The Untold Story of the Witches of Hogwarts

Thestrals

With nothing else to do on that one particular weekend, Galinda found herself roaming the Hogwarts grounds. She really wasn't one for nature or hiking, but Hogwarts was just so beautiful that even the most introverted and anti-outdoors person couldn't help but fall in love with the nature surrounding the castle and it was no struggle at all to get lost in its majesty, wonder and beauty. Galinda was experiencing this sort of pleasure right now, walking around the castle with no real direction or goal in mind other than to enjoy the beautiful autumn day and all the lovely sights that the grounds had to offer. At one point during her walk, one sight in particular caught her eye.

"Thropp?" Galinda narrowed her sapphire eyes. Sure enough, it was the ugly green-skinned Gryffindor. Immediately, Galinda felt her lip curl in anger and disgust. Just seeing the freaky green bean could ruin her day! But then she noticed something. Elphaba appeared to be walking somewhere. Galinda couldn't really explain how she knew, but there was just something about the way Elphaba was walking that implied that she was not just out here to enjoy the lovely day. She had a goal in mind, and now, so did Galinda. Eyes narrowing even further, the little blond Slytherin snuck after the green-skinned Gryffindor, eyes and ears open and hungry for some nice, juicy gossip.

The discovery was disappointing, to say the least. After about a solid 15 minutes of just stalking Elphaba across the grounds, Galinda finally got the answer as to where Elphaba was going. It was an emptier part of the large stretch of land that stood between the castle and Hagrid's hut, which rested peacefully upon the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

"What in Merlin's name is she doing?" Galinda asked herself as she watched Elphaba pause beside a tree in that little woodsy area between the castle and the forest. She removed the satchel from her side and pulled out a giant slab of bloody meat. Galinda recoiled in disgust, but then she nearly shrieked in surprise when something took the bloody steak from Elphaba's hand. The green girl had scarcely pulled it out of her bag and held it out before something yanked it out of her grasp and walked away with it. The most surprising and strange thing of all, however, was the fact that the creature was invisible! Well and truly, Galinda hadn't seen a single other living thing the entire time they walked over here, but as Elphaba pulled more and more hunks of raw meat out, more and more invisible creatures came around and took them from her.

"Huh?" Galinda couldn't help but swallow nervously, wondering what these creatures were exactly, and how dangerous they were. On the one hand, Elphaba was able to feed them by hand with no problem. On the other, however, their diet seemed to consist of bloody meat. Not a very comforting thing. And Galinda had been right in the middle of thinking about this when she felt something large and leathery brush against her leg. Unable to see what had caused this feeling, Galinda shrieked and jumped forward, tripping over the root of the tree she had been hiding behind. Not only did this totally blow her cover, but it sent her tumbling down the little hill on which she had been standing and, as fate would have it, she literally landed right at Elphaba's feet, nose inches away from the green girl's heels.

"Arduenna-Upland!" Elphaba snarled at once, whipping around with a defensive look in her eyes. "Have you been following me?!" there was nothing but pure loathing and wariness in her voice as she sneered down at Galinda, who struggled to look dignified as she stood back up and brushed the dirty, fallen leaves off of her face. She tried to maintain her composure as she replied.

"I noticed you standing out here and I was wondering what on earth you were feeding," she said, intentionally leaving out the fact that she had actually needed to follow Elphaba here before she got to see the feeding.

"Thestrals," Elphaba with a sharp and disgusted, disdainful expression.

But as if saying the name had some sort of magic effect over her, Elphaba turned back around once more and pulled another handful of meat out of her bag. She tossed it in the air and just as it began to fall back down, something stopped its descent in midair.