The Past Meets the Future at Hogwarts: Part 3

Chapter 10: Victoria

I was excited for Hagrid's lesson. Would I have rather taken a nap? Absolutely. Was I completely shattered and a few seconds away from crashing? Absolutely. Was I going to tell anyone? Absolutely not.

My dad and I led the group to Care of the Magical creatures discussing the different creatures we might face. Word of the grim had spread outside of the Divination students, but my dad was surprisingly not nervous.

"She's just some lady trying to make her class seem cool and important," He had said when I had told him about it. I couldn't help but agree, but something in the back of my head was nagging me. I might be dying on this quest, and I didn't exactly like the idea of that.

We all gathered outside of Hagrid's hut. Hagrid came out and had us walk along the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest until he reached a large pin. "Everyone gather 'round the fence here!" Hagrid called. "That's it -- make sure yeh can see -- now, firs' thing yeh'll want ter do is open yer books --"

"How?" Draco asked. I shot a glare in his direction as all of us demigods and legacies pulled out our books easily.

"Eh?" Hagrid said.

"How do we open our books?" Malfoy repeated. He pulled out his book, and I had to bite back a laugh as half the class had bound their books in some way.

"Hasn' -- hasn' anyone bin able ter open their books?" Hagrid asked, looking crestfallen.

All us demigods raised our hands, but when someone asked us how, Leo answered, "They came peaceful for us. Guess it's the different language or something.

Hagrid explained how you were supposed to open them before leaving to go grab what was supposed to be in the empty pin.

"Hello, boss, my lady," came a voice in my head. I turned to my dad, and we both grinned. This was about to be so easy.

Trotting into the pin were a dozen half horse, half bird creatures. There were gasps of awe from the whole class. I still thought Pegasi were cooler, but these were definitely a close second.

"Hippogriffs!" Hagrid roared happily, waving a hand at them. "Beau'iful, aren' they?"

No one in class wanted to get any closer than they were, except my dad, my mom, and I. When Hagrid asked who wanted to do a demonstration after explaining a little more about the creatures, both my dad and I's hands shot into the air.

Harry hesitantly followed after us. Harry got one called Buckbeak who was honestly one of the prettier ones of the species. I got a brown feathered one, and Dad's was black feathered.

I bowed as Hagrid had said and my Hippogriff bowed back. "It's a pleasure, my lady."

"Don't call me, my lady."

"Not an option my lady," The Hippogriff neighed. I shot it a quick glare before petting it's beak.

When Hagrid offered us a chance to fly, I had never been happier. No matter how tired I felt, I had always loved flying on horses.

The Hippogriff was no different. The second it took off I felt free. I leaned into its neck and breathed softly. I hadn't felt this good in a while.

The ride was sadly over pretty quickly, and I delicately got off the Hippogriff, allowing someone else to try. The class was honestly going quite well until Malfoy called Buckbeak ugly. "Easy boy, easy. Stop, you're beautiful and perfect. That weasel of a human is an idiot." I cried in my mind as Hagrid dragged Malfoy away.

I felt bad as we all went inside. We were all mellowed at dinner, and I finally stood and walked out. "You headed to bed?" My dad asked.

"No, I'm going to check that Hagrid didn't get fired or isn't drinking himself to death."

My dad seemed to realize there was no fighting with me and followed me out.

When we reached the hut, Hermione, Harry, and Ron were already there. Hagrid seemed to definitely be on route to drinking himself to death. "Hagrid, this isn't your fault. You clearly stated what not to do and what to do with the Hippogriff's. That was completely on Malfoy and any Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and even a few of the Slytherin's would back me up on that," I said. Hagrid muttered something incoherent and turned away.

He walked outside to clear his head and when he returned he started yelling at us for being out of the castle near dark. He escorted us all inside, and my dad and I walked away alone to our common room.

"Why would he freak out that much?" My dad asked.

"Because they think Black will come take us if we travel at night," I grumbled, walking past him toward my dorm.

"Goodnight, Vicky!" My dad called.

I muttered something back and fell out on my bed. I felt horrible. I should have gone to bed right after dinner, but now I knew. No one at Hogwarts would be okay with Harry and I breaking rules this year. Black had driven that fear into them and in my opinion it was stupid. If I ever did meet Black, he might want to be careful. I had a pretty good punch, and it was definitely being reserved for him.