"I can't believe you're taking Ancient Runes." Fred complains to me after viewing our new schedules the next morning at breakfast.
"Literally no one else in Gryffindor is taking it. You'll probably be stuck with a load of Ravenclaws and bored out of your mind. You should have just taken Muggle Studies, gotten the easy grade with us and Lee. You're usually all about the easy work!" George adds on, also complaining.
"Pass. I already know enough about muggles, I don't need a wizard to teach me about muggles." I say dismissively, knowing so much more about muggles than anyone here could ever teach me. "Come on, we at least have Care of Magical Creatures together."
This is the first year of our electives, and our group of Gryffindors are being spread out. We all checked our schedules together, and so far, I really am the only one taking Ancient Runes. Alicia is in Divination with Kenneth, Lee, and Angelina. She's also taking Arithmancy with Kenneth. Kenneth is the only one taking four classes for electives, everything but Runes. Angelina is in Magical Creatures with me, Lee, and the twins.
My schedule overall was different than the last two years. It was fuller, and those study halls that used to fill our schedules up were now a lot less 'optional' than they were in the past, if our workload was anything to go by. Overall our schedules were very irregular this term and more demanding. Astronomy had moved to Tuesday evening late at night, and I had one of my Ancient Runes class after dinner on Thursdays. There was also a note that on the full moon nights each month there would be an additional Care of Magical Creatures class, likely in order to observe lunar animals.
We also switched up who we had our classes with, which was going to throw off my rhythm, but at least I still had History with Ravenclaw, otherwise I would have lost my napping buddy. I now had Defense and Potions with Slytherin. History, Astronomy and Herbology were with Ravenclaw, and Transfiguration and Charms with Hufflepuff. The electives were all mixed together, so I'll find out later in the week who all is in them.
Herbology was in Greenhouse Three now, which had more dangerous plants in them. This was proven at the start of our first class when Fred poked at a vine and it whipped him across his face and cut it. Professor Sprout handed me a salve to put on it and just left me to handle it, which was fine. He didn't need the hospital, but he glared at the vine hard while I watched the weird salve close his wound. I swiped home of the salve for future use, wondering at it's fast reaction.
I got to sit with Cedric in Transfiguration, it was funny we both made a beeline for a seat together. He's coming into his good looks nowadays, and his fellow Hufflepuff girls are already fawning over him. I'm still one of his best friends though, and he loves to partner with me whenever he can, and I don't fawn over him. I like hanging out with him because he's very kind and quiet, and rather skilled with his spells and intelligent. It actually surprised me he wasn't a Ravenclaw, but he's so friendly to everyone even if he's quiet that it made sense he's a badger.
In Potions I again formed a table of three with the twins. I stayed behind after class in order to talk to Snape.
"Professor?" I ask quietly, approaching Snape's desk as he's sorting through papers.
"Yes, Ms. Black?" Snape says shortly to me, not looking up from his work.
"I was wondering if you would be available during this year for... specialty lessons?" I ask nervously, knowing how much he still doesn't like me.
"Why would I go out of my way to spend more time in your presence?" He sneered at me. I sigh, I thought we had moved past our animosity, but then again, now there's two Marauder's children at Hogwarts, he must be extra pissed.
"Because you're the best there is at Occlumency, and I can't learn any more from Uncle Remus or from the books I have. I want to learn more, so I need to learn from someone who knows it the best, and that's you." I compliment him, hoping it will work. He finally looks up from his papers and locks eyes on me, and again I feel the tug on my mind, showing that he's trying to get in. I don't let him, I instead strengthen my mind. I can see this piques his interest, and he tries harder. I feel a harder tug, but don't relent at all.
"What are you trying so hard to keep hidden?" He asks quietly. "Your current level is only obtained from years of practice, you would have started from the age of a young child. Why?"
"My reasons are my own." I answer back. "But I will say, I have memories I can't risk being tampered with."
"What memories could you possibly have worth so much effort?" He asks with a sneer, though I can see genuine curiosity behind his façade.
I just smirk at him. "Perhaps if you train me, those memories could be your reward."
"As tempting as that offer isn't, I still fail to see why you would want more training. You are already... adequate." He says lowly, looking at me curiously.
"I dislike being adequate, sir." I tell him honestly. "It's one of my many Slytherin traits the sorting hat pointed out to me, I'm ambitious." I say arrogantly. "Well, if you won't train me, could you recommend some books for me?"
"Occlumency is not an art that can be mastered from a book." He scoffs, standing up and turning away from me. He debates for a long moment before turning back around. "I'm a busy man, Ms. Black, I will not have countless hours to train you. Occlumency takes time, and dedication."
"I have dedication, and I've already spent years, as you've said, training my own mind for it." I reply confidently.
"Saturday. I will test to see if you are even worth my teachings." He says with a glare. "Be here at 8 in the morning. Now get out of my sight."
"Thank you, Professor." I thank him, and quickly leave his room with a sigh of relief. That's potentially one hurdle down. I think I already have a strong foundation, but if I'm going to be mentally going up against Voldemort later, I need to be the best.
I checked in with Harry at dinner, but he seemed to be doing just fine for his first day. He said he had gotten lost in the castle earlier, so I spent about an hour with him and Ron showing them the easiest paths to their classes after dinner. I then left them to go do my own training, itching to get some magical and physical practice in after two months without magic.
The next day went by similar, with double Charms in the morning and 'nap time' after lunch, which Roger keeps reminding me is actually called History of Magic class, not nap time. Finally, we all headed down to our first Care of Magical Creatures class with a Professor Kettleburn. Meeting this old, eccentric man was fascinating in and of itself. He didn't go to the feasts often in the last two years, evidently he prefers to eat with the beasts themselves. He is also more prosthetic than he is man at this point. He only has one arm, and even then, it's missing two fingers. The rest of his limbs are almost all made of magical woods or metals, and he has more scars than flesh. He almost reminds me of how scarred I used to me in the last life, but I at least kept all my limbs. All things considered though, he was an excellent teacher. Thanks to all our trips in the forest, the twins and I were very ahead of the class.
When the class let out, I wandered over to Hagrid's hut to greet him before dinner.
"Hello Hagrid!" I say cheerily as I knock on his door. He opens it and beams at me.
"Abigail! Been wondering when you'd come down fer a visit." Hagrid ushers me into his hut and offers me a cup of tea.
"I would have come yesterday, but Harry needed some help learning the castle." I tell him honestly. "So, what fun new creatures have you gotten over the summer?" I ask innocently, knowing he got Fluffy.
"What makes you think I got new ones?" He deflects, and I grin at him.
"It's you, Hagrid. Come now, all my times coming here with Charlie the last two years, you barely went two months without a new pet or creature you were tending to. Now tell me, it must be a good one." I urge him with a grin.
"I'm not s'posed to say, strictly speaking." He tries to busy himself with the teapot, but I can tell he wants to tell me so bad. "All's I'll say is, if you find me on the third floor corridor some time, you might accidentally see him."
"The forbidden third floor corridor?" I ask innocently, smirking at him. "Well, should I cross you there at some point, is there a particular type of treat he likes?" Teasing that Hagrid already let slip that it's a male creature of some type.
"Not saying nothing, but also not saying he wouldn't like three rare steaks." He winks at me, and moves our conversation to summer trips and Harry. He says he can't wait to talk to Harry more, so I told him to invite him down here for tea, but not to serve him rock cakes. Whether he'll listen to the last part is a mystery, but at least I tried.
I gave Fang some scratches and went back inside, and barely had time for a quick dinner and about half my homework before a long late night of Astronomy. After 5th year is over, I'll be glad to drop this subject, the names all sound the same to me and it's not very fun. I'd rather learn this from the centaurs, and started to make plans to find the handsome Posocus again and learn from him.
"Davies, Black." I get greeted as I walk into the first Ancient Runes class on Wednesday after Herbology. I had already found out that Roger was in it, so we walked together after leaving the greenhouses. I was surprised to hear from him that he was the only Ravenclaw in our year to take Runes, we both figured more would have. I turn to see who had greeted me when I walked in, and found only one other person in the room, and he was giving me an arrogant smirk
"Pucey." I smirk at my friend, matching his arrogance and then some. Then we both dropped the smirk and genuinely smiled at one another, laughing at our usual haughty greeting. Roger and I take a seat on either side of him, an empty seat left open on my right and no other tables or chairs in the room. "Are we it? Seriously?" I look at the other two, but someone walks in just before the bell rings.
"Made it." Cedric breathes out, clearly having just run here. "Divination is so far away from here." He walks over and smiles at us all, taking the open seat next to me.
"What is this, the class for the top best looking student in each house?" Roger grins at us all and we laugh.
"Bold of you to lump yourself in that category." Adrian counters with a sneer, though they shove each other playfully at the end. I assume they get along well enough with each other to do that.
"Really though, only one from each house? Is that even enough for the class?" Cedric asks us curiously.
"It is enough." The teacher walks in and says happily. She was a middle aged witch, and had a stern look about her, despite the friendly greeting. "I am Professor Babbling, and welcome to Ancient Runes. You four may be my smallest class yet, but that just means you will have more time and attention. Now, I won't tolerate any petty house competitions in this class, so you better learn to get along now." She says sternly, and the expression matches her face much better.
"We're actually already friends." I point out to her as she's staring us down.
"Really?" She seemed surprised as we all nodded. "Well good!"
The class ended up being one of my favorites of the year so far. It had each of my friends from the other houses, and it was genuinely interesting to learn about the Runes. There were so many uses for them, and could be used with or without wands to create protections or shields, or even by dark magic when written in blood, though Babbling said she won't be teaching us any of that. I vaguely remember Kreacher trying to give me a cursed book about blood Runes from the House of Black, and now I'm curious what was inside of it. I can tell this will be a good course for me, and I'm glad I took it.
It was later that evening that I 'happened' to bump into Hagrid on the third floor with 3 giant juicy steaks I got from the elves in the kitchen.
"Why, if it isn't the gamekeeper, the wonderful Hagrid. What a surprise running into you here." I say with fun sarcasm as I join his side, and he gives me an excited grin.
"Just you wait, Abigail, just you wait. Yer in fer a treat tonight." He practically glows as he approaches the locked door. "Now, have you got the steaks?" He asks seriously, and I hold up the covered plate and show him the steaks. "Aye, that'll do just fine. Now, no sudden moves in there, and if need be, whistle a tune or sing." He warns me, and then opens the door.
Inside is the giant Cerberus dog, the three huge heads all lifting and growling at us as we entered. They didn't attack though, they spotted Hagrid and lowered their heads slightly, though kept up the growling.
"Fluffy, calm down, it's me, it's your mummy." He coo's to the giant dog as if it was a puppy. "Abigail, meet Fluffy. Ain't he beautiful?"
"He's wonderful, Hagrid! Where did you get a Cerberus?" I ask him, stepping forward slowly as the heads growled at me. One snapped at me, so I stopped. "Should I give the steaks now?" I ask quietly, and Hagrid nods in agreement. I take out the plate again slowly, and toss one steak up at the closest head. He grabs it, and then the others try and steal it from him. I quickly toss out the other two steaks and put the plate down as they're chewing.
"Fluffy, this is Abigail, she's a friend." Hagrid tells the beast while petting him happily, and I walk forward again. The heads finally stop growling, and two lower their heads to sniff me. I try to contain the fear, but honestly, they could kill me with one quick bite, so this is a gamble. My wand is strapped to my waist though, hidden out of site in the carrier I found in Diagon Alley when back to school shopping with Dad and Remus.
I reach a hand up tentatively towards the nearest head, and it allows me to touch his muzzle. I grin at him, and pet his snout and give him scratches. I can't believe I'm petting Fluffy right now, I'm amazed this is happening.
"Seriously, Hagrid, where did you find him?" I ask again after the second head also lets me pet him. The third head doesn't want me closer, so I leave him be.
"Got him off a Greek chap in the Leaky Cauldron. Then I leant him to Dumbledore to guard in here." Hagrid says happily, then realizes he probably shouldn't have mentioned the last part. "You forget I said that last part."
"What last part?" I ask innocently, and he gruffly clears his throat.
"Now, no telling anyone about this, not even the twins. Don't need anyone comin' in here and botherin' him, he don't take kindly to strangers, even if he's meetin' ya now. And I don't want you in here without me, ya hear?" He adds sternly as we leave the room.
"Does he get any exercise in there? Like, do you let him out at all?" I ask curiously, trying to picture how the giant dog gets any fun.
"Course I do!" Hagrid says as if it's obvious. "I take him out to the forest every week for a walk. They don't need much walking, Cerberus dogs, they rest most the time. But he's still only a pup, so he needs weekly walks now."
"That's just a puppy?!" I ask incredulously. "He's going to get bigger?"
"Not much bigger, but yeah." He replies proudly.
"Do you actually put a leash on him to walk?" I ask jokingly.
"Course not, could you imagine a leash on Fluffy? How'd that look?" He asks in offense and I laugh.
"Hilarious, that's how it would look." I reply chuckling. "Thanks for showing me Hagrid, let me know when you walk him, I wanna see!" I say before we separate. He agrees reluctantly, but I know he can't resist showing off his pets. I hope he lets me see Norbert when he gets him, but I want to leave that mostly for Harry and his friends to deal with. Though I will totally be there to see Charlie's friends and help get the dragon away, and also stop the kids from being caught out of bed.
"Cousin." I hear a pompous voice say outside the Great Hall on Friday after lunch. I turn and see Draco standing there, by himself, looking confident but also a little awkward.
"Draco?" I respond curiously, unsure what the boy wants with me. I barely even registered the fact that we're technically cousins.
"Mother says I should introduce myself to you. She says we're family." Draco responds proudly.
"Oh?" I respond with a smirk. "And what does your father say about us speaking?" I lean down to his level, my hand on my hip. I know that Lucius hates Dad, and by extension, me, his half-blood daughter.
"Father says you're a half-blood daughter of a disgraceful blood traitor." He replies back, arrogantly and proudly, though he starts to shrink a little at my intimidating stare as I bore my eyes straight into his, not glaring, but not betraying any emotion at all. I call it my dead stare, I mastered it two lives ago, and it's proving to still work, even in this happier world. "But... mother says differently." He adds with a whisper, shifting his eyes nervously away while I tilt my head in a predatory manor. I actually love the character Draco Malfoy from the books, but I want to see how this real Draco is in comparison.
"And what is your opinion?" I ask him plainly, and he looks confused at me. "Your own opinion, Draco. Not one fed to you by your parents or friends, just your opinion, from your own thoughts and heart." I tap him in his head and heart as I say the last part.
"I don't know." He scoffs out, trying to sound petulant, but just sounding confused.
"You don't know because you don't know me at all." I tell him simply. "Your parents don't know me either, I've never met them. Your father dislikes me because my father has challenged him several times. Your mother wants you to be nice to me because we share the same blood. Neither of those are reasons to do anything, either for or against me. So, I ask that you make your own opinion on whether you want to know me or not. Using your own clever mind and heart, think you can do that?" I smirk at him at the end, my hand on his shoulder as I stand back up straight.
"Of course I can. I'm Draco Malfoy, there's nothing I can't do." He says proudly, and I widen my smirk.
"That's the right attitude!" I grin at him, and he ends up returning it. "Now go eat lunch, you'll have plenty of time to get to know me later, but for now, I have class." I ruffle up his perfectly slicked back hair. He reminds me a lot of Damian, my littlest brother from the last life, and Damian hated when I ruffled his hair. Sure enough, Draco complain when I did it, and it just made me grin even more at him as I walked away, calling one last thing over my shoulder. "And get some better cronies, those lumps you walk around with make you look bad." He looks offended and angry at that, and stalks away from me. Crabbe and Goyle really add no merit to his image, and he's far too smart to hang out with them. He would be better off with intelligent friends that would challenge him, rather than the idiots who are just his followers, and not really his friends.
Once I thought of that, I got a brief reminder of my first life, which I so rarely think about anymore. Back then I didn't have friends, I had followers, like Draco does, and it wasn't fun. I hope he can have some real friends, and I start to think of ideas for that.