𝗙𝗜𝗥𝗘 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗙𝗟𝗔𝗠𝗘;
What if Sirius Black had a daughter? What if the future ahead of her was a little worse then anyone had planned out?
With powers that are unpredictable and people all over the wizarding world after her, how would Aurora B...
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Aurora was pleased to get out of the castle after lunch. Yesterday's rain had cleared; the sky was a clear, pale gray, and the grass was springy and damp underfoot as they set off for their first ever Care of Magical Creatures class.
Ron and Hermione weren't speaking to each other, and Aurora could already tell that this year would be filled with the pair of them bickering.
She and Harry walked beside them in silence as they went down the sloping lawns to Hagrid's hut on the edge of the Forbidden Forest. It was only when Aurora spotted three only-too-familiar backs ahead of them that he realized they must be having these lessons with the Slytherins. Malfoy was talking animatedly to Crabbe and Goyle, who were chortling.
Hagrid was waiting for his class at the door of his hut. He stood in his moleskin overcoat, with Fang the boarhound 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!"
"Oh Merlin, he won't make us go into the forest will he?" Aurora whispered.
"I hope not," Harry murmured.
"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 Draco Malfoy.
"Eh?" said Hagrid.
"How do we open our books?" Malfoy 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 Aurora had belted their book shut; others had crammed them inside tight bags or clamped them together with binder clips.
"Hasn' -- hasn' anyone bin able ter open their books?" said Hagrid, looking crestfallen.
The class all shook their heads. Aurora wished she could nod and give Hagrid some reassurance, but even her book had been a nuisance since she bought it.
"Yeh've got ter stroke 'em," said Hagrid, as though this was the most obvious thing in the world. "Look --"
He took Hermione'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 the book shivered, and then fell open and lay quiet in his hand.
"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 Hermione.
"Oh, terribly funny!" said Malfoy. "Really witty, giving us books that try and rip our hands off!"
