Louanne Delacour

The Hippogriff

September 2nd, 1993

I met up with Hermione and Parvati (Who surprisingly wasn't with Lavender) on the way to Care of Magical Creatures. I stood next to Hermione to her left, with Parvati on the other side of her. I had Parvati's paper, she had mine, and Hermione kept hers.

Parvati snatched Hermione's schedule from her and held it side-by-side with mine. "Hermione, how are you taking some of these classes? Like Arithmancy, and Muggle Studies, and Divination? They're all at the same time." She looked at Hermione with a bewildered expression as we walked down the stone steps outside to Hagrid's class.

"Hold up, let me see." I reached my hand above Hermione, who was struggling to get her paper back from Parvati, and Parvati handed it to me. Handing her back her schedule, I examined Hermione's closely. Sure enough, they were all first thing in the morning at the same time.

Time.

Absent for short amounts of time in between classes. She technically could have not been there on the walk to Divination. I didn't see her. It all makes perfect sense.

"Oh I know..." I whispered under my breath, just loud enough for Hermione to hear, but not Parvati. Hermione's eyes grew wide and she grabbed the paper back. "Why am I not surprised you would even want to take so many classes in the first place?" I tried to lighten her situation.

"We should really get to class if we don't want to be late," Hermione said, speeding up in front of us. Parvati and I looked at each other and just shook our heads in amusement. "Are you coming?!" We both hurried to catch up with Hermione before we were all late.

The weather was warm outside in the sun, but an afternoon breeze came through causing me to shiver. I was next to Harry, Ron, and Hermione, walking through the trees to the location of our first lesson. Hagrid, I learned, was a very kind person despite his intimidating looks. But why he was leading children around the outskirts of the woods to look at a potentially dangerous creature, I had no clue.

A few students complained about the long walk, but we eventually stopped by a few boulders next to a clearing to put our bags down. I caught a glimpse of a large feathered creature through the gaps in the trees, but I couldn't get a better look at it.

"Alright' you lot', less chattering. Form a group over there. An' open yer books ter page 49." Hagrid instructed. Our textbooks were sort of like growling creatures themselves so that seemed like an impossible task. Most kids had tied the books shut with a belt, or rope even. I had mine firmly shut tight with a sealing charm.

"And just how exactly are we supposed to do that?" Draco remarked. I rolled my eyes at his snarkiness. He could never just be nice to other people, now could he?

Luckily, the half-giant didn't seem to be bothered too much. "You jus' stroke the spine a'course." Hagrid replied as if it was obvious. Apparently some people weren't paying attention. When we passed by, a book was furiously opening and closing like some sort of mouth, biting at another Gryffindor boy. A few students laughed, I just continued up the path and fell in step next to Draco before we stopped in a clearing with a few cages in front of us.

"Oh yes, try to rip our heads of with a book why don't you?" Draco sneered. I saw Hagrid's face fall and stepped in to help him out. His first day should not be spent being annoyed by a student.

"I mean, I thought they were kinda funny." I shrugged. Hagrid smiled a bit, but Draco just rolled his eyes and stroked the spine of the book. Harry mumbled something in Draco's direction with a glare. I set my bag down on a rock and pulled book out, also stroking the spine as Hagrid had instructed. Leaving us all there, Hagrid went to tend to the cages and whatever was in them.