Harry Potter and The Mirror's Gift

Chapter 6

They were about one month into the school year when Jeanne suddenly started attending Hagrid's Care of Magical Creatures classes.

Ever since the affair with Buckbeak, in Harry's third year, Hagrid had been too afraid to involve any large animals in his classes, devoting most of his time to the more harmless (but boring) flobberworms and salamanders. So the class was astonished when, one day, Hagrid announced that they would be learning about Thylacinths.

"Bit of a shock ter look at, if yeh haven't seen one before," said Hagrid to the class, before leading them to the enclosure. "Basically has two heads, a horse's head at one end an' a wolf's head at the other."

There were murmurs of surprise when the students heard this. It sounded totally bizarre.

"Thylacinths are as good as horses, run as fast, an' the wolf at one end makes fer good protection, a lot o' predators think twice about chasin' yeh when there's a wolf starin' at yeh in the face," continued Hagrid. "The wolf part ain't nothin' ter worry about, if yeh know how ter handle Hippogriffs, just bow to them same, that should do the trick." Hagrid was carefully avoiding Draco Malfoy's eye as he said this.

Despite having heard Hagrid's description, most of them had a shock when they actually saw the animals themselves. They were basically horses, each with a wolf's head at the rear end of its body. Neville turned pale when he saw them.

"Look!" said Hermione, "Look who's there, Harry, it's Jeanne!"

Jeanne was quietly standing at one end of the pen. She waved when she saw the three of them.

Neville looked startled when he saw Jeanne.

"You mean, it's true?" he said to Harry. "Is she the one – did she really – "

"She's just like any normal person, Neville," said Ron, impatiently. "I can assure you, she's much more human than Snape, for one thing."

Neville trembled. He was terrified of Professor Snape.

The class gathered near the pen, looking curiously at the Thylacinths. Hagrid seemed a lot more confident now that Jeanne was there.

"Everyone, this is my new assistant, Jeanne," announced Hagrid. "She'll be helpin' all of yeh if there's any problem."

Jeanne merely nodded vaguely at the class.

It was quite simple, actually. Each student had to make friends with the wolf end of the Thylacinth – by bowing to it – before mounting the animal and riding once around the pen.

"You talked Hagrid into this, didn't you?" said Harry to Jeanne, as he waited for Hermione to finish her turn.

"Sort of," she replied. "I've been watching some of the classes. I told him the students wouldn't have obtained a proper education if they'd learned about nothing more than flobberworms when they graduate from Hogwarts."

"You were watching?" said Harry. "We never saw you."

"I was sitting in that tree," she said, smiling and pointing.

"Anyway," she went on, "Hagrid's been pestering me to interact with more people. He says I can't just keep to myself all the time. So we made a bargain : I'll help him out here, and he shall introduce some more interesting animals."

Hermione came galloping up on her Thylacinth.

"Your turn, Harry."

When Harry had finished riding his Thylacinth, he and Ron and Hermione went over to a quiet spot to wait for the others to finish. To their surprise, they found Neville there, hiding in the bushes.