When Myths Meet Magic || 5

33|| Thalia

Astronomy was the second-to-last exam and took place at midnight, which meant most fifth years were half-asleep by the time they took the long trek up to the astronomy tower. Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors combined around the telescopes, each fighting for the good spots that wasn't looking directly at the moon.

Without looking in her telescope first, Thalia glanced up at the sky for a brief moment then peered down at her star chart to fill out all the constellations that she had seen nightly for years, but suddenly her memory went fuzzy. Five years of sleeping in a dormitory rather than under the stars was finally taking its toll on her night-sky identification memory.

Panicking slightly (but only slightly), Thalia relied on her telescope (ew) along with what she did remember to scribble down the locations of Mars and Jupiter.

Artemis would be ashamed, she thought sullenly as she pressed her eye against the cold metal of the telescope. Star navigation was a vital component in being a good huntress. Although it did help that Hogwarts had much fewer polluted skies than New York. Even with her rusty memory, she finished first and Jason second.

"Are you done already?" Professor Tofty, the examiner, said in surprise as he stopped by the Grace siblings.

They both nodded and passed their papers to him before continuing their game of chopsticks.

"Try and concentrate now," said Professor Tofty, his attention averted to several of the students who had abandoned their telescopes to peer down into the lawn. Ron dropped his telescope with a clatter and hastily straightened it.

Jason won and they looked down as well; figures were stalking across the shadowy lawn towards Hagrid's hut. The shadows blended their robes together and lengthened their figures, all except one squat witch in a hideous pink.

Thalia aimed her telescope directly into the window as the figures entered the cramped hut. It was like watching a very zoomed in action movie without sound; people continuously shifted to block the window but she caught glimpses of Hagrid's shaggy beard moving furiously, then the sweeping movement she knew all too well that was wands being drawn out.

Next to her, Frank gasped.

"Ahem, twenty minutes to go," said examiner Professor Marchbanks with a dry cough that wasn't unlike Umbridge's.

Frank quickly pressed his eye back to her telescope but Thalia had no such hinderings and squinted further.

Suddenly there was a loud BANG! The nearest window of Hagrid's hut shattered as a spell hit it; the door burst open and Hagrid shoved his way out with Fang barking madly at his heels and snarling at the wizards leaving the hut; jets of red light flew over Fang's head and seemed to bounce off Hagrid's form.

"No!" Hermione shrieked.

"My dear!" Professor Marchbanks gasped. "This is an examination!"

But by then everyone had abandoned their telescopes and was crowded around the east side of the tower. Wizards were yelling, Fang was barking, and Hagrid's angry roar echoed around them.

"Be reasonable, Hagrid!" someone shouted.

"Reasonable be damned, yeh won' take me like this, Dawlish!" Hagrid roared back.

Fang leapt up to snap at a wizard; a beam of red hit the dog mid-jump and Fang fell to the ground and didn't move. Hagrid howled; one massive hand reached out and seized the attacker and threw him across the lawn; like Fang, the man did not get up.

Someone squealed, "look!" and pointed; they could see the form of McGonagall, distorted by the flickering candle lights, stretching across the ground.

"Sixteen minutes!" Professor Tofty squealed. He was ignored.

"How dare you!" Professor McGonagall shrieked, her voice quivering in anger. "How DARE you?"

"Leave him alone! ALONE, I say! On what grounds are you attacking him? He has done nothing, nothing to warrant such—"

Four stunners suddenly flew at her with such accuracy and precision the professor couldn't finish her sentence; the force hit collided with her and threw her back several feet; she, too, fell and didn't move.

"Galloping gargoyles!" Professor Tofty shouted, who had seemed to forget the exam altogether.

"COWARDS!" Hagrid roared; several more lights flickered on within the castle. "RUDDY COWARDS!"

He made two massive swipes and two more attackers fell.

"Oh my!" Hazel gasped.

The gamekeeper bent over and seized Fang's limp form swiftly.

"Get him!" Umbridge shrieked; she herself had been hiding in the cabin. "GET HIM!"

She sent one last feeble stunning spell after his retreating form but it merely reflected off his back like light to a mirror and he vanished into the darkness.

>>>•O•<<<

"Poor Hagrid!" Dean Thomas moaned as the Gryffindors sat huddled around the fireplace moments later. Nearly no one was sleeping; the yelling had made sure of that.

"Why on earth would she sack him?" said Dean. "He'd been teaching fine all year."

"Umbridge hates part humans," Annabeth said acidly. "She'll do anything to get them kicked out."

"Well she's still got a job on her hands," said Neville. "I mean, Professor Chiron will just jump back in again and he's a centaur."

"Chiron's in the Forbidden Forest somewhere," Percy said. "I dunno if he'll be back in time."

"Well she's still got Firenze to sack," suggested Lee Jordan. "That'll buy enough time."

For what, no one wanted to know. Lee Jordan had seemed to pick up the pranking after Leo, Fred, and George had gone (although Leo's mechanical creatures still seemed to scurry about indestructibly and Peeves was still giving Umbridge hell).

"I just hope McGonagall's alright," Lavender said tearfully.

"They carried her up to the castle in a stretcher," Colin Creevey said unhelpfully.

"Madam Pomfrey will sort her out," said Harry. "She's never failed yet. She'd revived all those petrified people and Professor McGonagall's only unconscious."

"But she isn't exactly young, is she?" Ginny piped.

The chatter and gossip died down two hours later, when Hermione firmly reminded the fifth years they still had the History of Magic exam the following day, although if anything it made them keener to stay up.

Schedule is out the door, guys, sorry for the wait. Almost done with book 5!