Together (A Harry Potter love story) 3

9

MILLIES POV

I was pleased to get out of the castle after lunch. Yesterday's rain had cleared; the sky was a clear, pale grey and the grass was springy and damp underfoot as we set off for our first ever Care of Magical Creatures class.

Ron and Mione weren't speaking to each other, so I walked with Mione down the sloping lawns to Hagrid's hut on the edge of the Forbidden Forest, listening to her complaints about the boy. It was only when I spotted three only-too-familiar backs ahead of us that I realised we must be having there lessons with the Slytherins. Malfoy was talking animatedly to Crabbe and Goyle, who were chortling. I was quite sure I knew what they were talking about.

Hagrid was waiting at the door of his hut. He stood in his moleskin overcoat, with Fang at his heels, looking impatient to start.

"C'mon, now, get a move on!" he called, as the class approached. "Got a real treat for yeh today! Great lesson comin' up! Everyone here? Right, follow me!"

For one nasty moment, I thought that Hagrid was going to lead us into the Forest; I had had enough unpleasant experiences in there to last me a lifetime. However, Hagrid strolled off around the edge of the trees, and five minutes later, I found myself outside a kind of paddock. There was nothing in there.

"Everyone gather round the fence here!" he called. "That's it - make sure yeh can see. Now, firs' thing yeh'll want ter do is open yer books-"

"How?" said the cold, drawling voice of Malfoy.

"Eh?"

"How do we open our books?" he repeated. He took out his copy of The Monster Book of Monsters, which he had bound shut with a length of rope. Other people took theirs out, too; some, like myself, had wrapped a small bit of rope around them; others had crammed them inside tight bags or clamped them together with bullclips.

"Hasn' - hasn' anyone bin able ter open their books?" Hagrid asked, looking crestfallen.

The class shook their heads.

"Yeh've got ter stroke them," Hagrid told us, as though this was the most obvious thing in the world. "Look..."

He took Mione's copy and ripped off the Spellotape that bound it. The book tried to bite, but Hagrid ran a giant forefinger down its spine, and it shivered, before falling open and laying quiet in his hands.

"Oh, how silly we've all been!" Malfoy sneered. "We should have stroked them! Why didn't we guess!"

"I...I thought they were funny," Hagrid said uncertainly to Mione and I.

I smiled encouragingly. "They are funny-"

"Oh, tremendously funny, Donovan!" said Malfoy. "Really witty, giving us books that try and rip our hands off!"

"Just stop talking," I said quietly. "You're embarrassing yourself." Hagrid was looking downcast and I wanted his first lesson to be a success.

"Embarrassing myself?" Malfoy repeated, laughing. "Embarrassing mys-"

"She said stop talking," Harry said suddenly from his place with the Gryffindor boys. "So shut up."

Malfoy glared at Harry, but before either of them could say anything else, Hagrid hastily began talking again.

"Righ' then," Hagrid said, who seemed to have lost his thread, "so...so yeh've got yer books an'...an'...now yeh need the Magical Creatures. Yeah. So I'll go' an' get 'em. Hang on..."

He strode away from us into the Forest and out of sight.

Malfoy wasn't finished.

"God, this place has gone to the dogs," he said loudly. "That oaf teaching classes, my father'll have a fit when I tell him-"