Ethereal

♦ 054 ♦

The Order of The Phoenix

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Hermione ploughed her way back to Hagrid's cabin through two feet of snow on Sunday morning. Sadie, Harry and Ron wanted to go with her, but their mountain of homework had reached an alarming height again, so they remained grudgingly in the common room, tying to ignore the gleeful shouts drifting up from the grounds outside, where students were enjoying themselves skating on the frozen lake, tobogganing and, worst of all, bewitching snowballs to zoom up to Gryffindor Tower and rap hard on the windows.

"Oi!" bellowed Ron, finally losing patience and sticking his head out of the window, "I am a prefect and if one more snowball hits this window. . . .OUCH!"

He withdrew his head sharply, his face covered in snow.

"It's Fred and George," he said bitterly, slamming the window behind him as Sadie laughed. "Gits. . . ."

Hermione returned from Hagrid's just before lunch, shivering slightly, her robes damp to the knees.

"So?" said Ron, looking up when she entered. "Got all his lessons planned for him?"

"Well, I tried," she said dully, sinking into a chair beside Sadie. Sadie pulled out her wand and gave it a complicated little wave so that hot air streamed out of the tip; she then pointed this at Hermione's robes, which began to steam as they dried out. "Thanks," she said to the brunette who smiled. "He wasn't even there when I arrived, I was knocking for at least half an hour. And then he came stumping out of the Forest. . . ."

"What's he keeping in there? Did he say?" Harry asked.

"No," said Hermione miserably. "He says he wants them to be a surprise. I tried to explain about Umbridge, but he just doesn't get it. He kept saying nobody in their right mind would rather study Knarls than Chimaeras, oh, I don't think he's got a Chimaera," she added at the appalled look on Harry, Sadie and Ron's faces, "but that's not for lack of trying, from what he said about how hard it is to get eggs. I don't know how many times I told him he'd be better off following Grubbly-Plank's plan, I honestly don't think he listened to half of what I said. He's in a bit of a funny mood, you know. He still won't say how he got all those injuries."

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Hagrid's reappearance at the staff table at breakfast next day was not greeted by enthusiasm from all students. Some, like Fred, George and Lee, roared with delight and sprinted up the aisle between the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables to wring Hagrid's enormous hand. Others, like Parvati and Lavender, exchanged gloomy looks and shook their heads. Sadie knew that many of them preferred Professor Grubbly-Planks lessons.

It was with a certain amount of apprehension that Harry, Ron, Sadie and Hermione headed down to Hagrid's on Tuesday, heavily muffled against the cold. Sadie was worried, not only about what Hagrid might have decided to teach them, but also about how the rest of the class, particularly Malfoy and his cronies, would behave if Umbridge was watching them.

However, the High Inquisitor was nowhere to be seen as they struggled through the snow towards Hagrid, who stood waiting for them on the edge of the Forest. He did not present a reassuring sight. The bruises that had been purple on Saturday night were now tinged with green and yellow and some of his cuts still seemed to be bleeding. As though to complete the ominous picture, Hagrid was carrying what looked like half a dead cow over his shoulder.

"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."