Emily Black and the Order of the Phoenix(Book 3 in Emily Black series) Complete

Quidditch tryouts

(Emily's pov)

I decided that I was going to tryout as beater.You know,the wind tended to be in my favour.It was not cheating! There was no rule that an elemental couldn't comtrol the wind and use it to their advantage. Just like I said,I wasn't cheating.

The tryouts were scheduled for just before the last DA meeting in December so I had a bit of time to prepare.I practised when I could and I was actually pretty good,well only because Fred and George were shouting tips at me from the ground.

Hagrid was finally back so that meant that I actually had to attend Care of Magical Creatures classes.

Snow finally arrived at Hogwarts and I had some fun with throwing snowballs at Gryffindor Tower...and people.

I made my way down to Care of Magical Creatures on Tuesday with Cece,Neville and Viola.Cece and Neville were absorbed in their Herebolgy debate while Viola looked grim and kicked at the snow on the ground.

"What's wrong?"I asked and she shrugged a bit.

"Umbridge found out that,that I'm a you know" she said,looking at Neville warily.Umbridge was going to treat Viola like scum just because she was a werewolf.

"When is the next one?"I asked.

"Three days"she replied before she went silent as we saw Hagrid,carrying some sort of meat,a cow maybe.

What surprised me though was that he was covered in cuts and bruises.I sent Cece an inquisitive glance but she just shrugged.

"We're workin' in here today!" Hagrid called happily to the approaching students, jerking his head back at the dark trees behind him. "Bit more sheltered! Anyway, they prefer the dark."

Hagrid started to head off into the forest and I hesitantly followed.Violet told me not to come back into the forest but really who cares?

We walked for about ten minutes until we reached a place where the trees stood so closely together that it was as dark as twilight and there was no snow at all on the ground.

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

He made some weird bird call and I had to hold in my laughter.He did this for a minute and on the third times I saw the familiar horses that lead the Hogwarts carriages.It then preceded to tear apart the cow-thing.I looked around at Cece to see that she had a confused look fixed on her face.

Most of the rest of the class had the same look but Harry,Neville and Theodore Nott,a Slytherin in my year.

"Oh, an' here comes another one!" said Hagrid proudly, as a second black horse appeared out of the dark trees, folded its leathery-wings closer to its body and dipped its head to gorge on the meat."Now ... put yer hands up, who can see 'em?"

I put my hand up slowly,along with Harry,Neville and Nott.

"What's doing it?"Parvati demanded in a terrified voice, retreating behind the nearest tree. "What's eating it?"

'Thestrals,' said Hagrid proudly."Hogwarts has got a whole herd of 'em in here. Now, who knows-?"

"But they're really, really unlucky!" interrupted Parvati, looking alarmed. "They're supposed to bring all sorts of horrible misfortune on people who see them. Professor Trelawney told me once-''

''No, no, no,'' said Hagrid, chuckling, ''tha's jus' superstition, that is, they aren' unlucky, they're dead clever an' useful! Course, this lot don' get a lot o' work, it's mainly jus' pullin' the school carriages unless Dumbledore's takin' a long journey an' don' want ter Apparate-an' here's another couple, look-"