Chapter 33:

Alicia and Hermione plowed their way back down to Hagrid's cabin the next morning through two feet of snow. The boys, who had wanted to join them, were so piled under a mountain of homework they were forced by the two to stay in the common room and finish it.

The two girls arrived at the cabin and began knocking. Alicia gave up after ten minutes when there was no answer and Fang's usual barks didn't greet them.

"Where could he be?" Hermione questioned

"Probably out in the forest with what ever creatures it is he's got for us." Alicia sighed, looking at the trees that marked the edge of the forest.

Hermione turned to knock some more but it was useless in Alicia's opinion who just sat down on the front step and waited, watching the kids who weren't buried under homework skating on the frozen lake, tobogganing or bewitching snowballs. Alicia could see someone was aiming nice and high at the Gryffindor common room windows and after one turned around she was not at all surprised to see Fred and George.

After half an hour of Hermione knocking and Alicia watching other students Hagrid finally came stamping out of the forest.

"Oh where have you been?" Alicia asked

"Lookin' after the creatures." Hagrid beamed

"In the forest!? Hagrid it can't be anything…" Hermione began

"Calm down Hermione, this is gonna be grea." Hagrid beamed before they let him into the hut.

"Hagrid could you please just let me know…" Hermione began again

"It'll ruin the surprise." Hagrid assured. He was still badly cut and bruised from yesterday.

"Hagrid if you don't produce a safe and secure lesson Umbridge will use it against you, she'll do anything to kick you out of the school." Hermione continued as Hagrid moved around his cabin.

"Worst of all she's got this serious dislike for half-breeds so she'll have it out for you even more than Trelawney." Alicia warned as she stood by the table.

"Perhaps if you just taught us about knarls or…" Hermione said

"Hermione no one in their righ' mind will want teh study knarls rather than chimaeras." Hagrid returned and the girls shared a frightened look.

"Chimaeras!?" Alicia demanded

"Of course Chimaeras eggs are hard to get." Hagrid continued

"Hagrid I just really think you should be following Grubbly-Plank's plan she's gone through Umbridge's inspection fine." But Hagrid didn't seem to be listening.

Hermione continued to pester the man and even got back onto to the topic of his injuries but Hagrid continued to wave them off until they decided, at lunch time, to head back to the common room.

"This is just a nightmare!" Alicia complained as they trudged through the snow which soaked through their robes.

Alicia moved straight for the common room fire when they returned, both of them shivering slightly.

"So?" said Ron, looking up when she entered. "Got all his lessons planned for him?"

"Well, I tried," she said dully, sinking into a chair beside Harry. She pulled out her wand and gave it a complicated little wave so that hot air streamed out of the tip; she then pointed this at her robes, which began to steam as they dried out. "He wasn't even there when I arrived, I was knocking for at least half an hour. And then he came stumping out of the forest —"

Harry groaned.

"What's he keeping in there? Did he say?" asked Harry.

"No," said Hermione miserably. "He says he wants them to be a surprise. I tried to explain about Umbridge, but he just doesn't get it. He kept saying nobody in their right mind would rather study knarls than chimaeras — oh I don't think he's got a chimaera," she added at the appalled look on Harry and Ron's faces, "but that's not for lack of trying from what he said about how hard it is to get eggs… I don't know how many times I told him he'd be better off following Grubbly-Plank's plan, I honestly don't think he listened to half of what I said. He's in a bit of a funny mood, you know. He still won't say how he got all those injuries…"

Hagrid's reappearance at the staff table at breakfast the next day was not greeted by enthusiasm from all students. Some, like Fred, George, and Lee, roared with delight and sprinted up the aisle between the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables to wring Hagrid's enormous hand; others, like Parvati and Lavender, exchanged gloomy looks and shook their heads. Harry knew that many of them preferred Professor Grubbly-Plank's lessons, and the worst of it was that a very small, unbiased part of him, knew that they had good reason: Grubbly-Plank's idea of an interesting class was not one where there was a risk that somebody might have their head ripped off.

It was with a certain amount of apprehension that Harry, Alicia, Ron, and Hermione headed down to Hagrid's on Tuesday, heavily muffled against the cold. Harry was worried, not only about what Hagrid might have decided to teach them, but also about how the rest of the class, particularly Malfoy and his cronies, would behave if Umbridge was watching them.

However, the High Inquisitor was nowhere to be seen as they struggled through the snow toward Hagrid, who stood waiting for them on the edge of the forest. He did not present a reassuring sight; the bruises that had been purple on Saturday night were now tinged with green and yellow and some of his cuts still seemed to be bleeding. Alicia didn't think they looked even close to healing, had Hagrid perhaps been attacked by some creature whose venom prevented the wounds it inflicted from healing? As though to complete the ominous picture, Hagrid was carrying what looked like half a dead cow over his shoulder.

"We're workin' in here today!" Hagrid called happily to the approaching students, jerking his head back at the dark trees behind him. "Bit more sheltered! Anyway, they prefer the dark…"

"What prefers the dark?" Malfoy said sharply to Crabbe and Goyle, a trace of panic in his voice. "What did he say prefers the dark — did you hear?"

Malfoy, to Alicia's knowledge, had only entered the Forbidden Forest once and that was on their first year, in which Malfoy had been terrified then too.

"Ready?" said Hagrid happily, 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 now. "Only it wouldn't be the first time you'd brought wild stuff to class, would it?"

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. "Now if yeh've finished askin' stupid questions, follow me!"

He turned and strode straight into the forest. Nobody seemed much disposed to follow. Alicia sighed and with a glance at Harry was first to move off. He, Ron and Hermione, sighed but nodded, and they proceeded to follow the girl, leading the rest of the class.

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 on the ground at all. Hagrid deposited his half a cow with a grunt on the ground, stepped back, and turned to face his class again, most of whom were creeping toward him from tree to tree, peering around nervously as though expecting to be set upon at any moment.

"Gather roun', gather roun'," said Hagrid encouragingly. "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…"

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 the trees for a first glimpse of whatever it was that was coming. And then, as Hagrid shook his hair back for a third time and expanded his enormous chest, Alicia saw it at the black space between two gnarled yew trees. Harry seemed to notice it too for he nudged Ron and pointed.

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 looked around at 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.

Alicia released a sigh of relief and Hermione looked at her confused. Thestrals weren't bad at all!

Harry seemed relieved as well and he looked at Ron but he was still staring into the trees.

"Why doesn't Hagrid call again?" he 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 two other people who seemed to be able to see them: a stringy Slytherin boy standing just behind Goyle was watching the horse eating with an expression of great distaste on his face, and Neville, whose eyes were following the swishing progress of the long black tail.

"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?"

Alicia raised her hand and so did Harry. Hagrid nodded at them. "Yeah… yeah, I knew you'd be able ter, Harry, Alicia," 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?"

For answer, Hagrid pointed at the cow carcass on the ground. The whole class stared at it for a few seconds, then several people gasped and Parvati squealed. It wasn't hard to know why: Bits of flesh stripping themselves away from the bones and vanishing into thin air had to look very odd indeed.

"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 —"

"No, no, no," said Hagrid, chuckling, "tha's jus' superstition, that is, they aren' unlucky, they're dead clever an' useful! 'Course, this lot don' get a lot o' work, it's mainly jus' pullin' the school carriages unless Dumbledore's takin' a long journey an' don' want ter Apparate — an' here's another couple, look —"

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' you can see them an' some can't?"

Alicia and Hermione raised their hands.

"Go on then," said Hagrid, beaming at Hermione.

"The only people who can see thestrals," she said, "are people who have seen death."

"Tha's exactly right," said Hagrid solemnly, "ten points ter Gryffindor. Now, thestrals —"

"Hem, hem."

Professor Umbridge had arrived. She was standing a few feet away from Harry, wearing her green hat and cloak again, her clipboard at the ready. Hagrid, who had never heard Umbridge's fake cough before, was gazing in some concern at the closest thestral, evidently under the impression that it had made the sound.

"Hem, hem."

"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 the same loud, slow voice she had used with him earlier, as though she was addressing somebody both foreign and very slow. "Telling you that I would be inspecting your lesson?"

"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 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…' "

Alicia had to bite her tongue to stop her from speaking.

"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.

"Oh yeah," said Hagrid, throwing an uneasy glance at Umbridge's clipboard, but plowing 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 favourite, 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'?"

Harry's heart sank like a stone, but Hagrid merely chuckled.

"Thestrals aren' dangerous! All righ, they might take a bite outta you 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?"

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 toward Pansy Parkinson. "I know what you're doing, you awful, twisted, vicious —"

"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 unbruised 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' senses 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. "Whom did you see die?" she asked, her tone indifferent.

"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… okay…"

" '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 to Harry.

"Well, Hagrid," she turned to look up at him again, speaking once more in that loud, slow voice

"Hagrid is there a chance I could pet one, or would that be unwise while they're eating?" Alicia cut off Professor Umbridge and Harry looked at her surprised but the girl was looking straight at Hagrid who turned from Umbridge to her.

"Course not, very gentle like I said." Hagrid assured and with a grin Alicia, carefully moved towards the closest thestral. It looked up at her with it's milky eyes and she moved to brush the side of it's dragon like face.

It flinched slightly at her before she moved to pat it's neck grinning.

"It's a bit strange seeing how much like a horse they are and yet have no fur." Alicia confessed as the class watched her.

Umbridge brought herself up, though the height was rather dismal of a change.

"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 toadlike 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.

Alicia looked at Umbridge who cast her a quick gaze before she moved off.

Alicia and Hermione shared an angry look before Alicia had to turn back to the thestral to stop her from hexing Parkinson or Malfoy.

"That foul, lying, twisting old gargoyle!" stormed Hermione half an hour later, as they made their way back up to the castle through the channels they had made earlier in the snow. "You see what she's up to? It's her thing about half-breeds all over again — she's trying to make out Hagrid's some kind of dim-witted troll, just because he had a giantess for a mother — and oh, it's not fair, that really wasn't a bad lesson at all — I mean, all right, if it had been Blast-Ended Skrewts again, but thestrals are fine — in fact, for Hagrid, they're really good!"

"Umbridge said they're dangerous," said Ron.

"Well, it's like Hagrid said, they can look after themselves," said Hermione impatiently, "and I suppose a teacher like Grubbly-Plank wouldn't usually show them to us before N.E.W.T. level, but, well, they are very interesting, aren't they? The way some people can see them and some can't! I wish I could."

Alicia laughed darkly.

"Do you?" Harry asked her quietly.

She looked horrorstruck.

"Oh Harry — I'm sorry — no, of course I don't — that was a really stupid thing to say —"

"It's okay," he said quickly, "don't worry…"

"Just if the alternative to seeing them is to watch someone die it's probably not a great trade…" Alicia shrugged.

"I'm surprised so many people could see them," said Ron. "Three in a class —"

"Yeah, Weasley, we were just wondering," said a malicious voice nearby. Unheard by any of them in the muffling snow, Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle were walking along right behind them. "D'you reckon if you saw someone snuff it you'd be able to see the Quaffle better?"

He, Crabbe, and Goyle roared with laughter as they pushed past on their way to the castle and then broke into a chorus of "Weasley Is Our King." Ron's ears turned scarlet.

"Ignore them, just ignore them," intoned Hermione, pulling out her wand and performing the charm to produce hot air again, so that she could melt them an easier path through the untouched snow between them and the greenhouses.

Alicia removed hers as well and with a flick of her wand a sheet of ice appeared for Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle to slip upon and grab each other as they tried to stay on their feet. Alicia put her wand away as the four laughed at them while they smacked into the ground.

"Alicia, he's a prefect." Hermione reminded her

"He can't exactly prove I did anything." Alicia shrugged innocently.