Into The Light (Golden Trio Era) {2}

Thestrals

Early sunday morning, Hermione plowed through the snow to Hagrid's without waking Mikayla up. Ron and Harry were already suffering over their piles of homework they put off until now. Mikayla bundled up and went outside to enjoy freezing air and a numb nose. Fred and George introduced her soon after joining them outside to bewitching snowballs to aim toward the windows on Gryffindor tower. After a dozen and a half of snowballs being launched between the three of them, the window opened and a red-faced Ron peered out of it. "Oy!" he shouted, "I am a prefect and if one more snowball hits this window- OUCH!" Mikayla hit him square in the face with a rather large and compact snowball. She waved up to him with fingers that she could no longer feel. "Hi Ronald! Hi Harry!" She shouted up at them, Harry stuck his head out the window too and waved back. "Knock it off," Ron shouted back, whipping the snow off his face.

Mikayla returned to the common room later when she saw Hermione trudging through the snow with the bottom of her robes soaking wet. "So?" asked Ron as they passed through the portrait hole shivering. "Got all his lessons planned for him?" "Well, I tried," she said glumly. She fell into a chair beside the fire, pulled out her wand, and mumbled something causing hot air to stream out of the tip of her wand. She dried out the bottom of her robes and helped warm up Mikayla's hands and feet. "He wasn't even there when I arrived, I was knocking for at least half an hour. And then he came stomping out of the forest-" Harry cut her off with a loud groan. "What's he keeping in there? Did he say?" "No," said Hermione, slumping over the arm of the chair 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 their horrified 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..." "Did you like my snowball, Ron?" Mikayla asked with a grin after a while of silence and contemplating Hagrid's fate. He glared back at her and ruffled his hair again which was damp from the melted snow.

Although the foursome were overly enthusiastic to see Hagrid back at the staff table in the Great Hall, not everyone shared their feelings. Pavarti Patil and Lavender Brown exchanged looks when they saw him, it wasn't a secret that they preferred Professor Grubbly-Plank's teaching method's over Hagrid's. However, the ecstatic hellos and handshakes from Fred, George, and Lee made up for their disdain. Mikayla too was nervous about Umbridge's inspection of Hagrid and how well he would perform under that pressure.

On Tuesday they faced the wind and walked downhill toward his hut, Mikayla's mind was racing with thoughts of if he bothered to take Hermione's advice in the slightest and if Umbridge had chosen today to observe their class. But as they came closer and Mikayla squinted through the wind, she caught no sight of Umbridge, only Hagrid by the edge of the forest with what looked like half of a dead cow over his shoulder. He was still quite a sight, his previously purple and blue bruises were now ugly shades of yellow and green. "We're working in here today!" Hagrid called to them and other approaching classmates. "Bit more sheltered! Anyways, they prefer the dark..." "What prefers the dark?" A sneering Draco said sharply to Crabbe and Goyle behind them, "What did he say prefers the dark- did you hear?" "If I didn't know any better, I'd say Malfoy sounds scared." Mikayla smirked to Harry who stifled a laugh. "Ready?" asked Hagrid happily, gripping one side of his belt and looking down at them.

"Right, well, I've bin savin' a trip inter the forest fer yer fifth year. Thought we'd go an' see these creature in their natural habitat. Now, what we're studyin' today is pretty rare, I reckon I'm probably the on'y person in Britain who managed to train 'em-" "And you're sure they're trained, are you?" said Malfoy in a voice that seemed even more panicked now, but still bitter about the Buckbeak incident. "Only it wouldn't be the first time you'd brought wild stuff to class, would it?" Mikayla glared back at him through the cluster of students, though it sounded like most people were agreeing with him. "Course they're trained," said Hagrid, scowling and pulling the dead cow higher up on his shoulder. "So what happened to your face, then?" demanded Malfoy. "Mind yer own business!" he answered back angrily. "Now if you've finished askin' stupid questions, follow me!" He turned and hobbled into the forest, repeatedly heaving the cow higher up on his shoulder. None of the class seemed keen to follow him, Hermione, Harry, Ron, and Mikayla exchanged looks, sighed, then nodded. They set off after him, leading the rest of the class. They walked for about ten minutes until worn paths ceased and had trouble not tripping over tree roots. Where they stopped there was no snow on the ground and the trees grew so large and close together that it was as dark as twilight. Hagrid dropped the cow to the ground with a squelching thud then turned to face his class. Some people were approaching slowly from behind trees, searching for the creature he led us so far into the forest to see. "Gather roun', gather roun'" Hagrid said, motioning them to move forward. "Now, they'll be attracted by the smell o' meat but I'm going ter give 'em a call anyways, 'cause they'll like to know it's me..." He turned, shook the hair out of his face and gave a loud call that was sort of a shriek. Though it was definitely odd, no one laughed. He made the call again, people were now huddling together and looking all around themselves. Hagrid readied himself to do another call when Harry nudged Mikayla with his elbow.

A pair of pearly white eyes slowly drew closer to them inside the tree's shadows. Then a bony black face resembling that of a dragon and a horse poked out and was illuminated but a rare spot of sun through the thick canopy of leaves above. The rest of it's body emerged from the darkness, revealing a skeletal body and two grand leathery black wings. It peered at the class for a moment, it's tail swinging, then bent down to tear at the dead cow. Mikayla immediately recognized it as the things pulling the carriages during the start of term that she concluded were Thestrals. Mikayla shared an enthusiastic look with Harry, confirming that they weren't crazy for seeing them, Hagrid knew about them too! "Why doesn't Hagrid call again?" Ron asked, looking around blankly. Mikayla looked at the rest of the class and it seemed that all of them except two were confused and looking everywhere but at the creature as well. A thin Slytherin boy was watching from the back with a look of disgust at the horse tearing at the carcass; and Neville, whose eyes were following it's swinging tail from side to side. "Oh, an' here comes another one!" Hagrid beamed as one more appeared from between the trees, folded its wings against its body, and joined the other one at the dead cow. "Now... put yer hands up, who can see 'em?" Harry put his hand up first and Mikayla soon followed. "Yeah... yeah, I knew you'd be able ter, Harry," he answered seriously.. "An' Mikayla? Oh tha's right, that whole deal last year..." he trailed off while shaking his head. "An' you too, Neville, eh? An'-" "Excuse me," butted in Malfoy in a sneering voice, "but what exactly are we supposed to be seeing?" Rather than answering verbally, he pointed to the dead cow on the ground that was being torn apart as it was eaten.