12 Years of Secrets

Breakfast was a busy affair, it started off awful when the Slytherin's made fun of Harry for passing out on the train yesterday, which I would have hexed them for if my mother hadn't walked past and caught me mid-spell.
The four of us talked amongst ourselves, with occasionally input from Seamus and Dean as timetables were handed out. Fred and George passed Ron, Harry, Hermione and I ours. We began to compare them to see what classes we shared until we noticed that Hermione's was a lot more jam packed and there was no way it made any chronological sense.

"Hermione, it's impossible you could be taking that many classes." I stated.

"Don't be silly." she brushed it off, taking a hasty bite of her toast.

"No, look," said Ron sliding her timetable across from her before she could grab it, "Divination and Ancient Runes both at nine. You can't be in two places at once, Hermione."

"Are you sure this is right?" Harry asked looking confused.

"Yes, I've spoken with Professor McGonagall and I'm taking a few extra classes." she said snatching her timetable from Ron and shoving it Ito her bag. "Now come on, we don't want to be late on our first day of lessons." she said finally and stood up, slinging her book bag over her shoulder.

"What do we have first again?" asked Harry as we left the Great Hall.

"Divination." I replied, looking down at my timetable to make sure. "Yep, Divination. Anyone know what Trelawney is meant to be like?"

"Nuttier than squirrel poo according to Fred and George." Ron stated matter-of-factly. "But apparently you can lie your way through the homework.

"Great." Harry grinned.

"Not great, Divination is a hard subject, Harry. It takes skill and the ability of sight. I read all about it over the summer but I can't wait to practice the theory." Hermione spewed.

"Life's not all about school you know?" Ron huffed.

"It's not all about lazing about either." she replied haughtily.

"It's only the first day back, 'Mione. Lighten up a bit, we don't even have any homework yet!" I laughed.

The walk to the North Tower was the most painful experience of my life and I genuinely had to stop a few times to catch my breath and at one point, Ron dragged me away from that insufferable painting, Sir Cadogan!
Trelawney's classroom looked like a mix between a jumble sale, someone's attic and a tea shop. The smell of incense was overbearing and I began choking the minute I walked in. Ron smacked me on the back rather heavy handedly which only made me choke more. Through my streaming eyes, I shot Ron a look and he mouthed 'sorry' with a grin.

Professor Trelawney looked a lot like an owl with her thick milk bottle glasses but all her shawls and thousands of jangling bracelets gave her an almost mystical, gypsy feel about her. She opened her lesson with a few vague predictions, which in my opinion where nothing to go on; "Neville will break a tea cup", "Something bad will happen to Lavender", "Someone is going to leave the class". Anyone in their right mind would leave given a chance. Harry and I had only taken Divination because Ron was. Hermione took it because she likes to learn about boring stuff.

"Welcome my children." Trelawney said stepping out from the smoke and throwing her arms wide to welcome us.

"So you may have chosen to study Divination, the most difficult of all magical arts. I must warn you at the outset that if you do not have the Sight, there is very little I will be able to teach you. Books can take you only so far in this field." she explained.

"Looks like that's you stumped, Hermione." Ron sniggered under his breath.

"Shut up, Ronald." Hermione whispered back.

"Today we will be studying the art of tea leaves, so once your cup is empty please take the cup of the person sitting opposite you. Take a look inside their cup and look for the meaning of what you see in their remaining leaves in your book."

Hermione and I got up to get the tea cups and a tea pot for the four of us. As we were up at the table, Neville dropped the tea cup he was which smashed into pieces at his feet. I kneeled down and helped him pick up the pieces and Trelawney sauntered over waving her shawl towards the cups and said something about using a blue one. Maybe she wasn't such a fraud after all.

Back at the table, we drank our tea and flicked through our Divination books making comments about the different omens and meanings. When we were finished, Hermione and I swapped cups as did Harry and Ron. Ron was peering into Harry's cup, turning it left and right to get it from different angles. Trelawney was making her way round the classroom and eventually came to a stop at our table.

"That there looks like sort of a wonky cross," said Ron flicking through his textbook, "and that looks like the sun. So basically, Harry, you're going to suffer but you're going to be happy about it."
"Let me see that, my dear," she said reprovingly to Ron and snatching Harry's cup from him. Everyone went quiet to watch. Professor Trelawney was staring into the teacup, rotating it anti-clockwise.

"The falcon.. My dear, you have a deadly enemy."

"Anyone could tell you that," I snorted, "Voldemort's been trying to kill him since forever."

She ignored me and practically dived into Harry's cup again and continued to turn it. "The club.. an attack. Dear, dear, this is not a happy cup.."

"I thought that was a bowler hat." said Ron sheepishly.

"The skull … danger in your path, my dear …"

Everyone was staring, in awe at Professor Trelawney, who gave the cup a final turn, gasped, and then screamed. There was another tinkle of breaking china; Neville had smashed his second cup. Professor Trelawney sank into the nearest vacant armchair, her bony hand at her heart and her eyes closed.

"My dear boy, my poor dear boy – no – it is kinder not to say – no – don't ask me.." she stuttered.

"What is it, Professor?" said Dean Thomas at once.

Everyone had got to their feet and slowly, they crowded around our table, pressing close to Professor Trelawney's chair to get a good look at Harry's cup for themselves.

"My dear," Professor Trelawney's huge eyes opened dramatically making her look even more like a fly, "you have the Grim."

"The Grin? What's The Grin?" Seamus Finnigan asked.

"Not The Grin, you idiot. The Grim." said Bem, a boy in our year who I'd never really spoke more than two words to before. "Taking the form of a giant spectral dog, it's among the darkest omens in our world. It's an omen...of death."

The entire class broke out in chatter about The Grim and discussed animatedly how Harry could die. I looked at Harry who looked worried, the class didn't know what the four of us did. That Sirius Black had escaped Azkaban because he wanted to kill Harry. Seeing The Grim wasn't a good sign. Everybody who saw it died not long afterwards.

Trelawney dismissed the class and we headed to Transfiguration. Mondays and Tuesdays lessons were held with Minnie and Thursday and Fridays were with my mum. I knew which lessons I preferred. School was a lot more fun when your mum wasn't your teacher. All down the corridor the rest of the Gryffindors talked about the previous lesson and Trelawney's prediction.

"She was right about Neville, who's to say she won't be right me, or about you Pavarti?" Lavender Brown said shooting a look over her shoulder towards Ron.

Earlier on in class, Trelawney had warned Parvarti to stay away from a red haired man and immediately all eyes turned to Ron who had flushed a deep beetroot red. I shot her a rude hand gesture and she glared back at me before flipped her head round and speeding off with her arm linked in Pavarti's.

"Personally I think she's an old fraud." Hermione stated. "Open your mind!" she spoke in a typical ghost like floaty voice, "Use your inner eye to see the future!"

When we got to class McGonagall wasn't stood at her desk but we took our seats as usual and got our things out of our bags. As we settled into our class, a cat leaped up onto Professor McGonagall's desk and within an instant there she stood herself. Usually this would have fascinated all, but instead everyone was still caught up in the atmosphere of last lesson. Apparently she could sense this.

"I by no means mean to as the saying goes, 'toot my own horn', but the third years I had first lesson were somewhat intrigued in Animagi." Professor McGonagall sniffed haughtily. "What may I ask, has happened?"

"We had Professor Trelawney last lesson," Hermione explained, "and she saw The Grim in Harry's cup."

"Now students, I can tell you that Sybill Trelawney has predicted the death of a student every year since she came to this school. None of them have died yet."

"See Harry, you have nothing to worry about." Hermione said to Harry.

"Unless another teacher tries bunk him off." I shrugged.

"I don't think that is going to happen, Miss Paul. I trust Professor Dumbledore's ability to locate appropriate teaching staff. If I could get on with my lesson however, I would be grateful." Professor McGonagall said sternly.

"Sure thing, Minnie!" I grinned.

As always Transfiguration with Professor McGonagall passed quicker than I would have liked and I managed to get no points taken off Gryffindor yet which was an accomplishment. It was time for Care of Magical Creatures which was unfortunately shared with The Slytherin's. I hadn't really come into contact with Malfoy since yesterday when he'd made that comment that had made Harry snap.

We made our way down to Hagrid's hut where a few Gryffindors and Slytherin's stood separately. Hagrid looked nervous but cheered up slightly at the sight of the four of us walking towards him.

"Right, t'day class wer' goin' ter be lookin at Hippogriffs. So yer just want ter open yer books t' the page abou' Hippogriffs an' we'll go from there." Hagrid said clapping his hands together once everybody had arrived.

"And exactly just how do we do that?" asked Draco holding up his copy of 'The Monster Book of Monsters' that was bound shut with a thick leather strap. It seems everybody else had had the same idea because all of our books had been strapped shut in some way or another.

"Why yer just stroke the spine of course!" Hagrid stated as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Follow me inter the forest, there's a lil clearin' down the way where I'm keepin' the Hippogriff an' I'll show yer the proper way t' greet a Hippogriff!"

"Oh, how silly we've all been!" Malfoy sneered. "We should have stroked them! Why didn't we guess!"

"I… I thought they were funny," said Hagrid uncertainly to Hermione.

"Oh, tremendously funny!" said Malfoy. "Really witty, giving us books that try and rip our hands off!"

"Shove off, Malfoy." Ron grumbled.

Most of the class managed to open their books successfully after running a hand down the spine of the book before it severed their hand. Neville of course being the only exception, his book managed to eat half of his school tie. Following each other deeper into the forest we eventually came to a large clearing that was enclosed with wooden fencing. In that was about twenty Hippogriffs varying in size.

"Follow me class an' stay close. Don't make any sudden movements." Hagrid warned.

We followed him into the enclosing and he shut the gate behind him. Despite our rivalry, there was no denying how close Gryffindor and Slytherin were standing together to avoid these large and no doubt lethal creatures. Hagrid always did like unusual animals.

"First thing you wanna know about Hippogriffs, is tha' they're very proud creatures, very easily offended. You do not want to insult a Hippogriff. It may just be the last thing you ever do." Hagrid said seriously. "This particular Hippogriff's name is Buckbeak," Hagrid said gesturing to the nearest Hippogriff, "now, who'd like to come and say hello?" he said suddenly cheerful.

The entire class took a step backwards except Harry who seemed frozen to the spot. I reached out to pull him back but it was too late, Hagrid had spotted him.

"Well done, Harry, well done!" Hagrid said clapping. "Now come closer, nice an' slow an' take a bow an' if he bows back, yer can go up an' stroke him."

Harry edged forward slowly and leaned down slowly, looking up over his glasses.

"That's it Harry, nice an' low.." Hagrid muttered.

Eventually Buckbeak returned Harry's bow and Hagrid encouraged Harry to move forward and stroke Buckbeak's head. Buckbeak didn't seem so intimidating after all, especially if you liked horses and pigeons or whatever he was.

"I think he may let you ride him now!" Hagrid grinned.

"What?" dead panned Harry.

Hagrid picked up Harry and placed him in Buckbeak's back, right behind the wing joint.

"Hey! Hey hey hey hey hey! Hagrid!" Harry protested.

"Make sure yer don't pull out any of his feathers, Harry, cause he won't thank yer for tha'!" Hagrid laughed and smacked Buckbeak on the rear.

The Hippogriff took off with a mighty run and spread his wings to take off. Harry let out a yell and held on to Buckbeak's neck with all his might. The two of them lifted up into the air with a cloud of soil lifted from the ground. It only took a few moments before the two of them disappeared off into the sky and were hidden from view. I couldn't wait to get on and ride one. Somewhere in the distance Harry let out a loud celebration that echoed throughout the school grounds.

After a few minutes, Hagrid let out a loud whistle to which Buckbeak responded with a cry and within moments Harry and Buckbeak landed back in front of the class. Hagrid picked Harry down from Buckbeak and he returned over to the Gryffindor half of the class who welcomed him back with cheers and pats on the back.
Malfoy shoved his way through the class with his elbows all the way up to Buckbeak who was grazing quietly.

"I bet you're not dangerous at all, are you? You great, big brute!" Draco sneered and he staggered you to the Hippogriff.

Buckbeak reared in alarm onto his hind legs and brought his front hooves down as Malfoy raised his arms in defence. Hagrid ran into the middle of them before Buckbeak could do any further damage. Malfoy was rolling around the floor in pain and I couldn't help but think he deserved it after all, Hagrid had warned us.

"Hagrid, he's got to be taken to the hospital wing!" Hermione exclaimed.

"Right, er, I'm the teacher, I'll do it." Hagrid stammered. He reached down and picked Malfoy up with ease. "Class dismissed."

Malfoy who was writhing around in pain in Hagrid's arms muttered feebly, "I'll get you for this! You and your bloody chicken!"

I packed away my book, bounding it once more in a belt and shoved it into my bag. I wrapped my cloak around me tightly and Harry, Ron, Hermione and I made our way back up to the castle.

"Did you see Draco's face!" Ron and I exclaimed at the same time. Both of us burst out laughing.

I hoped every Care of Magical Creatures lesson was as entertaining as this one.