my best friends brother - fred weasley

ii. the grim

The next day I was in Divination with Ron and Harry, Hermione was nowhere to be seen so I sat alone, behind them. Professor Trelawney had begun the class by mindlessly rambling on about the art of the subject and the aim of the lesson, reading tea leaves.

"What a load of rubbish." Hermione sneered as she appeared on the cushion opposite me, making me jump slightly. Ron shot me a worried look, trying to make sure he hadn't gone mad and that I had also seen her come out of nowhere. Trelawney wanders around the room, making comments to students about what their tea leaves say.

"Is your grandmother well?" She asks Neville Longbottom.

"I-I think so?" He stutters, she looks at the cup and grimaces.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that." She makes her way to Ron and Harry. Neville snatches the cup out of his partners hands and tries to decipher the message. 

"Do you seriously not like divination?" I lean over and whisper to Hermione, as I look into her cup. "I think it's interesting." I try to read the leaves.

"No way, 'broaden your inner eye to see the future'," Hermione mocks the teacher. "It's all bullocks." She rolls her eyes. I look over her shoulder and see the professor gasp and back way from my friends. Everyone stops what they're doing to watch her freak. 

"My dear, you have The Grim!" She whispers to Harry, covering her mouth in shock, as students mumble and search through their books to find its meaning.

"It's one of the darkest omens in our world." A boy speaks up as I take the cup from Harry's hands, seeing a black dog in the leaves. "It's an omen of death." Harry looks at us, worried. I give him a look of pity, last year he had almost died in the Chamber of Secrets, and it seemed like he couldn't catch a break. The rest of the class went by in silence, everyone was trying to avoid the subject, but Harry tried to keep on a brave face and read Ron's cup.

"I see a pyramid." He says after a second of thought. "Oh wait, its gone." Ron looks over at him, confused.

"Maybe its a sign you should stop talking about your trip to Egypt?" I pick up on where Harry is going. The group of students around us start laughing as Ron throws a sarcastic sneer towards me.

⊱✿⊰

The four of us head off to our last class of the day, Care of Magical Creatures. Ron was still trying to reassure Harry that surely The Grim didn't mean he was going to die, while Hermione joined in, talking about how the class was rubbish anyway, and that he shouldn't believe what Trelawney said.

"Harry," I pipe up from behind the three. "It doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to die. It could mean that you might give up an old habit? Or that you'll just see a lot of dogs this year?" I try my best to help, but can still see that he's stressing out. The class meets up at Hagrid's hut, waiting for the lesson to begin, once the entire class has arrived, the half-giant leads us all out into a clearing in the forest. He instructs the class to open up our books and none other than Draco Malfoy speaks up.

"And how do you suppose we do that?" He gestures to the book that would very clearly rip your arm off if it had the chance.

"Just stroke the spine of course." Hagrid replies. The blond boy runs two fingers along the back of the book, and the whole class follows suit, except for Neville. The book jumps out of his hands and attacks him, shredding his robes and shirt, Malfoy and his friends burst out laughing. 

"Just wait 'til my father hears that Dumbledore's got this oaf teaching classes." Malfoy complains and Harry makes his way to the front of our group.

"Shut up Malfoy."

"Oooh.." Malfoy and his side boys laugh in response, obviously trying to egg Harry on. Malfoy slowly walks to Harry, beginning to make a snide comment. His eyes fall just behind Harry's head.

"D-d Dementor! Dementor!" He points and screams, making the entire class turn round in fear. To our surprise, there's nothing there. Malfoy's gang laughs and pulls up the hood on their robes. "Oooooo." They taunt Harry. I walk up and pull Harry back, sneering at Malfoy, when Hagrid clears his throat, making the whole class take notice of the creature beside him.

"This 'ere is Buckbeak." We all drop our jaws in sync. The creature had the height and back half of a horse, and the head, wings and talons of an eagle.

"What exactly is that?" Ron whimpers.

"A Hippogriff. They're very proud creatures, you do not want to insult a Hippogriff." He warns. I catch Ron's scared glance and try to put my bravest face on for him. "Now." Hagrid claps to change the tone. "Who'd like t' say hello?" Everyone stands back, leaving Harry and I at the front. I look around and jump back into the crowd. Riding Buckbeak is the last thing I'd want to do right now. Hagrid picks Harry up and puts him on the back of Buckbeak, sending them away. They fly around the school for most of the lesson while Hagrid attempts to teach us theory, but no one is able to take him seriously. As Harry finally lands back on the ground, we all congratulate him on being brave enough to ride the Hippogriff. Malfoy shoves his way through the crowd as Harry jumps off.

"Oh please. You're not dangerous at all are you?" He stands in front of Buckbeak.

"Malfoy!" I try to warn him, as Buckbeak jumps into his hind legs and claws at Draco. Everyone screams and runs back, away from the towering animal.

"It's killed me! It's killed me!" Draco rolls around on the floor in pain. Hagrid dismisses the class and carries Draco to the hospital.

⊱✿⊰

The group was all sat down for dinner in the Great Hall. I was sitting opposite Harry, Ron and Hermione, Ginny Weasley was to my right and her older brother, Fred Weasley, on my left. My relationship with Fred Weasley was close to non-existent. There had been maybe two conversations I had ever had with him over the past three years, including the slight interaction we had on the train a day ago. Being two years older, he basically towered over me, he was one of the most intimidating and scary people I had met during my time at Hogwarts. He and George were famous at Hogwarts for being the schools trouble makers, coming up with pranks and candies, purely to disrupt classes, it seemed there was no serious bone in their body. That still didn't stop me from freezing up every time I was around them, Fred more so than George.

"Does it hurt terribly, Draco?" Our little group heard Pansy Parkinson swoon over Malfoy. Hermione shared confused looks with you, wondering how dramatic Draco was actually being.

"It comes and goes, I consider myself lucky." He boasts, showing off his arm in a sling. "Madam Pomfrey said another minute or two and well, I could've lost my arm." We all scoff at the obvious lie.

"I heard his fathers furious." Hermione brings the mood back down. "I don't think we've heard the end of this." she sighs. Another Gryffindor boy, Seamus Finnigan, runs over to us with the Daily Prophet in his hands.

"He's been sighted! He's been sighted!" He yells.

"Who?" I ask.

"Sirius Black." He drops the paper in front of Harry and we all crowd around it.

"Dufftown? That's not far from here! You don't think he'd come to Hogwarts do you?" I look up worryingly at Harry.

"He's already slipped past the Dementors once-"

"Who's to say he won't do it again?" Fred finishes his twins sentence.

"Black could be anywhere. It's like trying to catch smoke with your bare hands." Another boy, Bem adds. Harry stares at the paper, and I instinctively glance at Fred for some reassurance.