The next
morning Harry was very tired. He had not had much sleep that night and he
dreaded having to go to classes in case he fell asleep in the middle of them. He
got up and got dressed before pulling back the curtains of his four-poster bed.
Ron was already up and was dressed waiting for Harry to go down to breakfast
with him. They both went down to the common room together where they met
Hermione. From there they went on down to the Great Hall to get breakfast. On
their way down they talked about the new teachers and where Snape and Hagrid
were.
‘You don’t think Voldemort got
either of them do you?’ asked Harry extreamly worried as he didn’t want to
never see Hagrid again and even though he didn’t like Snape he wouldn’t wish
him dead.
‘I doubt it,’ said Hermione.
‘Dumbledore would have said it last night.’ She seemed to be less upset now
then last night about the news Prof. Dumbledore had told them.
‘Maybe Snape ran away,’ said
Ron. ‘I mean he was a spy and You-Know-Who would have wanted him dead. I would
have ran away if I were him – I wouldn’t want to die.’
‘I doubt it again,’ said
Hermione. ‘I don’t think Snape would be stupid enough to run away from the
only place he would be safe – here.’
‘But that still doesn’t explain
where Hagrid is,’ said Harry.
‘Didn’t he say he was going
somewhere for the summer,’ said Ron. ‘He said he was doing something for
Dumbledore.’
‘Yeh,’ said Harry, ‘but that
was two months ago. It wouldn’t take that long, whatever he’s doing, would
it?’
They had reached the Entrance Hall.
They crossed it and went into the Great Hall where half the school were already
sitting eating there breakfast. But everyone seemed to be sick. They were all
ghostly white. The three of them sat down at the Gryffindor table just as the
post came in with the owls. A large tawny owl dropped a Daily Prophet newspaper
in front of Hermione and flew off again immediately. Hermione unrolled the
newspaper.
‘Oh,’ she said. ‘Is that
all?’
‘What?’ asked Harry.
‘Rita Skeeter hasn’t written
another article has she?’ asked Ron
‘No it’s
not that,’ said Hermione. ‘Look at the main story.’
Harry and Ron looked over
Hermione’s shoulder and read it over her shoulder.
'YOU-KNOW-WHO
BACK’ MISISTRY REVEALS
The Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, has revealed to the public that
You-Know-Who has come back. People had being pestering the Ministry after people
claimed to have seen the Dark Mark in the sky after deaths, the most recent
being yesterday evening.
There have been twelve deaths so far in England alone and another five
have been recorded in Australia…
‘I don’t know why everyone looks so
sick about it,’ said Hermione. ‘They were already told last year that he had
come back.’
Harry looked up from the paper.
‘There’ll be up roar in the Ministry after that,’ he said.
‘Exactly,’ said Hermione. ‘I
pity your father at the moment Ron.’
‘So do I,’ he said as he helped
himself to sausages, eggs and bacon as did Harry and Hermione.
‘Isn’t Percy in Australia at
the moment,’ said Harry.
‘Yeh,’ said Ron. ‘I’m
surprised he hasn’t said anything about the deaths.’
When they had finished they looked
down at their new timetables.
‘Oh great,’ said Ron. ‘What a
great way to start term – Potions with the Slytherins first thing.
'Defence Against the Dark Arts
after that, with Prof. Figg,’ said Hermione. ‘That should be interesting.’
Harry didn’t agree very much with that – Prof. Figg had never babysat
Hermione.
‘Care of Magical Creatures in the
afternoon,’ said Ron. ‘That’s all the new teachers today. We can ask Prof.
Snubbly-whatever where Hagrid is then.’
‘Its Prof. Grubbly-Plank, Ron,’
corrected Hermione.
‘Do you really think she’ll
tell us anything?’ asked Harry. ‘I mean do you remember what she was like
last year?’ They had had Prof. Grubbly-Plank last year when Hagrid was too
upset to teach after an article Rita Skeeter had written about him.
‘Transfiguration after Care of
Magical Creatures,’ said Hermione. ‘I do hope we get to transfigure larger
objects this year. Though that will be very hard.’
‘We better get down to
Potions,’ said Ron, ‘the class will be starting soon. I wonder what Fletcher
will be like.
And so they headed down into the
dungeons to where the potions class was. Prof. Fletcher was already there.
‘Come on now. I don’t have
enough patience for time wasters,’ he said. ‘Sit down, now.’ He was a
stern man but he was fair. For some reason, however, Harry seemed not to get on
to well with him. He seemed to believe Harry to be an attention seeker and so
ignored him for the whole class and tried not to look at him. Though he wasn’t
as bad as Snape. Neville on the other hand was one of his favourite pupils and
Neville actually managed to get through a Potions class without making a mess,
which was surprising. The class went much quicker than a class with Snape but
not as fast as other classes, unfortunately.
Their next class, Defence Against
the Dark Arts was pretty much the opposite of Divination even though Harry
didn’t like either teacher. From the moment Harry walked in the door, Mrs.
Figg took a great liking to Harry. She would beam down at him whenever he got a
question right on fighting a pixie; she made him sit right up at the front of
the class so he could delight her with his ‘face of wonder’ (Harry hadn’t
a clue what that meant) and she gave the whole class apart from him an essay to
write on ‘Defence Against Pixies’ for homework. Ron was extremely jealous
about this.
‘She can’t show favouritism
like that,’ he said after they left the class and were heading for lunch.
‘Would you like to have been me
in that class then today?’ asked Harry. Ron didn’t say anything.
They had their lunch and then went
on down to Hagrid’s hut for their Care of Magical Creatures Class. They had to
hurry because they were already a bit late. On their way down Harry suddenly
realised that maybe the class wasn’t down at Hagrids hut anymore.
‘Where else would it be
though?’ asked Hermione. ‘I mean there are thousands of rooms in Hogwarts
and the room could be anywhere.’
As they reached Hagrid’s hut they
realised that they were in the wrong place for there wasn’t a person in sight.
Harry looked through the window of Hagrid’s hut not knowing what he expected
to see. It was exactly the same as it had been the last time Harry had seen it
but without Hagrid or Fang. The large bed was still made in the corner and the
hams were still hanging from the roof.
‘Come on,’ said Hermione, ‘we
better get back up to the school and look for the class. We can ask a teacher if
we see one.’
They sprinted back up to the castle
and through the large front doors. There wasn’t a teacher in sight. They ran
up the marble staircase making a lot of noise (maybe with some luck a teacher
would hear them and come to give out – that way they could ask them where the
class was). They continued to run checking every room whose door was unlocked.
On the third floor as they were rounding a corner they came face to face with
Prof. Figg.
‘Harry!’ she beamed at him. She
was completely different to how she had acted while she had babysat him for the
Dursleys. ‘Where are you off to in such a hurry.’
‘We’re looking for the Care of
Magical Creatures class,’ said Hermione.
‘Oh! You do Care of Magical
Creatures,’ cried Prof. Figg. ‘What an interesting subject. Prof.
Brubbly-Lank is a very nice person isn’t she? I think her class is on the
fifth floor corridor, beside a statue of a funny looking witch.’
‘Thanks!’ Ron called as they
ran off in the direction they were told.
‘Imagine,’ said Hermione
sounding horrified, ‘getting a colleague’s name wrong like that and not even
noticing. That’s extremely rude. You would think she would have known it by
now.’
At last they found the room they
were looking for (Prof. Figg’s directions had been a bit wrong – the room
was actually beside a statue of a griffin). They were now twenty minutes late.
They burst into the room and saw Crookshanks sitting on the teacher’s desk and
a very annoyed Prof. Grubbly-Plank along with a whole class of fifth years.
‘Crookshanks!’ Hermione cried.
‘What are you doing here?’
‘I was just showing the class who
were good enough to turn up on time,’ said Prof. Grubbly-Plank sternly, ‘how
to take care of a kneazle. I found it wandering around the castle just before
the class. What terrible minding your doing of your kneazle. You don’t just
let them wander around like that. And look at his coat. It shouldn’t be kept
as clean as that. That is very bad for them. That’s how they catch timls –
little magical insect like creatures that cause the kneazle to enjoy jumping
from heights. They’re not like cats at all. They don’t always land on all
fours like a cat. In fact you’d be very lucky if you saw one land on any of
its legs.’
She spent the rest of the class
showing them the proper way of taking care of a kneazle. Hermione was furious
with her. It was not like Hermione to be lectured to by a teacher. Malfoy, Harry
could see was very glad that Hermione was being lectured.
At the end of the class Harry went
up to Prof. Grubbly-Plank.
‘Excuse me, Professor,’ said
Harry. ‘But, where is Hagrid? I mean, what happened to him?’
‘Do you really expect me to
answer that question?’ Prof. Grubbly-Plank asked Harry shrilly. ‘I’m not
going to just give out private information about a teacher willy nilly!’ Harry
then joined the other two as they left the classroom.
‘I can’t believe she did
that,’ said Hermione furiously as they headed for Transfiguration. ‘I mean
she has no right to go around telling us that we aren’t looking after our pets
properly.’
‘Well actually Hermione,’ said
Ron, ‘she is the Care…’
‘And Crookshanks is perfectly
healthy as he is,’ said Hermione cutting Ron off. ‘He doesn’t need any
know-it-all teacher to go picking him up while he’s cleaning the school of
mice.’
Harry was extremely surprised at
Hermione’s reaction to the whole thing. Luckily they had arrived at Prof.
McGonagall’s class and so she couldn’t give out anymore.
Prof. McGonagall spent their whole
class talking to them about how important the coming OWLs were.
‘These will be one of the most
important exams you take in your lives,’ she said. ‘I’m surprised that
your not taking it as seriously as you should be and I’m shocked to hear that
only one of the whole lot of you has the sense to have started studying -’
Hermione beamed around the classroom - ‘You have less then nine months to
prepare for them.
Prof. McGonagall spent the rest of
the class lecturing them on study and made quick references as to how clever
Hermione was about starting study nice and early. By the end of the class
Hermione had completely forgotten about the lecture Prof. Grubbly-Plank had
given her.
***
The next two days passed without
much interesting happening. Harry was sitting in his History of Magic class on
Wednesday afternoon gazing down on to the front lawn of Hogwarts while Prof.
Binns drowned on about the Goblin Rebellions (they had already started to do
revision). He was watching the first year Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs having
their first flying lessons. He couldn't hear anything Madam Hooch was saying, as
he was too high up in the castle.
He watched them as they mounted
their brooms and noted that Aoife Granger seemed to have quite good control over
the broom. It seemed to come almost naturally to her. Harry remembered what had
happened at his first flying lesson – Neville had lost control of his broom
and ended up hurting himself quite badly. Harry hoped this wouldn’t happen
again. Harry could just hear Madam Hooch’s whistle pierce the air and he
watched as each of the first year students pushed off from the ground, they
hovered for a second or two and then touched back down. The class continued like
this for a while until they were allowed to fly around a bit for a while.
One of the students was having a
bit of trouble with their broom and while Madam Hooch tried to see what she
could do Harry watched Aoife and Cetus Malfoy fly around quickly weaving around
the other students. Harry could just hear their talking now, as they were higher
up and closer to him.
‘Hey, Mudblood!’ said Cetus.
‘Catch this!’ And he threw a large rock the size of his hand at Aoife. Aoife
screamed and spun around on her broom, hitting the rock with the tail of her
broom and sending it off in the other direction. Cetus was already chasing it
and caught it in his hand then threw it back at Aoife. This time Aoife caught it
in her hand. Harry gasped. Both Aoife and Cetus were naturals. Harry spent the
rest of the class staring at the lesson below.
At the end of the class Harry ran
out of the room and sprinted toward the Transfiguration class.
‘Where are you going Harry?’
Hermione called after him. ‘What about dinner?’
‘I’ll meet you in the Great
Hall,’ Harry called back. He continued off at a run. But before he reached the
Transfiguration classroom he met Prof. Dumbledore walking in the direction of
the fourth floor. Harry ran up to him.
‘Yes, Harry?’ he said.
‘Professor, you know the
Gryffindor Quidditch team is missing a keeper?’ Harry said. Prof Dumbledore
continued to look at him waiting for him to continue. ‘Well I just saw Aoife
Granger in her flying lesson and she’s a natural keeper. Could an exception be
made and her be aloud on to the team?’
‘Ah yes, Miss Granger,’ said
Prof. Dumbledore. ‘The rules were changed slightly when you became seeker
because people were unhappy about you being aloud on the team at such a young
age. The new rule is that first years are aloud on the team if they have
exceptional talent and the Quill of Knowledge wrote her name down as a Quidditch
keeper, which means that she must have extraordinary talent. Just like it did
with you and with Cetus Malfoy. He’ll be playing seeker for Hufflepuff.’
‘The Quill chooses the Quidditch
players as well?’ Harry asked.
‘Why yes, Harry,’ said
Dumbledore. ‘The Quill chooses many faiths of the students in this school.
Apart from, of course what house they will be in. Well I must be off. I’ve got
an important meeting I must attend.’
Just as Prof. Dumbledore had turned
around and started to walk off in the direction he had been heading Harry called
out to him.
‘Prof. Dumbledore, I was
wondering - where is Hagrid?’ he said.
‘That, Harry, I cannot answer at
the moment. What I can tell you is that he is doing special business for me and
I believe that you will be finding out about that shortly. Goodbye now Harry.’
And with that he turned on his heel and headed towards the fourth floor.
Just as Harry was about to go to
the Great Hall, Nearly Headless Nick, the Gryffindor resident ghost, came out of
a classroom.
‘It’s only a bit of skin,’ he
mumbled to himself in a bad mood. ‘What difference will it make?’
‘Hi, Sir Nick,’ said Harry.
‘What’s up?’
‘Oh, hi Harry,’ said Nick
miserably. ‘They sill won’t allow me join the Headless Hunt. Sir Patrick,
the hunt leader, has just visited the school. He had the nerve to throw his head
at me. He said it was something I would never be able to do. But I long to have
my head separate from my body. I would do anything just to get rid of
that piece of skin.’
‘Well you know that me, Hermione
and Ron would do anything we could to help you,’ said Harry comfortingly.
‘Oh, you would, wouldn’t
you?’ said Nick with a strange glint in his eye, as though he had just thought
of a cunning plan. And then he had gone through the wall opposite the classroom
he had come out.
Harry went straight to the Great
Hall to meet Ron and Hermione and to have dinner. There he told them all about
the conversation he had had with Prof. Dumbledore.
‘Oh!’ Hermione exclaimed. ‘I
can’t believe Aoife’s going to be playing Quidditch. She’s going to be so
happy. She found the books I have on it at home very interesting.’