Chapter 35: Thestrals

November 2, 2002

"Sit down," Buffy ordered as she closed the door behind Harry and George. "Do you two know the position you have me in?"

"Malfoy provoked us, Buffy," said Harry quietly afraid of what his sister might do.

"Provoked you?" shouted Buffy, slamming a fist onto her desk. "Harry, of course he wanted to provoke you. He just lost. But what could justify what you two did?"

"He insulted my parents," said George. "And yours, Dawn's and Harry's mother, Buffy."

"George, Harry," Buffy said. "You should have left this to me or Madam Hooch to sort out."

"Hem, hem."

Buffy looked up as George and Harry both spun around. Dolores Umbridge was standing in the doorway.

"May I help, Professor Potter?" asked Umbridge in her most poisonously sweet voice.

"Help?" Buffy repeated in a constricted voice. "What do you mean, 'help'?"

Umbridge moved forward into the office, still smiling her sickly smile. "Why, I thought you might be grateful for a little extra authority."

Harry would not have been surprised to see sparks fly from his sister's nostrils.

"You thought wrong," Buffy said, turning her back on Umbridge. "Now, you two had better listen closely. I do not care what provocation Malfoy offered you, I do not care if he insulted me, Dawn or every family member you have, George, your behavior was uncalled for and I am giving both of you a week's worth of detention! Do not look at me like that, Harry, you know how much I hate this. But you deserve it! On top of that you are grounded, again!"

"Hem, hem."

Buffy turned to face Umbridge and glared at the woman. "What?"

"I won't question Harry being grounded, as you are his legal adopted mother that is your call as it could be construed that you are doing so in that role," said Umbridge. "But as far as this school is concerned, I think they deserve rather more than detentions."

"As Head of their house," Buffy said as she continued to glare at the woman. "It's my call. What you think doesn't count here."

"Well, actually, Buffy," simpered Umbridge, "I think you'll find that what I think does count. Now, where is it? Cornelius just sent it… I mean," she gave a little false laugh as she rummaged in her handbag, "the Minister just sent it… Ah yes…"

She had pulled out a piece of parchment that she now unfurled, clearing her throat fussily before starting to read what it said.

"Hem, hem… 'Educational Decree Number Twenty-five…'"

"Another one," Buffy growled.

"Well, yes," said Umbridge, still smiling. "As a matter of fact, Buffy, it was you who made me see that we needed a further amendment… You remember how you overrode me, when I was unwilling to allow the Gryffindor Quidditch team to re-form? How you took the case to Dumbledore, who insisted that the team be allowed to play? Well, now, I couldn't have that. I contacted the Minister at once, and he quite agreed with me that the High Inquisitor has to have the power to strip pupils of privileges, or she—that is to say, I—would have less authority than common teachers! And you see now, don't you, Buffy, how right I was in attempting to stop the Gryffindor team re-forming? Dreadful tempers… Anyway, I was reading out our amendment… hem, hem…'The High Inquisitor will henceforth have supreme authority over all punishments, sanctions, and removal of privileges pertaining to the students of Hogwarts, and the power to alter such punishments, sanctions, and removals of privileges as may have been ordered by other staff members. Signed, Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic, Order of Merlin First Class, etc., etc…'"

She rolled up the parchment and put it back into her handbag, still smiling.

"So… I really think I will have to ban these two from playing Quidditch ever again," she said, looking from Harry to George and back again.

Harry felt the Snitch fluttering madly in his hand. "Ban us?" he said, and his voice sounded strangely distant. "From playing… ever again?"

"Ban him?" Buffy said as anger filtered into her voice.

"Yes, I think a lifelong ban ought to do the trick," said Umbridge, her smile widening still further. "Both your brother and Mr. Weasley here. And I think, to be safe, this young man's twin ought to be stopped too—if his teammates had not restrained him, I feel sure he would have attacked young Mr. Malfoy as well. I will want their broomsticks confiscated, of course; I shall keep them safely in my office, to make sure there is no infringement of my ban. But I am not unreasonable, Professor Potter," she continued, turning back to Buffy who was now standing as still as though carved from ice, staring at her. "The rest of the team can continue playing, I saw no signs of violence from any of them, including your own sister who attempted to hold Mr. Weasley back before he broke from her grasp. Well… good afternoon to you." And with a look of the utmost satisfaction Umbridge left the room.

"Why that no-good woman," Buffy growled out.

"Buffy," Harry said. "Don't do anything you will regret."

"I'm sorry guys," Buffy said with a sigh. "I would have left it at detention."

"We know, Buffy," George said.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

"Banned," said Angelina in a hollow voice, later that evening when Buffy told her what Umbridge had done. "Banned. No Seeker and no Beaters… Dawn our only replacement. What on earth are we going to do?"

"It's just so unfair," said Alicia numbly. "I mean, what about Crabbe and that Bludger he hit after the whistle had been blown? Has she banned him?"

"No," said Ginny miserably; she and Dawn were sitting on either side of Harry. "He just got lines, I heard Montague laughing about it at dinner."

"And banning Fred when he didn't even do anything!" said Alicia furiously, pummeling her knee with her fist.

"It's not my fault I didn't," said Fred, with a very ugly look on his face. "I would've pounded the little scumbag to a pulp if you three hadn't been holding me back."

"And that would have gotten you detention also," Buffy said. "This is between us though. From what George and Harry told me. He insulted not only Molly and Arthur but Lily as well. I wouldn't have stood for that. Now as far as the team goes. How far did you get in training Dawn, Angelina?"

"Only in Keeper and Seeker," Angelina admitted.

"Then you already have your Seeker then," Buffy said. "You will sadly need to hold new tryouts for Beaters. Now I think we all need sleep and hopefully tomorrow we will find this was all a bad dream."

"I hope so," Angelina agreed as she followed by Alicia and Katie headed up the stairs to the girl's dormitory. Fred and George headed up the stairs to the boy's dormitory.

Buffy turned and gave the password to the portrait and slipped through into her suite. She found Willow waiting for her in her negligee. "Not tonight, Will."

"That bad?" Willow asked as she came over to Buffy and pulled her girlfriend into an embrace.

"Yeah," Buffy said. "Harry, Fred and George are all banned for the rest of their lives from playing Quidditch. I just wanted to give them detention but Umbridge was pissed I went over her head when I went to Albus to ask him if he could do anything about allowing Gryffindor to reform their Quidditch team. The decree, Harry's banning. She's after me. I'm a threat to her and to the Ministry and they know it. Not only because I hold three seats on the Wizengamot, not only because I pushed for Sirius' trial when several in the Ministry didn't want to give him a trial, but also because I'm the one that saw Voldemort come back."

November 5, 2002

It was with a certain amount of apprehension that Dawn, Harry, Ron, and Hermione headed down to Hagrid's on Tuesday, heavily muffled against the cold. Hagrid had not been back a day from his mission for Dumbledore when they learned that Umbridge would be sitting in on his class.

However, Umbridge was nowhere to be seen as they struggled through the snow toward Hagrid, who stood waiting for them on the edge of the forest.

"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?"

"Ready?" said Hagrid happily, looking around at the class. "Right, well, I've bin savin' a trip in ter 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.

Harry glanced at Dawn, Ron and Hermione, who sighed but nodded, and the three of them set off after Hagrid, 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 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,

Dawn nudged her brother 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.

Dawn's eyes went wide as she looked at the horse things. They were what was pulling the carriages at the start of the term.

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.

Dawn looked over at Harry and Ron and saw that they were staring around into the trees and after a few seconds Ron whispered, "Why doesn't Hagrid call again?"

"Harry, tell me you see it," Dawn said as she whispered to her brother.

"See what, Dawn?" Harry asked.

Most of the rest of the class were wearing expressions as confused and nervously expectant as Harry and 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?"

Dawn hesitantly raised her hand as did Neville and the Slytherin boy.

Hagrid nodded at Neville.

"Yeah… yeah, I knew you'd be able ter, Neville," he said seriously. "Not you though, Dawn."

"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. Dawn understood 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. "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?"

Hermione raised her hand.

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

"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."

Dawn understood in that instant why she could see them. For she had been there when Buffy had technically died when Kendra had been called. "I know why I can see them," Dawn whispered to her brother. "Buffy."

Harry looked at Dawn his eyes wide. "When?" he whispered back.

"In the Master's cave," Dawn said. "I was there, watched as he drank from her. Watched as he tossed her aside into the pool of water. Watched as she drowned. When he was gone, I pulled her from the water, I held her dead lifeless body till Xander came and brought her back to me."

"Now, thestrals—" Hagrid started.

"Hem, hem."

Umbridge had arrived.

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. "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.

Umbridge raised her eyebrows at him and muttered as she made a note on her clipboard, "'has… to… resort… to… crude… sign… language…'"

"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 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'?"

"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 as did Dawn.

"You hag, you evil hag!" Dawn whispered as she began to glow green. "I know what you're doing, you awful, twisted, vicious—"

"Harry," Hermione whispered, "help calm Dawn down before she loses control."

Harry looked toward his sister and saw what Hermione meant. He pulled her close to him and began whispering comfortingly in her ear. The glow surrounding Dawn slowly faded away.

"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?"

Pansy was definitely trying to keep from giggling as she answered, "No… because… well… it sounds… like grunting a lot of the time…"

Umbridge scribbled on her clipboard.

"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.

Umbridge smiled indulgently at them and then turned to Dawn. "You can see the thestrals, Potter, can you?" she said.

Dawn glared at Umbridge. "Yes," she bit out.

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

"Buffy," Dawn ground out as she began glowing again.

"Your sister is alive," Umbridge said accusingly.

"A vampire drank from her, drowned her in a pool of water," Dawn said as she spun on Umbridge. "I was there. The magic that calls one Slayer after the previous one dies; said she was dead because it called the next Slayer. I held my sister's lifeless body in my arms until Buffy's friend, Xander, came and brought her to back to me. I was nine years old at the time. Do you know what that did to me? Do you understand the scars I now carry from that? And I'm not talking about the scars you can see like the one on my forehead." She pointed toward her lightning bolt scar. "I'm talking about the scars we all carry. The ones inside that no one can see. I'm now afraid of losing my sister. That she will die and I will be left alone in the world, forever."

Dawn turned and looked at Hagrid. "Permission to go back up to the castle?"

"Granted, Dawn," Hagrid said, he like the rest of the Gryffindors was shocked at what Dawn had just revealed.

Dawn looked at Umbridge and then turned and ran fast away from the class into the forest. When she was sure Umbridge couldn't see her, she opened a portal and stepped through it into Buffy's suite. As the portal closed, she dropped to her knees as tears flowed down her cheeks.

A half an hour later Dawn heard the portrait hole from the corridor open and footsteps behind her.

"Dawn?" Willow said as she came through the portrait hole. She knelt down next to her friend and saw the tears falling down Dawn's cheeks. "What happened?"

"Buffy," Dawn sobbed.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

"That foul, lying, twisting old gargoyle!" stormed Hermione, as she, Harry and Ron 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."

"Do you?" Harry asked her quietly, worried for his sister.

Hermione looked horrorstruck as she remembered Dawn's outburst. "Oh Harry—I'm sorry—no, of course I don't—that was a really stupid thing to say—"

"I'm not the one you should apologize to," Harry admitted.

"Dawn," Hermione said with a nod. "Is what she told Umbridge true?"

"I don't know," Harry said. "It's not part of the story I was told. I knew that Buffy went to face the Master and that she drowned in his cave. But I didn't know that Dawn was there, that she saw it."

"I feel bad for Dawn," Hermione admitted. "If she saw it, she's right that left scars that may never heal. Especially when she was only nine-years-old when it happened."

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Buffy stood standing outside Umbridge's office waiting for the woman to return from Hagrid's class. Willow had come and found her and said she had found Dawn in their suite crying. And when she asked Dawn about it, she learned that it had been Umbridge's fault.

"Professor Potter!" Umbridge said as she came up to Buffy. "What a surprise. What can I do for you?"

"In private," Buffy said.

Umbridge nodded as she led Buffy into her office and closed the door behind them.

Buffy spun on Umbridge anger was apparent on her face. "Where do you get off attacking my sister."

"Attacking?" Umbridge asked surprised at the accusation.

"You asked her about a truly traumatic instance in both hers and my lives," Buffy said as she sat down in a chair.

Umbridge looked at Buffy and sighed. When Dawn had yelled at her she knew she should have asked Neville instead of Dawn. "Is what she said true? Is that how the next Slayer was called?"

"Yes," Buffy said. "There was a prophecy that I would go face this master vampire. That he would kill me. I went to face my destiny not knowing that Dawn had followed me. She saw everything. It was Dawn's introduction to what lies in the dark. She pulled me out of the pool of water I had drowned in. From what my friend Xander told me later. She was cradling my head in her lap begging me to wake up when he found us. Ever since then she's been afraid that I will die permanently. That fear has only intensified since our adoptive mom died." She looked at Umbridge. "This stays between us. Very few people know about this. If you tell anyone, I will be more than happy to go before the Wizengamot and not only have you removed from your position here but removed from your position at the Ministry of Magic as well. And I will make good on that threat. As it is you are lucky, I haven't done that already. I know you have been reading my owls again. Do you know how dangerous that could be? It already takes several days for owls to get here from Sunnydale. If Faith needs me for anything in Sunnydale, I have to be able to get my mail quickly, people's lives depend on me as a Slayer."

Buffy stood as she glared at Umbridge before turning and leaving the office.

Author's Note: I had debated Buffy standing up to Umbridge when Buffy had Harry and George in her office at the beginning of the chapter. Namely when Umbridge confiscates their brooms. I just couldn't seem to find a way of working it out.