Chapter Sixteen: As the School Declines
As it progressed into the week, the snow grew deeper and deeper. Harish and the twins were on of the first that went out on Sunday morning to enjoy the snow, making snowballs and throwing them at the nearest tower. It turned out that it was Gryffindor tower, for Ron opened the shutters to his and shouted, "Oy! I am a prefect and if one more snowball hits this window—"
The twins scooped the largest pile of snow they could and mashed it into a ball before Harish charmed it, sending it soaring to the window.
Ron cried, "OUCH!"
Then, the three of them reluctantly went inside to finish the homework they due next day. As they went in, Seamus and Ron headed out, meaning to talk to Hagrid. They wanted to warn him about Umbridge—the fact that she was inspecting all of their teachers.
They had already seen her inspect Trelawney and Professor McGonagall. McGonagall had gotten through fine, but Trelawney had been put on probation as Umbridge found her prophecies inadequate.
Hagrid's appearance at the staff table the next day was greeted quite individually. Some of the students cheered and welcomed the half-giant back, but others exchanged gloomy looks. Draco was one of them. He had never been a fan of Hagrid. Of course he had never ridden on a rampaging hippogriff like Harish had, so he had no room to make opinions.
It was with some apprehension that the fifth years made their way down to Care of Magical Creatures after breakfast, bundled up in scarves and mittens. Draco, Daphne, and Hermione were worried about what horrible creature Hagrid would introduce on his first day back, and Ron and Seamus were worried that the giant man would be put on probation.
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 when Ron and Seamus last spoke to him were now tinged with green and yellow and some of his cuts still seemed to be bleeding.
"We're workin' in here today!" Hagrid called happily to the approaching students, jerking his head toward the dark trees behind him. "Bit more sheltered! Anyway, they prefer the dark…"
"What prefers the dark?" Draco asked sharply, a trace of panic in his voice. "What did he say prefers the dark—did you hear?"
"Oh, buck up Draco," Daphne muttered. "Lots of things do, and not all are deadly."
"Ready?" Hagrid asked happily, looking around at the class. "Right, well, I've bin savin' a trip inter the forest fer yer fifth year. Though' 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?" Draco queried, the panic in his voice even more pronounced. "Only it wouldn't be the first time you'd brought wild stuff to class, would it?"
The Slytherins and a few Gryffindors murmured their agreement and Ron looked livid.
"'Course they're trained," Hagrid said with a scowl.
"So what's happened to your face, then?" Draco demanded.
"Mind yer own business!" Hagrid retorted angrily. "Now if yeh've finished askin' stupid questions, follow me!"
He turned and strode straight into the forest. No one seemed inclined to follow. Seamus and Ron glanced at each other, sighed, and 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 ad though expecting to be attacked at any minute.
"Gather roun', gather roun'," Hagrid said 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. No one laughed. Several 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 was coming. And then, as Hagrid shook his hair back for a third time and expanded his enormous chest, a few of them spotted something.
Neville nudged Dean 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, 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.
Dean glanced at Neville in confusion before staring off into the trees again. After a few seconds, Ron whispered, "Why doesn't Hagrid call again?"
Most of the class were wearing similar expressions of confusion and were still gazing everywhere but at the horse standing feet from them. There was only one other person 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 of his face. Neville's eyes returned to the odd horse-like creature and followed the progression of its swishing tail.
"Oh, an' here comes another one!" Hagrid proclaimed 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?"
Neville nervously raised his hand.
"Yeah…yeah, I knew you'd be able ter, Neville," he said seriously. "An'—"
"Excuse me," Draco interrupted, "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. Neville 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," Hagrid replied proudly and Hermione gave a soft "oh!" of comprehension in between Dean and Draco. "Hogwarts has got a whole herd of 'em in here. Now who knows—?"
"But they're really, really unlucky!" Parvati interrupted, 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," Hagrid chuckled, "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 horse 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," Hagrid told her 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," Hagrid beamed.
"The only people who can see thestrals," she said, "are people who have seen death."
"Tha's exactly right," Hagrid said solemnly, "ten points the Gryffindor. Now, thestrals—"
"Hem, hem."
Professor Umbridge had arrived. She was standing a few feet away from Ron, wearing her green hat and cloak again, her clipboard at the ready. Hagrid, who had never head Umbridge's fake cough before, was gazing in some concern at the closest thestrals, 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?" Umbridge asked in a loud, slow voice as if he was too stupid to understand her. "Telling you that I would be inspecting your lesson?"
"Oh yeah," Hagrid responded 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?" Umbridge said 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…"
"Well…anyway…" Hagrid said, turning back to the class and looking slightly flustered. "Erm…what was I sayin'?"
"Appears…to…have…poor…short…term…memory…" Umbridge muttered, loudly enough for everyone to hear her. Draco looked as though Christmas had come early, Ron, on the other hand, had turned scarlet with suppressed rage.
"Oh yeah," Hagrid said, 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 interrupted loudly, "that the Ministry of Magic has classified thestrals as 'dangerous'?"
Neville began to feel a bit sorry for the half-giant, even if he couldn't help but agree with the Slytherins on his methods of teaching, but Hagrid merely chuckled.
"Thestrals aren' dangerous! All righ', they might take a bite outta you if yeh really annoy 'em—"
"Shows…signs…of…pleasure…at…idea…of….violence…" Umbridge muttered, scribbling on her clipboard again.
"No—come on!" Hagrid said, now looking anxious. "I mead, a dog'll bite yeh 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—Draco had 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 didn't not understand normal English.
"Um…anyway," Hagrid said, clearly struggling to regain the flow of his lesson, "so—thestrals. Yeah. Well, there's loads o' good stuff abou' them…"
LINE-BREAK
December arrived, bringing with it more snow and a positive avalanche of homework for the fifth and seventh years. Draco and Hermione's prefect duties also became more and more arduous as Christmas approached. They were called upon to supervise the decoration of the castle ("You try putting up tinsel when Peeves has gotten the other end and is trying to strangle you with it!"), to watch over the first and second years spending their break times inside because of the bitter cold, and to patrol the corridors in shifts with Filch, who suspected that the holiday spirit might show itself in an outbreak of wizard duels. They were so busy that Hermione spent much time fretting about her homework; as she had little time to do it all.
Harish himself was very eager for the holidays to arrive. Normally he enjoyed getting out of the castle and returning home, but between his Quidditch ban and the worst Defense class ever, he was about ready to run away before the holidays even arrived. The only thing he really looked forward to were the DA meeting, and they would have to stop over the holidays, as he was returning home along with most of the club's members. Hermione was going skiing with her parents, something that greatly amused Fred, who had never before heard of Muggles strapping narrow strips of wood to their feet to slide down mountains. The twins, meanwhile were going home to the Burrow.
Harish arrived early in the Room of Requirement for the last DA meeting before the holidays. He settled in a corner on his armchair and began to read one of the books on jinxes. The door creaked open after a few minutes of silence, and Luna Lovegood entered, looking as dreamy as always.
"Hello," she said vaguely. She glanced around the room and then pointed to something directly above Harish's head, saying, "Mistletoe."
Harish looked up to see a large clump of white berries. He jumped out from under it.
"Good thinking," Luna said very seriously. "It's often infested with nargles."
Harish was saved from asking what nargles were by the arrival of Angelina, Dean, and Neville. After just a few more seconds, Draco, Hermione, Daphne, and the twins arrived. Draco looked very cold and breathless.
"We've replaced you," he said dully, pulling off his cloak and setting it on the table.
"Really?" Harish asked.
"By who?" the twins queried.
"You two were replaced by two lugs in my year, Crabbe and Goyle," Draco said, nodding to the twins. "They aren't very bright, and they look as if they can't tell one end of a bat from the other, but they're good enough and the best I could find at such short notice."
"What about Seeker?" Harish asked.
"Ginny took spot of Seeker," Draco replied, a smile growing on his face. It dropped as he added, "And Pucey took her spot."
The arrival of the Hufflepuffs brought the depressing discussion to an end and within five minutes, the room was full as everyone had ma made it there.
"Okay," he said, calling them all to order. "I thought this evening we should just go over the things we've done so far, because it's the last meeting before the holidays and there's no point in starting anything new right before a three-week break. We can practice in pairs, starting with the Impediment Jinx and then we'll working on Stunning again."
They all divided up obediently; Harish prowled the class as usual as Neville went to practice with Ginny and Luna. The room was soon full of intermittent cries of "Impedimenta!" People froze for a minute or so, during which their partners would stare aimlessly around the room watching other pairs at work, then would unfreeze and take their turn to jinx.
After ten minutes on the Impediment jinx, they laid out cushions all over the floor and started practicing Stunning again. Space was really too confined to allow them all to work this spell at once; half the group observed the others for a while, then swapped over.
At the end of an hour, Harish called a halt.
"You are all getting better," he said. "When we return from the holidays, we can start doing some of the more complicated spells—maybe even Patronuses."
There was a murmur of excitement. The room began to clear in the usual twos and threes; most people wished Harish a Happy Christmas as they went. Feeling cheerful for once, he collected the cushions with the twins and stacked them away. Then, the three of them left for the common room together, laughing and talking about the latest meeting.