Obliviate {Book 1--EDITING}

8. Buckbeak ^

I was so eager to be outside the castle after lunch, I could finally get a chance to explore beyond the confusing school corridors. The rain had cleared now, and that amazing rain-on-grass smell was in the air, leaving me in an excited mood, the thought of the Grim far behind.

Ron and Hermione were ignoring each other, which apparently was a completely normal thing. Gennie and Harry were chatting on the way down the sloping hill to our Magical Creatures class, Gennie seeming very excited about it.

"That's Hagrid's house," Harry pointed out a small hut at the edge of a large forest. "You'll like him; he told me I was a wizard—Oh God, we have lessons with Slytherin."

I followed Harry's eye-line to see Draco Malfoy talking excitedly with his brick-wall resembling friends (whose actual names were Crabbe and Goyle). He started to laugh when he saw the five of us; it was obvious who he was talking about. Sending him a glare as we passed, we found Hagrid in front of his house.

"C'mon, now, get a move on!" he called as the class approached. "Everyone here? Right, follow me!"

For one moment I thought we were going into the depths of the forest, and felt quite apprehensive, but to my relief we only skirted the edge of the dark forest, appearing on the edge of a paddock-looking thing five minutes later.

All twenty-odd of us gathered around the fence, Hagrid at the front of the crowd. "Open yer books to page—"

"How?" said the cold, drawling voice of Draco Malfoy.

"Eh?" said Hagrid.

"How do we open our books?" Malfoy repeated. He held up his text book, which was secured by a length of rope. Other people had done similar things—shoving them into tight bags or bound together with clips.

"That's book abuse," Gennie muttered to me, gesturing to Lavender's book, which was inside a tight plastic bag, and I giggled.

"Hasn' — hasn' anyone bin able ter open their books?" said Hagrid, looking disappointed.

Everyone shook their heads.

"Yeh've got ter stroke 'em," said Hagrid, as though this was the most obvious thing in the world. "Look —"

He took Hermione's copy and ripped off the Sellotape that bound it. The book snarled and tried to snap at him, but he ran a finger down the spine and it made a weird croaking noise before lying open quietly.

"Oh, how silly we've all been!" Malfoy sneered. "We should have stroked them! Why didn't we guess?"

"I — I thought they were funny," Hagrid said uncertainly to Hermione.

"Really witty, giving us books that try and rip our hands off!"

"Shut up, Malfoy," said Harry quietly, glaring at the boy. More than anybody else Harry wanted Hagrid's lesson to go well.

"So— so yeh've got yer books an'...an'...now yeh need the Magical Creatures. Yeah. So I'll go an' get 'em. Hang on..." Hagrid stammered, losing his confidence.

He strode away from them into the forest and out of sight.

"God, this place is going to the dogs," said Malfoy loudly. "That oaf teaching classes, my father will have a fit when I tell him —"

"Well you know what, I'll feed you to the dogs if you aren't careful, Malfoy." I spat, my patience wearing thin again.

"Careful, P-Oswin, there's a Dementor behind you, are you going to cry —"

Frowning, I turned away from him. He deliberately hadn't used my real surname, when he could have grassed me up. Why did he do that, especially considering we'd been arguing non-stop since we met the day previously?