(OotP) CHAPTER SEVEN: Thestrals, Hats, and Toads
About an hour later, after further goodbyes to Molly and Arthur, they found themselves back on the Hogwarts Express—and watching Hermione and Ron walk away from them.
"Happens with prefects," Fred told Ellie and Harry as they went in search of their own compartment with George, Harry, and Ginny. "School loves to give them all sorts of elitist privileges. Total rubbish, if you ask me."
"Please," snorted Ginny. "You were both so jealous when Percy made prefect. Don't even try to deny it."
Before Fred or George could object, they reached an empty cabin—at least, empty save for one person.
Luna Lovegood.
"Hey!" Ellie said enthusiastically. After her interview with Xenophilius, she and Fred had lingered at the house for nearly an hour, chatting with Luna about all sorts of bizarre topics. It had been strange, to say the least, but also a great pick-me-up from all the other goings-on of the summer. "Mind if we sit with you?"
"Oh," said Luna, lowering her upside-down copy of the Quibbler—which happened to have Ellie's face on the front cover—and peering up at them. "Certainly."
Ellie led the group into the compartment, taking her own seat directly next to Luna as Fred did the same on her other side.
"Where are Ron and Hermione?" Luna asked them once they had all sat down. "Aren't they usually attached to Harry's hip?"
Harry laughed awkwardly as Ginny explained where they were. Before Luna could reply, though, the compartment opened again, and a red-faced, out-of-breath Neville, holding a strange sort of plant Ellie had never seen before, peered in.
"Oh," he said when he saw them. "Wow—sorry. Full up, eh?"
Ellie glanced around their compartment. It was fairly full already, but she hated the thought of turning poor Neville away. "We can squeeze," she told him, nudging Fred, who immediately scooted closer to her. "Right, guys?"
They all nodded obediently, making room for Neville and his plant.
"So," Fred said to Luna, gesturing to her copy of the Quibbler. "What'd you think of the article about El?"
"Oh—I thought it was quite well-written. My father says the general reaction to the article has been incredulous, but that's rather normal for his work."
"Can't imagine why," said Ginny under her breath.
Everyone masked their grins at that. Thankfully, Luna didn't seem to have heard her.
"I thought it was a great article," said Neville. "It must have been really hard for you to come out and say all that, Ellie. It was really brave."
She blinked, surprised by his support. After all, Sirius had broken into their school and slashed the Gryffindor portrait during their third year. Hadn't that scared him?
"You… believe me?" she stammered. "Believe him?"
He shrugged. "Why not? Seems like a plausible story, and I know you're no liar. The Ministry, on the other hand…"
Fred grinned. "Good man."
Ellie nodded in agreement, silently praying that everyone else at school would see things that way, too.
Shortly before they reached the castle, Hermione and Ron filed into their compartment with them—at which point Ellie had to squish so close to Fred, she actually felt her cheeks turn pink.
Remind me to thank my little brother, Fred quipped in her head as the back of his hand brushed the top of her leg just enough to make her cheeks turn even redder.
Ron was in the middle of telling them that Draco Malfoy was now a prefect when the blonde in question strutted right into their compartment.
"Well, well," Draco sneered after scanning the compartment. "Did Hogwarts' biggest losers make more loser friends?"
"Another slick insult from Draco Malfoy," Ellie said, rolling her eyes. "Don't take it personally, Luna. His own over-privileged life is so boring, bothering us was the think he looked forward to most all summer."
Sniggers erupted around them at that, but Draco, of course, didn't stop there. "And what were you looking forward to all summer, Ellie?" He said her name as if it tasted foul on his lips. "Coming to Hogwarts and spreading even more lies about Daddy Dearest?"
"Nah," she said evenly. "But I have been looking forward to spreading the word about your daddy—you know, the part where he's a Death Eater who helped kill Cedric Diggory."
His eyebrows narrowed at that, and he spat at her, "No one believes a word they read in that ridiculous farce of a paper, especially when it comes from Ellie Black."
"I do," said Neville swiftly. "And so does everyone else in this compartment."
"Three of which were there that night," added Fred, whose eyebrows were also narrowed. "And know exactly what he did."
Draco glared daggers at Fred for several seconds at that, then, finally, leaned in close and hissed, "If it were true, and I were you, I'd watch my back."
"Sorry, mate," said George cheerfully, "but it's a bit hard to be afraid of a boy whose catch phrase is 'wait 'til my father hears about this.'"
Draco's mouth fell open, and his lips seemed to move without forming words for several seconds until, finally, he stormed off.
"I'm a little scared of him," Neville admitted as Ellie and Fred both high-fived George. "And of You-Know-Who. Doesn't mean I wouldn't fight back, though—y'know, if it came to that."
Ellie smiled at that as Luna said enthusiastically, "Me, too."
The first thing Ellie noticed when they stepped off the train was that there was no sign of Hagrid. Instead, there was a grey-haired, female professor Ellie didn't recognize standing near the boats, shouting out for the first-years to load on up.
"That's strange," Harry said as Hermione and Ron darted off again to the prefects' carriage. "Wonder where Hagrid is?"
Before Ellie could speculate, a second thing caught her eye: the carriages, which usually pulled themselves up to the castle, were being pulled by something this year.
Something… strange.
"What are those?" Ellie whispered, intrigued, as she slowly approached the strange creatures. They somewhat resembled horses, though their skin was more scaly than furry, and their wings almost resembled those of a bat's. Still, skeletal and spooky as they looked, there was something undeniably beautiful about them.
"What are what?" asked George as Ellie stepped up to one of the beasts and reached out a tentative hand. "Have a few too many Chocolate Frogs there, Ellie?"
"You don't see them?" Fred asked his twin, sounding confused.
"See what?" asked Ginny. "Ellie, what're you—?"
But Ellie interrupted her with a little shriek when one of the creatures turned its head back toward her and opened its mouth. To her relief, though, rather than nipping her, it licked her hand.
"They're called thestrals," Luna explained in her usual breathy voice as she, too, reached out to stroke one of the beasts. "Not everyone can see them."
"Yeah, right," snorted George. "Quit yanking my chain, already."
It didn't exactly comfort Ellie that Luna, a girl who seemed to believe in all sorts of made-up creatures, could see these "thestrals." But she did buy that only some people could see them; their group seemed to be split nearly down the middle.
"Come on," said Fred, who looked quite disconcerted by not sharing this with his twin. "We're holding people up."
Ellie waited for Fred to hop into the carriage before following, allowing him to help her onto it. As soon as she was next to him again, she whispered, "Thestrals?"
He shrugged. "No idea. Hasn't come up in class… Then again, I'm not exactly known for giving the professors my undivided attention."
Ellie could tell from the moment they stepped into the Great Hall that something was different. It wasn't just the lack of Hagrid at the teachers' table, nor even the fact that she herself felt so different than she had the previous year.
It was the toad-faced woman sitting at the teachers' table.
The woman from Harry's hearing.
"Harry!" she nearly shouted once her mind had made the connection. "It's her! That—that—that Umbridge woman!"
Harry followed Ellie's gaze to the woman in question. Once he saw her, his eyes bulged to twice their normal size. "Bloody hell. She was awful!"
I remember her, too, Fred said in Ellie's head. Horrid woman. She was in Fudge's pocket, wasn't she?
"She's a Ministry type," Ellie explained with a silent nod to Fred as they all took their seats. "Voted against letting Harry off the hook—and then went on record calling me a liar and saying the Perelli charm turned me batty."
"Are you quite sure sure's wrong about that?" George teased. "You've been at least a bit batty ever since we met you."
Ellie stuck her tongue out at George as Hermione said with a frown, "Can't be a good sign that she's here—especially given all that's going on with the Ministry… not believing you."
"Nor a good sign that Hagrid isn't here," agreed Harry. "What do you reckon—?"
But before he could finish his sentence, McGonagall took to the stage, announcing the commencement of this year's Sorting Hat ceremony.
With this being Ellie's fifth time hearing the ceremony, she had mostly planned to tune it out. But when the Hat started its annual song, she noticed that there was something different about it. It sang of not becoming too divisive within the school—almost like a warning of what was to come. It struck Ellie as odd—almost eerie.
You okay? Fred asked her as the first-years began the process of sitting with the Hat. We usually get such a kick out of watching them squirm.
Yeah—sorry. She smiled at him, forcing back her concerns. The Hat's message just seemed sort of… ominous.
Don't let him get to you. Something ominous has happened every year you've been here, and he had a big fat nothing to say about it. Why start listening now?
She laughed a silent laugh at that, deciding to allow herself to believe him and stop worrying so much.
The rest of the Sorting Ceremony passed by uneventfully, and before long, it was time for Dumbledore's annual welcome speech.
With his speech came the first whopper of the evening: that Professor Grubby-Plank, the woman who had loaded the first-years onto the boats, was to teach Care of Magical Creatures that year until Hagrid's return—of which he gave no date.
"Indefinitely?" Harry whispered to the others. "What could he be doing? Hagrid loves his job!"
"Something for Dumbledore, probably," Ginny whispered back. "I'm sure there's an explanation."
Ellie had a feeling Ginny was right about that—if something had happened to Hagrid, the Order surely would have known about it—but she understood Harry's concern. Hagrid was like a father to him—to all of them.
More like a weird uncle, Fred joked in Ellie's head as Dumbledore's speech continued.
Before Ellie could so much as laugh, though, Dumbledore announced that there was another staff change that year: the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts professor had gone to none other than Dolores Umbridge.
"No way!" Harry and Ellie whispered simultaneously.
Dumbledore tried to carry on at that, but before he could proceed to remind them of Filch's various banned objects (many of which would likely have included Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes), Umbridge cleared her throat in the tiniest, most aggravating way imaginable and rose to her feet.
"Whoa," whispered George. "Did she just interrupt Dumbledore? Nobody interrupts Dumbledore."
This time, Ellie couldn't quite smile or laugh.
The woman was every bit as bad as Ellie remembered, if not worse. She still worked for the Ministry of Magic, and for Cornelius Fudge, she explained in her sing-song, nasal, high-pitched voice. She had been sent to Hogwarts on his behalf.
"I don't get it," Ron whispered when she had finally finished speaking. "What does the Ministry care who teaches us Defense Against the Dark Arts? And what's this 'progress for the sake of progress' rubbish about?"
Ellie already knew the answer. She had known the moment she saw the squat, toad-faced woman in that row of teachers.
Her words still echoed in Ellie's ears, high-pitched and taunting. "You maintain your backing of the ridiculous story Mr. Potter is spewing, then?"
And then there were her words in the Prophet..."They're sad children—parentless children—who crave the attention of the masses. They frame themselves as 'heroes' in the public eye when the true heroes are people like the Diggorys, who had to bury their own son far too young."
How could she explain it in words Ron would understand? Did Harry already see what she saw? Did Fred?
She didn't have to find the words in the end; Hermione found them for her.
"It means the Ministry is interfering at Hogwarts."
Another chapter that doesn't stray too far from the source material, but don't worry—the deeper we get into OotP, the farther we'll stray from the books... in a good way, I hope you'll find! Stay tuned and don't forget to show your support with reviews and follows!