Amelia Merlin

Part Thirty Seven: Thestrals and Slugs

A/n THANK YOU CallieKastle for the beautiful new cover and being my biggest fan! Love you!

"I want to know what pulls the carriages." Amelia drew herself up to her full height when Hagrid answered his door.

He looked down at her and Amelia was very aware of how tiny she was in that moment.

After a pause he said. "Alright! Come in, come in." The giant ushered her inside. He sat her down in a chair that to her, felt like a throne it was so big and made her a cup of tea.

"So?" She pressed, eager to know. The question had been bugging her for days, and she was dying to find the answer.

"They're Thestrels." Hagrid grunted, for some reason he wasn't looking at her.

"And?" Amelia urged. "Why is it only I can see them? Do I have special eyes or something? If they have wings, why don't we just fly the carriages to Hogwarts? That would be way cooler! And why are they so scary looking? Who does that? Also what do they eat? And where do they live?" She said in one breath.

"Oi! Teh many questions!" He barked and Amelia pressed her lips together. "Now I can't answer all of yer questions but I'll do my best."

"Thanks! I really appreciate it!" She bounced in her seat and she wanted Hagrid to know how much this meant to her.

"Yeah, yeah," he waved aside her gratitude. "So Thestrels. They live in over ther, in the Forbidden Forest. The on'y people who can see them, are people who've seen someone die." He looked cautiously at her and Amelia felt her chest tighten.

She had been very young when her brother, William had been murdered in from of her by Fenrir Greyback while the other death eaters held her down. She didn't remember exactly what had happened, but the memory was still there. Like a word on the tip of your tongue.

"Please, keep going." She composed herself.

"So they eat mostly meat, and I don think they're scary lookin! That's jus people gettin a bad idea o' what they really are. And the reason we don let them fly the carriages over, is because tha would be madness." He offered her a treacle coffee which she politely declined. Amelia didn't feel much like eating just yet.

"I'd like to go see them." She looked at Hagrid dead in the eye which made him slightly nervous, Amelia had a very powerful stare.

"I can't let you. Students are forbidden." He fidgeted.

"Can you tell me whereabouts in the forest they are?"

Hagrid shook his head vehemently. "I can't!" He insisted.

"Right." Amelia stood up. "Thanks very much for the tea and answering my questions, but I'd best be off now!"
She smiled at Hagrid.

"Yer not goin ter see them are you?" He said slightly panicked.

"Of course not!" Hagrid let out a sigh of relief.

It was too easy to lie sometimes.

Amelia waved goodbye to Hagrid, thanked him for his time and headed straight to the forest. She would find these damn things even if it took all night. She didn't know exactly why, but she needed to see them again.

As Amelia started walking, she heard people coming down the hill behind her.

"Shit." She cursed under her breath. Amelia did not want to be spotted at the moment.

She heard Hermione's voice travelling. "Nearly there, Ron. You'll be alright in a minute."

Curiosity got the best of her and Amelia ran up to join Harry, and Hermione who were dragging Ron along.

"What happened here?" Amelia looked concerned at Ron's face, it was weirdly green then he barfed up a slug. "Oh nasty!" She laughed.

"We'll explain later, get behind here!" Harry hissed and she turned to see Gilderoy Lockhart coming out of Hagrids hut.

"It's a simple matter if you know what you're doing!" Lockhart shouted to Hagrid then offered him a copy of his book.

Once Lockhart was out of side, the four of them rushed to Hagrids hut and knocked urgently.

"Bin wonderin when you'd come ter see me- come in, come in! Thought you mighta bin Professor Lockhart back again." Hagrid seemed very chill about Ron's slug problem and plopped a copper basin in front of him. "Better out than in! Get em all up Ron!"

The giant made tea, and some harsh comments about Lockhart, causing Harry to gin and Hermione to argue. Then finally Amelia heard the story of what happened to Ron. He had tried to curse Malfoy for calling Hermione a mudblood which sadly backfired.

"I wish I was there." Amelia growled.

"Yeah me too." Ron said weakly, then barfed up another slug.

Thankfully Hagrid changed the horrid subject of Draco Malfoy. "Harry, gotta bone ter pick with yeh. I've heard you've bin givin out signed photos. How come I haven't got one?"

Harry went beet red and Amelia burst out laughing.

"Harry!" She protested. "I want one! I looooove you Harry!" She leaned in like she was gonna kiss him, making Harry terribly uncomfortable.

"I have not been giving out signed photos." He said hotly, "If Lockharts still putting that about-"

But he was drowned out by Hagrids guffaws. "I'm on'y jokin. I knew yeh hadnt really. I told Lockhart yeh didn need teh. Yer more famous than him without tryin."

"Bet he didn't like that," Harry smiled. They then went outside to look at Hagrids pumpkins.

"I could live in this!" Amelia was astounded by the size of the thing. "This thing is literally my room. What?"

Harry had been giving her a strange look. "You just seem to get really happy over, well pumpkins."

"These are not pumpkins. This is a home for like a raccoon family or something." She said dead seriously.

They said goodbye to Hagrid and made their way back to the castle. Ron only hiccuped two small slugs, which Hermione didn't let Amelia bring back to the castle.

"Please?" She begged.

"No, they're disgusting!"

"Hermione! They can hear you!" She laughed then proceeded into the Entrance Hall.

They were met with Professor McGonagall. Amelia quickly thought of an excuse for anything she might have done, before she remembered term had barely started, she hadn't done anything yet.

The same couldn't be said for Harry and Ron who both received their detentions. Amelia almost died of laughter when she heard Harry had to do detention with Lockhart.

"I'll pray for your soul." She patted him on the back before joining Lavender and Parvati for lunch.

"Hey ladies!" She said cheerily and sat down.

"Hi Amelia!" Parvati replied while Lavender pointedly ignored her.

"Lavender? What's wrong?" She leaned in.

"Oh please," she scoffed. "Like you don't know."

Oh god here we go, Amelia thought to herself.