Ink and Parchment ~ blood and bone

38

“We’ll be workin’ in the forest today” Hagrid boomed as Eliza and Draco joined the group of students. Draco stumbled in the snow when he caught sight of Hagrid’s face, or more specifically the giant yellow mottled bruise covering half of it.

“What happened to his face?” he hissed as they began making their way into the forest with much trepidation from the other students.

“The giants obviously preferred Tom’s deal over Dumbledore’s” Eliza murmured back with a small smirk which Draco shared.

Dumbledore was being oddly quiet recently too. As far as she knew he still hadn’t checked in on Wizengamot matters since he lost his seat as Chief Warlock which meant he was still unaware of Tom’s moves. Especially considering Tom was still sending decoys to the department of mysteries in ‘attempts to get the prophecy’ leaving Dumbledore’s order more scattered. Eliza didn’t know Tom’s plans in regards to Dumbledore. Eliza certainly had her own but she had no idea if Tom still wanted to kill the man or not.

After ten minutes of walking they eventually came to a halt in the middle of a clearing in the forest. Eliza looked around curiously as Hagrid called out with a shrieking cry. Draco shuffled nervously besides her and she could feel him growing more anxious as nothing appeared.

And then, Eliza spotted a pair of milky white eyes just beyond the tree line. Then the rest of it followed, the dragonish head, the skeletal body of a great winged horse. A thestral.

A second later another one joined it and began devouring the cow that Hagrid had dragged along behind him. Draco was still looking around with a highly confused expression.

“Now who ‘ere can see ‘em. Put yer hands up”

Eliza shoved her hand into the air. The only other person who did the same was Neville Longbottom in Gryffindor.

“And what are you seeing exactly?” Draco whispered and Eliza grinned before gesturing to the cow carcass that was now being ripped apart by the thestrals. She couldn’t imagine how strange it would be to see nothing there and yet still be able to see how the cow was being eaten.

“Thestrals” Hagrid said proudly “Hogwarts had a whole herd of ‘em. Now who knows-

“But thestrals are meant to be really unlucky” Parvati interrupted looking perfectly horrified.

“No, no” Hagrid interrupted and continued on his lecture. Eliza was distracted from his words when she felt something brush up against her. Another two thestrals had appeared out of the forest and whilst one had continued forward the other had come to a stop next to her.

They were quite lovely really, in a macabre sort of manner. It huffed softly in front of her and warm breath hit her face as she smiled softly at the creature. Eliza glanced at Hagrid who gave her a sort of encouraging thumbs up and so she slowly raised her hand, resting it against the thestral’s head. It leaned into her touch. Eliza knew exactly what it was feeling. A connection between one of Death’s creatures to another.

The moment was broken by a loud and irritating ‘hem, hem’

Umbridge had arrived to ruin Eliza’s day.

Eliza shared a disgruntled glance with Draco and settled in for another hellish lesson.Umbridge continued to interrupt Hagrid's class with inane and irritating questions. She even had the gall to ask Eliza who she had seen die. Eliza didn't think the toad would appreciate the answer 'too many to count' and so instead Eliza just levelled her with a bone-chilling grin.

She would speak to the Weasley twins later and see just what they could do to Umbridge’s infernal clipboard.

~