Chapter 10: Death Omens
The following morning Delia woke up with a smile on her face. Even the presence of the dementors couldn't diminish how happy she was to be back. She had woken up a lot earlier than her roommates did. As she was lying in her bed, she was contemplating the past events. She has changed so much since the end of last school year.
She no longer felt like an out of place freak, but like someone who belonged. She had learned so much about the magical society during her bookstore visits that she felt much more comfortable navigating it all, even if she was far from being an expert. She even went full Hermione for a bit and already looked into potential future jobs. Curse-breaking just sounded so awesome and adventurous! It was a good thing she had changed her elective to Ancient Runes, considering having a NEWT in it is required to become a Curse-breaker.
The revelation of her being a demigod, and a daughter of Rhea at that, had been quite the bombshell for her. Judging by the goblin's reaction, it had been a surprise for them too, so it wouldn't be too much of a leap to assume that no one expected her to exist. That raised the question of how others would react to her. She needed Artemis' and Apollo's input on this as soon as possible. They would be able to advise her on how to steer the situation, on who to avoid and so on. Deep down she hoped her entire family on that side would welcome her, or at least not be hostile towards her. She knew however that the chances were slim, her mom's warning was still fresh in her mind, but she could hope.
Her mind was made up about camp, she would not be going there unless she was one hundred percent sure it was safe. She rather live with the evil she knew under the form of the Dursleys, than with the evil she didn't know consisting of potentially life-threatening situations or horrible curses. Besides, Artemis had promised to help her if her uncle went too far. Maybe she could join Artemis' hunters during the summer? She added that to the list of things she had to ask Artemis.
Speaking of curses, initially, she was afraid of her stepfather's curse, but now she has had time to think about it, she has calmed down. If anything, the curse has actually helped her so far. She would have never met Artemis and Apollo if it wasn't for the curse, or at least not under such pleasant circumstances. She was a bit paranoid though, Kronos wasn't exactly known to be a pleasant person - or well titan. With him supposedly being slain by Zeus, she wasn't sure if he was still alive and able to hurt her in person. He must have some influence or power left though, as he was able to curse her in the first place. She just hoped she never actually walked into him, because if he ate his own children, then she didn't want to know what he would do to her.
Other than the question of how the gods would react and the specifics of her curse, she also wondered about what it actually meant to be a demi-god, and what the actual consequences of it were in her everyday life. Artemis had already made her aware of the threat of monsters, the hound in the alley was the proof of it, but that couldn't be all, could it? If monsters were prone to attack her, would they enter Hogwarts to attack her? Was she even safe with the Dursleys to begin with? She felt confident in her knife fighting skills, but she didn't want to live her life like she had to constantly look over her shoulders.
She heard that the other girls started to stir, signalling that it was time for them and the rest of Gryffindor to get up and prepare themselves for the day, before going down to the great hall for breakfast.
Delia, Ron and Hermione were some of the first Gryffindors to arrive, yet the great hall was already packed. As they passed the Slytherin table, a group was huddled around Malfoy and giggling. Normally that meant that they were up to no good, but she didn't care much about that for now.
The three of them dropped down on the seats next to Fred and George. They nodded and George passed them their schedule, "McGonagall left these on the table earlier, here you go."
"Is it just me, or do those little snakes look like they're up to something?" Fred questioned.
"Probably figuring out what rumours to spread next or something," Delia said annoyed, realising that the rumours were probably going to be about her run-in with the dementors.
"Hmm," George said non-committal, "just focus your annoyance on beating the ponce in quidditch Delia."
"Yep, Gryffindor versus Slytherin is the first game of the season, remember?" Fred added.
That put a smile on her face. Yes, she could definitely do that. She wondered how much her physical training of the past year would help her in quidditch. It definitely made her a lot more agile than before.
Feeling more cheerful, she started filling her plate and began to eat. Next to her, Hermione had zoned out of the conversation and was studying their new schedule. Knowing her, she probably already knew it by heart.
As if feeling Delia's eyes on her, Hermione remarked "How nice, we're having some new subjects today!"
Upon hearing that, Delia decided to look at her own timetable as she munched on her breakfast. Hermione was right, she did have Ancient Runes as second class for the day. More importantly though, she had charms first. Professor Flitwick was a great teacher, probably the best they had in Hogwarts.
From her short stint in second year's duelling club, she remembered that Professor Flitwick used to be a champion on the international duelling circuit. If anyone could teach her how to duel, how to fight, it would be him. With that in mind, she had decided to ask him if he would be willing to train her after the morning's class. It's not like she had anything to lose by asking.
"Hermione," Ron said frowning, "I think they've made a mistake in your timetable. They have put you down for too many classes, some are even at the same moment, like runes and divination this morning! How are you supposed to be in two classes at the same time?"
"Don't be silly, of course I can't be. You don't need to worry, I have cleared it all up with Professor McGonagall." Her tone made it clear that the conversation was over as far as she was concerned. Ron just kept looking confused, while Delia narrowed her eyes. When Hermione told them she was taking all the subjects, she thought they all would be during different hours, not at the same time. What kind of magic allows someone to be in two places at the same time? She trusted Hermione, but something about this just intrigued Delia too much. She would find out how Hermione did it, one way or another.
Preoccupied with their conversation, they hadn't noticed that the hall was running empty, as people started moving towards their first classes. They hastily finished off their breakfast, said goodbye to Fred and George, and made their way towards the charms classroom in the southern tower.
xxx
At the end of the revision class Delia told Ron she would see him in transfiguration, and told Hermione to go ahead as she would catch up to her later. She waited until everyone else had left the classroom and went to Professor Flitwick. She was feeling like a ball of nerves. Professor Flitwick was patiently waiting for her behind his desk.
"Hello Professor, I was wondering if you would be willing to teach me how to duel, or at least would point me in the right direction. I am already pretty fit and fairly decent in hand-to-hand combat, especially with a knife."
Professor Flitwick didn't seem fazed by that, "Yes, I suppose someone with your background would need to be." Delia's eyes widened in surprise. So he knew she was a demigod all along? Did the goblins at Gringotts tell him, or was he able to sense it on his own?
He sighed, "Do you know how many students ask me each year to become an apprentice of mine, so they can enter the duelling circuit?"
"I'm not interested in the duelling circuit though Professor. I'm interested in surviving," she said firmly while looking him straight in his eyes. "I'm not only a demigod, but as much as I hate it, I'm also the Girl-Who-Lived. I will always have a target on my back. Either from Voldemort and his gang of Death Eaters, from a different Dark Lord trying to make a name for himself or from monsters."
Professor Flitwick was clearly mulling it over. "You do have a point there," he admitted after a few seconds pause, "I will give you a short list with spells to master. You'll do this in a week and show them to me. We will see how we progress from there. Don't tell anyone though, I prefer not to have a hundred students barging down my door demanding private duelling lessons." Professor Flitwick quickly took out a piece of parchment and neatly wrote down some spells on it.
Delia couldn't help but grin at that. "Thank you professor! I won't tell a soul!" Well, maybe with the exception of her friends.
"Don't thank me just yet. I expect that you will put in the work. If I notice that you can't handle it, or that your schoolwork is suffering because of it, then I will cancel the 'tutoring', is that clear?"
"Yes, professor!" Upon her confirmation, he handed her the folded piece of parchment.
"Oh and Delia, you might want to take a closer look at some of your fellow students. You're not the only half-blood residing in this castle. Now off you go or you'll be late for your next class."
She was stunned at this. Why hadn't she considered this before? She nodded at Professor Flitwick, before tucking away the piece of parchment, leaving the classroom and rushing to her next class, her very first class of Ancient Runes.
She found Hermione outside of the Ancient Runes classroom with some students from all the other houses. So it seemed like the electives were fully mixed rather than with two houses at a time. She supposed it made sense considering people were bound to have chosen electives that would take place at the same time.
Delia seemed to have arrived right on time, as the second after she greeted the others, the door opened and a professor told them "Come in and take your seats."
Delia did as told and sat next to Hermione at the front of the classroom. It was only once they were seated, that Delia noticed that she and Hermione were the only Gryffindors present.
The professor, Bathsheda Babbling, seemed to be a witch in her thirties with an accent Delia couldn't place; she assumed it was Middle Eastern. The professor gave off an air of no-nonsense.
"Welcome to your first class of Ancient Runes! In the span of the coming five years, we will start with learning about the various forms and alphabets of runes, how to read them and decipher their meaning, and finally how to apply them." The professor started her class enthusiastically.
Delia had the feeling that it would be a while before there would be any actual practical work involved. This sentiment was shared with multiple students, including Hermione whose hand shot in the air to ask "When will we actually start using runes, Professor?"
"We will start this year with learning Elder Futhark, after Yule Break, we will move on to proper carving techniques and basic Elder Futhark sequences," the Professor answered patiently.
"How are we supposed to learn an entire language in a bit over three months?" Zacharias Smith protested appalled. Delia always thought he was a bit of a pompous git, looking down on everyone. The way he had acted last year only confirmed how she thought about him. However, he did have a point. Delia had some experience with learning languages, and three months definitely wasn't enough.
"Next time you will raise your hand and wait for my permission before you ask a question," the Professor admonished him, "and I don't expect you to learn an entire language in such a short period. The first months of learning Elder Futhark will be spent on translations and interpretation of specific words. The basics of grammar, conjugation and so on will be done in the second half of the year. If you wish to become fully fluent in the language to translate entire transcripts, then I encourage you to do so after this school year on your own time."
One of the Slytherins raised his hand. She didn't really know him, but she knew he was one of the few Slytherins that seemed to try and stay out of the spotlight. He never joined in with Malfoy's antics, but generally kept an indifferent attitude. He distanced himself from most drama and mostly was the silent observer in the room.
Once he received a nod from the Professor he asked: "Why aren't we learning how to carve the Runes while we're learning the meaning of the Runes, Professor? Wouldn't it make more sense to do it simultaneously, as it will help us memorise it all faster?"
"Very good question, Mr?"
"Nott, Professor, Theodore Nott." The tall, weedy boy answered.
"The reason is simple, Mr. Nott, safety. The use of Runes is much more volatile than any wand-based subject ever will be. You can compare it to potions, one wrong ingredient - or in Runes' case one crafting mistake - and the results can be very unpredictable.
Upon seeing Hermione's frown, she continued, "The art of crafting runes is complex and very delicate. Using Runes is a way to direct magic in a more permanent function, however, if you direct it incorrectly, it can cause anything. If you're lucky while making a mistake nothing happens, if you're unlucky, the sequence can lead to for example an explosion. There are many experts in the field who play with rune clusters to invent material, but even they can make mistakes. Every year at least someone dies as a consequence of it. This is why we will take our time to properly learn the basics of the Elder Futhark alphabet before we move on to carving. Of course, nothing stops you from simply drawing the runes on a piece of parchment if it helps you with memorising them."
"Professor, what other types of Runes are we learning, apart from the Elder Futhark alphabet?" Delia couldn't help but wonder.
"Considering I can't teach you all languages used for Runes, I will focus on some that have had the most influence on our modern day usage of Runes, and when I say 'our' I mean British witches and wizards. As you can imagine, the Runes dominantly taught and used in for example Mahoutokoro School of Magic are very different from ours. Next year we will dive into Egyptian hieroglyphs, followed by the Phoenician alphabet in your OWL year. Eventually, if you're still with us for the NEWT classes, I will not teach you new languages, as the main focus will be on safely integrating those languages into one cluster."
The professor briefly paused, "Although I should note that those who are willing can of course take it upon themselves to learn more magical languages. It can lead to extra credit on the OWL and NEWT examinations. I urge you however that if you decide to do so, please let me know. Some supervision and a helping hand can be useful in these matters." Hermione had completely perked up at the mention of the extra credits part.
Delia herself wondered if Parseltongue was considered a magical language - it had to be right? So would that mean that Parseltongue had a use in Runes? Last year she had looked into the language, but there was very little information available. Only some mentions of how in Asia, especially South Asia, Parseltongue was used for healing magic and that in Europe it has had a bad reputation, associated with Dark Wizards, ever since Herpo The Foul.
With the class having been properly informed and warned about the dangers of Rune carving, the actual lesson started. Delia quickly felt herself absorbed in the material. The Professor had the skill to teach it in a very captivating way.
xxx
Delia was startled by the sound of the bell signalling the end of the class. She calmly put her class materials in her school bag. She was about to make a remark to Hermione about having made the right choice in electives - when she noticed Hermione wasn't even there anymore. Where did she go? Delia was sitting right next to Hermione and she didn't even notice her moving at all.
She was a bit annoyed but internally shrugged and went down to transfiguration together with Susan and the rest of the present Hufflepuffs. It was a pleasant surprise to her that for once not nearly all classes were shared with Slytherin this year.
The group of Puffs and Delia were the first to arrive in the transfiguration classroom. She decided to simply join them at the front of the class and sat down next to Susan. The professor was nowhere in sight, which was unusual for Professor McGonagall
As the rest of the students started filling the class, she noticed that Hermione was walking in next to Ron. Why is she walking in with him, when he came from the other side of the castle? Hermione looked quite annoyed while the rest of the group coming from divination seemed to be in some kind of depressed state. They all avoided eye contact with each other and sat down silently. Ron and Hermione were seated behind Delia.
Once in a while the students that walked in with Ron would throw in a fugitive glance towards a certain Hufflepuff. If she remembered correctly his name is Wayne Hopkins. He was a burly looking boy with brown hair, nearly black eyes and very buff arms. Either he was addicted to weightlifting, or he is used to doing some heavy labour. He himself looked a bit on edge.
As the last of them sat down, a tabby cat entered the classroom from a door in the back and jumped up on the professor's desk.
"I wonder where Professor McGonagall is. She's never been late as far as I remember." Hannah remarked. Several students voiced their agreement.
"It's always possible that she's too busy giving an earful to a misbehaving student," Seamus joked. He himself had received plenty of those himself.
The words had barely left his mouth, as suddenly the tabby cat jumped off the desk and changed into Professor McGonagall. "Not this time, Mr. Finnigan," she answered with a smirk. Her gaze swept over the students, but to her confusion only a few students looked surprised or interested. It was almost like some didn't even notice her shift at all.
"The entrance I made today was to demonstrate the topic of today's class. Can anyone tell me what the topic might be?"
Hermione instantly answered without a second thought, "Animagi, Professor!"
"Very good Miss Granger, 5 points to Gryffindor," the Professor approved. "Today we will be learning about animagi, the ability to turn into an animal."
"Animagi is a heavily regulated form of human transfiguration. It is incredibly difficult to learn, and messing it up could be quite harmful. One can not choose which animal they change into, it is predetermined based on several factors, the most dominant one being your personality."
The professor interrupted her explanation with a sigh to address the lack of attention in the classroom. "What has gotten into you today? Normally students are amazed by a transformation like this, asking a stream of questions on how to do this, but most of you aren't even paying attention to begin with!"
Several students quickly glanced at Wayne once again, yet no one spoke up. What had happened during that divination class?
Eventually Hermione raised her hand, and after acknowledgment from Professor McGonagall she explained, "We've just had our first divination class professor, we were reading tea leaves and -."
"That's all I needed to hear Miss Granger, thank you. Now, tell me, which one of you will be dying this year?"
Hu, so that's why they all are so depressed Delia mused. However, how was Hermione supposedly in divination, when she was sitting next to Delia during Ancient Runes? She knew Hermione couldn't have heard it from others before transfiguration class considering she used 'we were reading tea leaves'. Hermione also suddenly vanished after runes class. Was she time travelling? Splitting herself up? Cloning? Time travel seemed to be the most reasonable explanation, but you never know with magic and she had never heard of those types of magic. So the question remained, how is she doing it?
As Delia was wondering about this, everyone else continued to stare at Professor McGonagall until Wayne spoke up with a shaking voice, "Me."
"I see," said Professor McGonagall, "I have good news for you Mr. Hopkins, Sybill Trelawney has predicted the death of at least one student every year ever since she arrived at this school 13 years ago. None of those students have died yet. It is her normal way of greeting a new class. Seeing death and tragedy in everything is how she lives."
The professor paused a bit to compose herself, before continuing, "'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 even their predictions leave leeway for interpretation. What I'm trying to say is, you look to be in good health, Mr. Hopkins, so don't even try to use this as an excuse to not do your homework."
A few students, including Wayne himself, chuckled at this. The mood seemed to have been lifted, even if a few students remained doubtful. The professor took it as her cue to continue her class.
xxx
The bell rang, just as Professor McGonagall was finishing up her class. "I want everyone to write 20 inches on animagi, how one's personality can define your transformation and what the difference between an animagus transformation and a regular human transfiguration is. The due date is next week's class on Monday. Don't forget to submit your summer homework on my desk before you leave, thank you."
They all dropped off their homework and joined the crowd walking towards the great hall for lunch.
As they sat down, Delia wondered "How exactly does reading tea leaves lead to everyone believing Wayne is going to die?"
Hermione quickly rattled off, "The art of reading tea leaves, also known as Tessomancy, is used to predict future events based on the figure found at the bottom of one's cup. In Wayne's case it was, according to Professor Trelawney, a Grim which is an omen of death."
"A grim is just like a big black dog right?" Delia questioned. Upon confirmation she continued, "I have seen one in the summer, with glowing eyes and everything, and I'm perfectly fine. So I don't understand why Wayne has to worry." She wisely left out the part where she thought that the big black dog was a monster about to kill her.
"Yes," Hermione confirmed, "probably a stray anyway."
Ron did look very worried though. "Hermione, if Delia has seen a Grim, that's - that's really bad!" He said, 'My uncle Bilius saw one and he died within 24 hours!"
"Must have been a coincidence, besides, Delia saw him about a month ago and she obviously hasn't died 24 hours after seeing him." Hermione answered, "Divination seems more like a scam to me. It's so vague. You yourself said you saw a sheep in Wayne's cup!"
That clearly struck a nerve in Ron, so he retaliated. "It's not a scam! Professor Trelawney said you didn't have the right aura! You just don't like being bad at something for a change!"
She stood up abruptly, making the bench she was sitting on screech as it was moved backward. "If being good at that joke of a subject means that I have to see death omens everywhere, I'm not sure if I'm even interested in studying it any longer! That whole lesson was rubbish compared to Arithmancy anyway!" She grabbed her bag and angrily stalked off.
"What is she talking about, she hasn't even been to arithmancy yet?" Ron questioned. Delia sighed and shrugged. Could those two even go one day without a fight breaking out between them?
She shared a look with Neville who had overheard everything. Well, she supposed most people in the great hall were able to overhear the argument, they weren't exactly being quiet. Interestingly enough though, it seems that Hermione also has had an arithmancy lesson, so that's class number three she did at the same time. Hermione was not exactly being subtle about whatever she was doing to follow those classes.
xxx
Leaving the castle after the lunch break did wonders for Delia's mood. Yesterday's bad weather had cleared and in its place there was a clear sunny sky. They had found Hermione waiting near the entrance of the castle, no one said a thing as the tension was still pretty high. They were currently on their way toward their first Care of Magical Creatures class.
It was only when she saw a familiar gelled back mop of blond hair, that she realised that they shared this class with Slytherin. Wonderful.
Hagrid was waiting for the students at the door of his hut. "C'mon now, get a move on!" He called out impatiently to the last approaching students, "I've planned a real treat for all of yeh! Follow me!"
Hagrid took off at a speed they could barely keep up with. A few minutes later they arrived at an empty paddock. "Alright, everyone gather around meh! I want yeh to open yer book"
He was met with a few blank and confused faces, until Malfoy coldly asked "How? How do we open our books?" The look of distaste was clearly visible on his face, yet it wasn't clear if it was directed towards Hagrid or the book - or maybe even both.
As Hagrid looked around, he saw that the students kept their books closed with ropes, belts or other tools. Dean Thomas had even used a bunch of duct tape.
"Hasn' anyone bin able ter open their book?" He asked, a bit crestfallen.
Every single student either shook their head or muttered 'no'.
Hagrid took Hermione's book, ripped off the tape and said "You've gotta stroke them on their back!" Which he promptly demonstrated.
"Oh how silly of us! You have to stroke them! Why didn't we think of that?" Malfoy sneered.
"Well, I thought they were funny," Hagrid said a bit doubtful. That did sound like Hagrid alright. Dangerous things that can bite off your hand are definitely funny.
"Oh, tremendously funny! Really witty, giving us books that try to rip our hands off!" As much as Delia didn't agree with the way he delivered it, she did agree with the message. Hagrid should've known better. At the same time, Hagrid should also learn to reign in this kind of behaviour. The students were going to walk all over him if he didn't start dishing out some detentions or at least subtract points for this kind of attitude.
"Right," Hagrid said with his eyes downcast, "now that yeh've got yer books, I'll call them in." He walked a bit closer to the paddock and whistled loudly.
As about a dozen bizarre creatures came trotting towards them from the forest, Lavender couldn't hold in one of her infamous squeals, "Ooooooooooooh!".
The creatures had the bodies, hind legs and tails of horses, but the front legs, wings and heads of what seemed to be giant eagles. Their beaks and talons looked extremely sharp. Their eyes were bright orange to yellow with clear intelligence shining behind them. They all had metal collars around their neck, with a metal chain.
Delia had never seen any creature like those before, but she had read about them in the book Artemis had given her. If she remembered correctly, they were called Hippogriffs. They were carnivores mainly hunting small mammals. In the wild, they generally ignored humans, unless they came too close or insulted them. Their main weakness was fire, of which they were very afraid.
"Alright everyone, get over here!" Hagrid shouted as he was chaining the hippogriffs to the paddock's fence.
"Hippogriffs!" he called out happily, "Beautiful, aren't they!" Delia could somewhat see where he was coming from. The hippogriffs clearly could understand what he was saying, or at least the intent of it, as they started to proudly preen themselves.
"Now, first thing yeh gotta know about Hippogriffs is that they are proud beings," Hagrid started teaching. "They're very easily offended. Don't ever insult one, 'cause it might be the last thing yeh do." Looking at the creature's long talons, Delia could definitely believe that.
"Yeh always wait fer the Hippogriff to make the firs' move," Hagrid continued. "It's the polite thing to do. Yeh walk towards him, and yeh bow, and yeh wait. If he bows back, yeh're allowed to touch him. If he doesn' bow, then get away from him as fast as yeh can." That seemed simple enough.
"Now, who wants to go first?" He asked enthusiastically.
Some of the hippogriffs were struggling against the chains, leading to several students taking a step back. The hippogriffs clearly didn't like being chained down.
Hagrid's look morphed from enthusiastic to pleading. Delia realised no one else was stepping up, so she decided to volunteer, "I'll do it!"
She stepped forward and nimbly climbed over the fence to enter the paddock.
Hagrid was positively beaming at her. "Let's see how yeh get on with Buckbeak! He's a real sweetheart!" He untied the chain of the grey hippogriff and moved him closer to Delia. Anticipation started to fill the air.
Hagrid came to a stop at around 5 metres away from Delia. Delia was becoming a bit nervous. She knew the hippogriff wasn't a mythological but magical creature, so normally he shouldn't outright attack her for being a halfblood, but you never knew for certain.
Hagrid spotted her nervousness and started instructing her. "Easy now Delia," he said gently, "Yeh've got eye contact, that's good, now try not ter blink - they don't trust yeh if ye blink too often."
Now that was a weird reason to not trust someone, but okay. She kept staring straight into Buckbeak's eyes to the point that her own eyes started to water.
After a few seconds Hagrid continued, "Good, now you need to bow."
Delia didn't exactly feel comfortable with having to expose her neck to a creature such as Buckbeak, but she did as she was told and gave a short deep bow without breaking eye contact.
The hippogriff was looking at her as if he was superior, and didn't immediately bow back. Hagrid picked up on this and instructed her to back away carefully.
To both of their surprise however, the hippogriff suddenly bent his scaly front knees, and sank into what was an unmistakable bow. Delia briefly wondered how anyone had figured out that this was the appropriate way to approach a hippogriff.
"Well done Delia!" Hagrid roared, which startled the hippogriffs. "You can pet him now, they love it if you scratch them around their beak. Go on!"
Delia crossed the last five metres separating them and started petting the hippogriff. The creature lazily closed its eyes and was clearly enjoying the attention. As Delia slightly turned around to look at the reaction of the rest of the class, she noticed they were all standing close to the fence now. Malfoy looked like he swallowed a lemon. He probably had hoped she would fail.
"Right then," Hagrid said out of the blue, "I reckon he would allow you to fly on him."
Delia perked up at that, she loved flying and wondered what flying on a hippogriff was like.
He simply picked Delia up and put her on the hippogriff's back, right behind the wings. "Ye keep yer legs behind the joint here. Yeh either hold him by huggin' yer arms around his neck, or by holding his wings here. Whatever yeh do, don't pull out his feathers. He won't like that."
And with those parting instructions, Hagrid slapped the hippogriff's hindquarters, making it gallop off. Buckbeak spread his wings and started beating them heavily. It didn't take long for them to soar in the air. Delia quickly hugged the hippogriff's neck for her dear life. She wasn't exactly keen on falling off.
Delia loved any form of flying, but if she compared sitting on a hippogriff's back with her trusted broom, then she had a clear preference. At least with her broom she didn't have to hug Buckbeak's neck for safety, resulting in a rather awkward position, and she didn't have those wings beating uncomfortably in her side. A saddle with something to hold on to would probably make this entire experience much more pleasant.
Buckbeak made a tour around the paddock, briefly flying over the Forbidden Forest, and then started to slow down and land. Delia instinctively leaned back. With a heavy thud they were back on the ground. She instantly slipped down from Buckbeak.
"Good job Delia and Buckbeak!" He threw a ferret at the hippogriffs. "Wonderful demonstration, 5 points to Gryffindor!"
Hagrid turned around to face the class once again and asked, "Who wants to go next?"
Emboldened by Delia's success, the rest of the class started to cautiously climb over the fence. Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan however jumped over the fence as if their life depended on it, startling a few of the hippogriffs in their rush. They really wanted to fly.
Hagrid started untying all the hippogriffs, and soon each one of the creatures had a student bowing in front of them, while Hagrid kept a close eye on them, ready to interfere if necessary.
A good thing he did, as the hippogriff Neville was practising on, seemed to be in a bad mood. He refused to bow. "Back up Mr. Longbottom, now!" He rushed over to make sure the hippogriff wouldn't do something to Neville.
Malfoy used this distraction to sneer at Buckbeak, the hippogriff he had taken over with his henchman. "Well this is very easy," he claimed loudly, "how else would Potter have been able to do it? I bet you aren't even dangerous at all, are you? No, you're just an ugly half-pony."
The hippogriff didn't take kindly to the insult and within a flash Malfoy lied screaming on the floor, clutching his arm, as Hagrid was wrestling Buckbeak away from him.
"I'm dying!" Malfoy screamed dramatically. Blood started to blossom on his robes. "The beast has killed me!"
"Yer not dying!" a very pale Hagrid said, while picking up Malfoy. "Will someone open the gate so I can carry Mr. Malfoy to the hospital wing?"
Hermione instantly obeyed and opened it up. She clearly was very worried. So was Delia, but more for Hagrid than for Malfoy. If she had tried a stunt like that in potions, Snape probably would've taken all of Gryffindor's points and given her detention for the rest of her time at Hogwarts.
As Hagrid passed them with Malfoy, she clearly saw a deep gash in his arm. She was taught by Artemis that for those types of wounds it was essential to stop the bleeding as fast as possible. She probably should tell Hagrid to keep pressure on the wound, but on the other hand, Malfoy would be in Pomfrey's care within a few minutes, so she shrugged.
A shaken group of students followed Hagrid towards the castle at a much more moderate speed. Some of the Slytherins clearly were furious.
"They should sack him straight away!" Parkinson exclaimed, her eyes were filled with ugly tears.
"Oh please, we all know it's Malfoy's fault! He couldn't even follow basic instructions! Everyone here heard it, Professor Hagrid specifically told us to absolutely not insult the hippogriffs, even with the threat it could be the last thing we do!" Dean snapped.
He was pissed off more than anyone had ever seen. Dean really wanted to fly one of those hippogriffs, but no, Malfoy had to just ruin it again for everyone.
Crabbe and Goyle flexed their muscles threateningly, but there was no response to refute what Dean said. They all had heard Hagrid's warning after all. Upon closer inspection, Delia noticed that even some of the Slytherins seemed annoyed, most noticeably Greengrass and Davis.
"I'm going to see how he's doing," Parkinson said loudly as they arrived back at the castle. She rushed up the marble stairs at a speed Delia honestly hadn't considered her capable of.
The rest of the Slytherins simply headed back down in the dungeons towards their common room. It would be interesting to hear what kind of rumours would spring up from this. Delia did feel bad for Hagrid though, what a terrible way to end your first class.
As the grumbling Gryffindors were heading up the stairs, Hermione wondered, "Do you think he will be okay?"
"Of course he will be, Madam Pompfrey can heal that wound in a matter of seconds. She's used to dealing with a lot worse injuries than that." Delia tried to soothe her worries.
"That was a really bad thing to happen in Hagrid's first class, wasn't it?" a worried Ron asked rhetorically, "Why does Malfoy always have to mess things up for everyone?"
"I mean, it's not like they would sack Hagrid for this, right?" Hermione said nervously.
"I doubt they will fire him over this," Delia tried to reassure them. "Like Dean said, Hagrid gave clear instructions, Malfoy chose not to follow them. The entire class can testify if it comes down to it."
"Well, at least you can't say it wasn't an interesting first day back," Neville remarked out of nowhere. Delia blinked and snorted out loud. She never expected this from Neville.
They followed the crowd towards the Gryffindor common room and decided to have an early start with their transfiguration homework.
The more Delia read about animagi, the more alluring it became. She wondered what her animagi form would look like. Professor McGonagall had made clear that this wasn't something for third years to attempt, as it was a NEWT level difficulty. Delia swore to herself that she would try it once she was older though. Not only was it an awesome concept, but it could also be very useful in numerous situations. She just sincerely hoped she wouldn't turn into some kind of fish or insect. That would suck - a lot.
Ron hadn't made much progress on his homework, as he kept glancing towards Hagrid's hut. "There's light again in Hagrid's hut!" he spoke suddenly, gathering the attention of Delia and Hermione.
He checked his watch, "We have about an hour before it's time for dinner."
"Okay, let's go," Delia said, before Hermione could protest about them leaving the castle so close to evening. They put their things away, climbed through the portrait hole and ran all the way down to his hut. Ron and Hermione were completely out of breath, while Delia only felt a slight burn in her lungs. She needed to start working on her cardio again.
Delia decided to knock on the door and they entered after a muffled "Come in!".
One look told them that Hagrid probably was drunk. There were a few empty bottles of alcohol laying around him on the table, and he seemed to be having trouble getting them into focus.
"I 'spect it's a record!" He said, alcohol slurring his speech, "Don' reckon they've ever had a teacher who only lasted a single day before!"
"Have you been sacked, Hagrid?" Hermione asked bewildered. Delia too was surprised, she really thought he had a good case.
"Nah, not yet," he answered miserably, taking another gulp of one of the bottles. "But 's only a matter of time, innit? The school guv'nors will be informed after all."
"How is Malfoy doing?" Ron questioned, as they all sat down. "It wasn't that serious, was it?"
"Madam Pomfrey fixed him best she could, but the kid is sayin' he is in agony, constantly moaning, covered in bandages."
"He must be faking it," Delia spoke up. She had enough experience with the matron to know how good she was at healing. "Madam Pomfrey can mend anything. She regrew the bones in my right arm last year in a single evening, remember? I'm sure she can nearly instantly heal a cut like that. Malfoy is probably going to milk it for attention and sympathy."
"Yeah, it's Malfoy's fault, Hagrid!" Hermione said, "We're all witnesses!"
Tears started to well up in Hagrid's eyes, and he somehow was able to pull them all three in a hug. While doing so, he directly faced the window and could look outside. He froze, as if suddenly realising something.
"Delia, yeh shouldn't have come here! Yeh know it's not safe! And you two, yeh shouldn't have let her!" He burst out. He started herding them towards the door, opened it and scanned their surroundings.
"C'mon!" He said angrily, "I'm taking yeh all back to the castle. Don't lemme catch yeh walkin' around here at this hour again!"
He strode off and the three of them followed confused at his complete 180. Clearly he was afraid of Black popping up out of nowhere to attack them. It was only a quarter to six though with plenty of light outside. But the message was clear, no more going outside the castle unless in bigger groups or for classes.
They arrived at the castle and decided to head to dinner. None of them said a word as they ate steak and kidney pie in the great hall. After dinner, they returned to their common room, but a subdued Delia decided to head straight to her dormitory.
She wasn't sleepy yet, no, she was curious. She sat down on her bed, closed the blinds around it and opened Professor Flitwick's piece of parchment.
There were a total of five spells on it, some she recognised such as Expelliarmus, others were unknown to her, like Stupefy. Alright, she thought with a smile, time to grab some books from the library. She took her invisibility cloak out of her pouch and decided to get to work.
AN: Yes, I know McGonagall did the whole cat to herself transformation in the first movie (not entirely sure anymore if she did so in the books too), but I figured it would be more fitting if she supposedly did so for the first time for the animagus class.
In general I know there currently is quite some repetition between what happens in the books and in this fic, mainly because I want to do some world building (of things that haven't really been explained in the books such as Ancient Runes) and also to express how Delia feels about these events, as she starts to deviate from Harry's journey.
Once again I want to thank Sunset from the Emerald Library for dutifully checking over my work and correcting my mistakes!
Dazboy : She still has to deal with the prophecy first
Sankarea396 : It will be an interesting meeting for sure :)