𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 [𝐏𝐉𝐎 𝐗 𝐇𝐏]

v: ariana's cousin is scrached

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chapter v

(prisoner of azkaban)

ariana's cousin is scratched

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ARIANA WAS PLEASED TO GET OUT of the castle after lunch. Yesterday's rain had cleared; the sky was a clear, pale grey and the grass was springy and damp underfoot as they set off for their first ever Care of Magical Creatures class. Ron and Hermione weren't speaking to each other. Harry and Ariana engaged in quiet conversation as they walked beside the two as they went down the sloping lawns to Hagrid's hut on the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

It was only when Harry spotted three only-too-familiar backs ahead of them that Ariana realised they must be having these lessons with the Slytherins. She didn't see a problem with most of them, only a few seemed "evil" as Ron put it.

Malfoy was talking animatedly to Crabbe and Goyle, who were chortling. Hagrid was waiting for his class at the door of his hut. He stood in his moleskin overcoat, with Fang the boarhound at his heels, looking impatient to start.

"C'mon, now, get a move on!"  he called, as the class approached. "Got a real treat for yeh today! Great lesson comin' up! Everyone here? Right, follow me!"

Hagrid strolled off around the edge of the trees, and five minutes later, they found themselves outside a kind of paddock. There was nothing in there. "Everyone gather round the fence here!" he called. "That's it – make sure yeh can see. Now, firs' thing yeh'll want ter do is open yer books-"

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

"Eh?" said Hagrid. "How do we open our books?" Malfoy repeated. He took out his copy of The Monster Book of Monsters, which he had bound shut with a length of rope. Other people took theirs out, too; some, like Harry, had belted their book shut; others had crammed them inside tight bags or clamped them together with bull clips. Ariana remembered the destruction of her cabin until her and Katie had managed to wrap it closed with a rope.

"Hasn' – hasn' anyone bin able ter open their books?" said Hagrid, looking crestfallen. The class all 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 tried to bite, but Hagrid ran a giant forefinger down its spine, and the book shivered, and then fell open and lay quiet in his hand.

"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.