Call it what you want {Theodore Nott}

chapter fifty

"It's too cold for Care of Magical Creatures." Iris said as she wrapped her arms around herself.

"But doesn't Malfoy's black eye make you feel happy and warm?" Amy asked.

"And who are we waiting for?" Blaise asked.

There was no sign of Grubby-Plank anywhere. And Amy was very close to leaving until she heard a familiar voice.

"We're workin' in here today!" Called the voice of Hagrid, who had just emerged from the forest.

"Well he's back." Theo stated as they followed him through the forest.

They walked for about ten minutes until they reached a place where the trees stood so closely together that it was as dark as twilight. With a grunt, Hagrid deposited some kind of meat into the ground, stepped back and turned to face his class, most of whom were creeping from tree to tree towards him, peering around nervously as though expecting to be set upon at any moment.

"Gather roun', gather roun'," Hagrid encouraged. "Now, they'll be attracted by the smell o' the meat but I'm goin' ter give 'em a call anyway, cause they'll like ter know it's me,"

He turned, shook his shaggy head to get the hair out of his face and gave an odd, shrieking cry that echoed through the dark trees like the call of the some monstrous bird.

Amy could see Iris trying to hide her laughter but it didn't help when Blaise looked as though he was about to burst out cackling.

"What exactly are we waiting for?" Amy asked no one in particular.

"Oh, an' here comes another one!" Said Hagrid proudly.

Most people (Amy included), looked around very confused as they could not see any kind of creature. However, Amy stopped when she saw Theo. He was staring straight ahead and looked surprised. Amy turned over to where he was looking but couldn't see anything.

"Now..." Hagrid said, "put yer hand up if you can see 'em."

Theo raised his hand, as did Mattheo, Harry, Neville and Goyle.

"See what?" Amy whispered to Theo. "And how comes you can see them?"

"I have no idea." He whispered back, just as confused.

"Excuse me," said Malfoy in a sneering voice, "but what exactly are we supposed to be seeing?"

For an answer, Hagrid pointed at the meat on the ground. The whole class stared at it for a few seconds, then several people gasped. Bits of flesh were stripping themselves away from the bones and vanishing into thin air.

"Thestrals," said Hagrid proudly. "Hogwarts has got a whole herd of 'em in here.

Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, Amy saw Iris jump about 2 feet in the air.

"Something just touched me!" She said, startled.

Theo started laughing at the sight, probably because he could actually see the creature. Amy was quite jealous of his ability to see them.

"Don' worry, it won' hurt yeh," said Hagrid patiently. "Righ', now, who can tell me why some o' yeh can see em' an' some can't?"

Hermione raised her hand. "The only people who can see Thestrals," she said, "are people who have seen death."

And just like that, Theo's smile dropped, and Amy was no longer jealous of people being able to see them.

"Tha's exactly right," said Hagrid solemnly, "ten points ter Gryffindor. Now, Thestrals -"

"Hem, hem."

Amy was really starting to find that noise triggering. Everyone turned around to see Umbridge standing with her clipboard ready.