Because of the game they had skipped this night but in Sunday Percy was in the headmasters office again. During the week he had actually managed to lift one of the jinxes and was now working hard on the next one. They had managed to make him appear right before the Hog's Head and he didn't need to go all the way to Hogsmead first. Percy had brought a few books with him and was now sitting on the floor across the door with three books laid out before him.
His wand in hand he concentrated on one spell. In his mind he let all the others disappear and just looked at the light blue string of magic. His eyes followed its tuns and swirls. "Revelio" He pointed his wand at the magic string. It moved just that little bit away from the others and Percy quickly send a "Relashio" behind. The string began to unknot itself and Percy knew to be fast now before it would snap back into place.
"Arresto Momento Duo" It stopped and now hun in the air. Percy stood up and grabbed it. As soon as he did it wanted to snap back but he pulled hard and after a while he had it all out. The light blue string in his hand tried to wiggle out and he grabbed it harder. He pointed his wand at the spell "Surgito" and watched it dissolve.
Professor Dumbledore didn't see what exactly he was doing inside the memory and relied on Percy's descriptions. Percy was glad he didn't see it, he wasn't sure how to explain that he could see magic as if it was an object. If he couldn't, he probably would have never been able to do this. But he was and now he had gotten rid of two of the spells. It was a long and difficult task, every spell needed different spells to get it out, but it was possible and slowly but steady he got there.
Other things weren't going as smoothly. Draco was avoiding Percy and many who had been in the common room when it had happened whispered whenever he entered the room. Umbridge watched him like a hawk and he even noticed her following him sometimes. She had heard Blaise and Draco talk about Percy's absence every day to the same time and now tried to find out where he was going. On Monday it got as far as she followed him into the men's bathroom.
"Is there something you are searching for, professor?", asked Percy while he stood at the sink and washed his hands. He watched her come out of a stall in the mirror and raised a brow. "Isn't you being in here a violation to the school's rules?"
"I am allowed to enter all rooms as High Inquisitor.", she said harshly and was about to continue when he spoke again.
"Well, professor I see this as a simply violation of privacy. High Inquisitor or not, what if it had been a first year you had followed? Border to child abuse. That can't be legal, even for you." He fired his hands still looking at her through the mirror.
"You dare to accuse me of abuse?", her voice shaken. She dried to look as big as possible but he still looked down at her when he turned around.
"I dare", he began. "to accuse you of torture, Professor Umbridge." He spat out the professor. "Good night." He walked out and was around a corner and out of sight before she could hurry after him. That night he dissolved another spell of the barrier and felt a lot better afterwards.
The next day snow was still covering the ground when Percy made his way down to Hagrid's class. Umbridge was nowhere to be seen, which was good considering the teacher was standing beside the Forbidden Forest and looked like he wanted to head in. The half-giant was shouldering a dead cow and looked worse than on Saturday if that was even possible.
"We're workin' in here today!" Hagrid called happily to the approaching students, jerking his head back at the dark trees behind him. "Bit more sheltered! Anyway, they prefer the dark..."
"What prefers the dark?" Draco said sharply to Crabbe and Goyle, a trace of panic in his voice. "What did he say prefers the dark - did you hear?"
"Ready?" said Hagrid happily, looking around at the class. "Right, well, I've bin savin' a trip inter the forest fer yer fifth year. Thought 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 per- son in Britain who's managed ter train 'em -"
"And you're sure they're trained, are you?" said Malfoy, the panic in his voice even more pronounced now. "Only it wouldn't be the first time you'd brought wild stuff to class, would it?" The Slytherins murmured agreement and a few Gryffindors looked as though they thought Malfoy had a fair point too.
" 'Course they're trained," said Hagrid, scowling and hoisting the dead cow a little higher on his shoulder.
"So what happened to your face, then?" demanded Malfoy.
"Mind yer own business!" said Hagrid, angrily. "Now if yeh've finished askin' stupid questions, follow me!"
Hagrid started walking and nobody wanted to follow until Percy took the lead. He followed his teacher through the woods. 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 laid down his cow and stepped back.
"Gather roun', gather roun'," said Hagrid 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..." Percy wondered witch creatures he was talking about and hoped it weren't the giant spiders.
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. Nobody laughed. most of them looked too scared to make a sound. They were wizards, in the name of the gods, why were they so scarred? They had a wand to defend them with after all.
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 it was that was coming. Percy saw the dragon-faced horse-like winged creature stalk towards the group. A pair of blank, white, shining eyes were growing larger through the gloom. 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.
Percy looked around to see who could see them. Harry he already knew of, but also Neville and Blaise looked disgusted at the creature before them.
"Oh, an' here comes another one!" said Hagrid 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?" Percy held his hand up.
"Yeah . . . yeah, I knew you'd be able ter, Harry," he said seriously.
"An' you too, Neville, eh? An' —"
"Excuse me," said Malfoy in a sneering voice, "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 one girl squealed. Percy 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?", the girl demanded in a terrified voice, retreating behind the nearest tree. "What's eating it?"
"Thestrals," said Hagrid proudly. "Hogwarts has got a whole herd of 'em in here. Now, who knows- ?"
"But they're really, really unlucky!" interrupted the girl again, 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," said Hagrid, chuckling, "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 un- less Dumbledore's takin' a long journey an' don' want ter Apparate - an' here's another couple, look -"
Two more thestrals came inside the circle. One of them went by close to the girl which immediately stepped away.
"I think I felt something, I think it's near me!"
"Don' worry, it won' hurt yeh," said Hagrid 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," said Hagrid, beaming at her.
"The only people who can see thestrals," she said, "are people who have seen death."
"Tha's exactly right," said Hagrid solemnly, "ten points ter Gryffindor. Now, thestrals -"
"Hem, hem." Percy grew to hate that noise. She was standing close to Harry, clipboard in hand, and watched the teacher. Hagrid, who had never heard Umbridge's fake cough before, was gazing in some concern at the closest thestral, 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?" said Umbridge, in the same loud, slow voice she had used with him earlier, as though she was addressing somebody both foreign and very slow. Percy knew she was doing this because of Hagrid's heritage. "Telling you that I would be inspecting your lesson?"
"Oh yeah," said Hagrid 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?" said Umbridge 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 ...' " Percy tensed. The lady really knew how to make him angry.
Well ... anyway ..." said Hagrid, turning back to the class and looking slightly flustered. "Erm ... what was I sayin'?"
" 'Appears ... to ... have ... poor ... short ... term ... memory ...' " muttered Umbridge, loudly enough for everyone to hear.
"Oh yeah," said Hagrid, 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 fe- males. 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 said loudly, interrupting him, "that the Ministry of Magic has classified thestrals as 'dangerous'?"
Hagrid merely chuckled. "Thestrals aren' dangerous! All righ, they might take a bite outta you if yeh really annoy them —"
" 'Shows ... signs ... of ... pleasure ... at ... idea ... of ... violence ... ' " muttered Umbridge, scribbling on her clipboard again.
"Then I am sure the two of you will become best friends." Percy had given up to be nice to her. She couldn't hurt him. Her tiny eyes stared into his but she lost the battle.
"I think it is time -"
"For what? More detention?", asked Percy and took a step away from the tree had had leaned on and towards the teacher.
"I think detention doesn't work on you anymore, Mr. Jackson."
"Oh but it was so effective before..."
"That is why your curfew will be set to 6 o'clock. After dinner you will go straight for your common room and weekends are cancelled. You can forget seeing Hogsmead again until summer." She looked satisfied with herself but Percy just smiled.
"One more question. Am I allowed to write owls? Or do you just want to sent me straightaway to Azkaban for having thoughts?" The class whispers grew louder.
"No owls.", said Umbridge as if she had to concentrate hard to not hex him. Then she turned back to Hagrid. "Please continue teaching as usual. I am going to walk" She mimed walking. Draco and Pansy were having 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.
Percy leaned back to his tree. "Erm ... anyway," said Hagrid, clearly struggling to regain the flow of his lesson, "so - thestrals. Yeah. Well, there's loads o' good stuff abou' them..."
"Do you find", said Professor Umbridge in a ringing voice to Pansy. "that you are able to understand Professor Hagrid when he talks?"
Her answer was almost incoherent because she was trying to suppress her giggles. "No ...because ... well ... it sounds ... like grunting a lot of the time..." Umbridge scribbled on her clipboard. The few unbruised bits of Hagrid's face flushed, but he tried to act as though he had not heard Pansy's answer.
"Er ... yeah ... good stuff abou' thestrals. Well, once they're tamed, like this lot, yeh'll never be lost again. 'Mazin' senses o' direc- tion, jus' tell 'em where yeh want ter go -"
"Assuming they can understand you, of course," said Malfoy loudly, and Pansy Parkinson collapsed in a fit of renewed giggles. Professor Umbridge smiled indulgently at them and then turned to Neville.
"You can see the thestrals, Longbottom, can you?" she said. Neville nodded.
"Whom did you see die?" she asked, her tone indifferent.
"My ... my grandad," said Neville.
"And what do you think of them?" she said, waving her stubby hand at the thestrals.
"Erm," said Neville nervously, with a glance at Hagrid. "Well, they're ... er ... okay ..."
" 'Students ... are ... too ... intimidated ... to ... admit ... they ... are ... frightened ...'"
"No!" said Neville, looking upset, "no, I'm not scared of them — !"
"It's quite all right," said Umbridge, patting Neville on the shoulder. "Well, Hagrid," she turned to look up at him again, speaking once more in that loud, slow voice, "I think I've got enough to be getting along with... You will receive" She mimed taking something from the air in front of her. "the results of your inspection" She pointed at the clipboard. "in ten days' time." She held up ten stubby little fingers, then, her smile wider and more toad-like than ever before beneath her green hat.
*
I don't think you guys realise how much I stalk (I'm joking) everyone of you that votes for or saves this story. Only people that have an own story know how much it means to the writer.
Love,
Mimi