh've got eye contact, now try not ter blink- Hippogriffs don' trust yeh if yeh blink too much..."
Buckbeak had turned his great, sharp head, and was staring at Harry with one fierce orange eye.
"Tha's it," said Hagrid. "Tha's it, Harry... now, bow..."
Haay gave a short bow and then looked up.
The Hippogriff was still staring haughtily at him. It didn't move.
"Ah," said Hagrid, sounding worried. "Right - back away, now, Harry, easy does it-"
But then, to my enormous surprise, the Hippogriff suddenly bent his scaly front knees, and sank into what was an unmistakable bow.
"Well done, Harry!" said Hagrid, ecstatic. "Right - yeh can touch him! Pat his beak, go on!"
Harry moved slowly towards the Hippogriff and reached out towards him. He patted the beak several times and the Hippogriff closed his eyes lazily, as though enjoying it.
The class broke into applause, all except for Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle, who were looking deeply disappointed.
"Righ' then, Harry," said Hagrid, "I reckon he migh' let yeh ride him!"
"Yeh climb up there, jus' behind the wing joint," said Hagrid, "an' mind yeh don' pull any of his feathers out, he won' like that..."
Harry put his foot on the top of Buckbeak's wing and hoisted himself onto his back. Buckbeak stood up. Harry was looking like he didn't have a clue of what to do.
"Go on, then!" roared Hagrid, slapping the Hippogriff's hindquarters.
Without warning, twelve-foot wings flapped open on either side of Harry.
Buckbeak flew Harry once around the paddock and then headed back to the ground; with a heavy thud the four ill-assorted feet hit the ground.
"Good work, Harry!" roared Hagrid, as everyone except Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle cheered. "OK, who else wants a go?"
Emboldened by Harry'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 backwards from his, which didn't seem to want to bend its knees.
Ron, Hermione and I practiced on the chestnut, while Harry watched.
Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle had taken over Buckbeak. He had bowed to Malfoy, who was now patting his beak, looking disdainful.
"This is very easy," Malfoy drawled, loud enough for Harry to hear him. "I knew it must have been, if Potter could do it... I bet you're not dangerous at all, are you?" he said to the Hippogriff. "Are you, you ugly great brute?"
"Malfoy!" I screamed but it was too late.
It happened in a flash of steely talons; Malfoy let out a high-pitched scream and next moment, Hagrid was wrestling Buckbeak back into his collar as he strained to get at Malfoy, who lay curled in the grass, blood blossoming all over his robes.
"I'm dying!" Malfoy yelled, as the class panicked. "I'm dying, look at me! It's killed me!"
"Yer not dyin'!" said Hagrid, who had gone very white. "Someone help me- gotta get him outta here-"
Hermione ran to open the gate while Hagrid lifted Malfoy easily. As they passed, I saw that there was a long, deep gash in Malfoy's arm; blood splattered the grass and Hagrid ran with him, up the slope towards the castle.
Very shaken, the Care of Magical Creatures class followed at a walk. The Slytherins were all shouting about Hagrid.
"They should sack him straight away!" said Pansy, who was in tears.
"It was Malfoy's fault," snapped Dean.
Crabbe and Goyle flexed their muscles threateningly.
They all climbed the stone steps into the deserted Entrance Hall.
"I'm going to see if he's OK!" said Pansy, and they all watched her run up the marble staircase. The Slytherins, still muttering about Hagrid, headed away in the direction of their dungeon common room; Harry, Ron, Hermione and I proceeded upstairs to Gryffindor Tower.
"Do you think he'll be all right?" said Hermione nervously.
We nodded.
"'Course he will, Madam Pomfrey can mend cuts in about a second," said Harry.
"That was a really bad thing to happen in Hagrid's first class, though, wasn't it?" said Ron, looking worried. "Trust Malfoy to mess things up for him..."
We were among the first to reach the Great Hall at dinnertime, hoping to see Hagrid, but he wasn't there.
"They wouldn't sack him, would they?" said Hermione anxiously, not touching her steak-and-kidney pudding.
"They'd better not," said Ron, who wasn't eating either.
Harry and I were watching the Slytherin table. A large group including Crabbe and Goyle were huddled together, deep in conversation. I was sure they were cooking up their own version of how Malfoy had got injured.
"Well, you can't say it wasn't an interesting first day back," said Ron gloomily.
We went up to the crowded Gryffindor common room after dinner and tried to do the homework Professor McGonagall had set us, but all four of us kept breaking off and glancing out of the tower window.
"There's a light on in Hagrid's window," said Harry suddenly.
Ron looked at his watch.
"If we hurried, we could go down and see him, it's still quite early..."
"I don't know," Hermione said slowly, and I saw her glance at Harry.
"I'm allowed to walk across the grounds," he said pointedly. "Sirius Black hasn't got past the Dementors here, has he?" Then he looked at me. "I'm sorry Aurora, I didn't mean –"
"It's ok, Harry. I know you didn't mean it." I said to him.
So we put our things away and headed out of the portrait hole, glad not to meet anybody on our way out of the front doors, as we weren't entirely sure twe were supposed to be out.
The grass was still wet and looked almost black in the twilight. When we reached Hagrid's hut, we knocked, and a voice growled, "C'min."
Hagrid was sitting in his shirt-sleeves at his scrubbed wooden table; his boarhound, had his head in Hagrid's lap.
One look told us that Hagrid had been drinking a lot; there was a pewter tankard almost as big as a bucket in front of him, and he seemed to be having difficulty getting us into focus.
"'Spect it's a record," he said thickly, when he recognised them. "Don' reckon they've ever had a teacher who on'y lasted a day before."
"You haven't been sacked, Hagrid!" gasped Hermione.
"Not yet," said Hagrid miserably, taking a gulp of whatever was in the tankard. "But 's only a matter o' time, i'n't it, after Malfoy..."
"How is he?" said Ron, as they all sat down. "It wasn't serious, was it?"
"Madam Pomfrey fixed him best she could," said Hagrid dully, "but he's sayin' it's still agony... covered in bandages... moanin'..."
"What a wimp, seriously, Hagrid don't believe him" I told him.
"He's faking it," said Harry at once. "Madam Pomfrey can mend anything. She regrew half my bones last year. Trust Malfoy to milk it for what it's worth."
"School gov'nors have bin told, o' course," said Hagrid miserably. "They reckon I started too big. Shoulda left Hippogriffs fer later... done Flobberworms or summat...jus' thought it'd make a good firs' lesson... 's all my fault ..."
"It's all Malfoy's fault, Hagrid!" said Hermione earnestly.
"We're witnesses," said Harry. "You said Hippogriffs attack if you insult them. It's Malfoy's problem he wasn't listening. We'll tell Dumbledore what really happened."
"I even warned him, but he didn't listen" I said.
"Yeah, don't worry, Hagrid, we'll back you up," said Ron.
Tears leaked out of the crinkled corners of Hagrid's beetle-black eyes. He grabbed both Harry and Ron and pulled them into a bone-breaking hug.
"I think you've had enough to drink, Hagrid," said Hermione firmly. She took the tankard from the table and went outside to empty it.
"Ar, maybe she's right," said Hagrid, letting go of Harry and Ron, who both staggered away, rubbing their ribs.
Hagrid heaved himself out of his chair and followed Hermione steadily outside. They heard a loud splash.
"What's he done?" said Harry nervously, as Hermione came back with the empty tankard.
"Stuck his head in the water barrel," said Hermione, putting the tankard away.
Hagrid came back, his long hair and beard sopping wet, wiping the water out of his eyes.
"Tha's better," he said, shaking his head like a dog and drenching them all. "Listen, it was good of yeh ter come an' see me, I really-"
He stopped dead, staring at Harry and me as though he'd only just realised we were there.
"WHAT D'YEH THINK YOU'RE DOIN', EH?" he roared, so suddenly that we jumped a foot in the air. "YEH'RE NOT TO GO WANDERIN' AROUND AFTER DARK, HARRY AND YOU TO BLACK! AN' YOU TWO! LETTIN' THEM!"
Hagrid strode over to Harry and me, grabbed his and my arm and pulled us to the door.
"C'mon!" Hagrid said angrily. "I'm takin' yer all back up ter school, an' don' let me catch yeh walkin' down ter see me after dark again. I'm not worth that!"
As I was lying in my bed, I was thinking the day over. One thing for sure. There was never a dull moment at Hogwarts and certainly not one with Harry. Thinking about him made me wonder, are we friends now or are they just tolerating me? I don't think Ron likes me very much but Hermione seems ok. And everybody else? Well they just kept on giving me glares and running away from me. I just have to learn to live with it I suppose.
A/N: wow chapter 2 is finished. Yeey
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