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Aurora Areli
NEITHER HARRY OR I mentioned anything to the others about the strange horse things that only we could see (well, save for Luna). Nevertheless, I couldn't help watching their skeletal silhouettes moving beyond the window with newfound interest. They had never seemed that important before, but now that I knew that most people couldn't see them, they became much more intriguing.
"Did everyone see that Grubbly-Plank woman?" Ginny asked. "What's she doing back here? Hagrid can't have left, can he?"
"I'll be quite glad if he has," said Luna, "he isn't a very good teacher, is he?"
"Yes, he is!" Harry, Ron, Ginny and I said heatedly.
Harry glared at Hermione, who quickly cleared her throat and said, "Erm . . . yes . . . he's very good."
"Well, we in Ravenclaw think he's a bit of a joke," Luna said, unfazed.
"You've got a rubbish sense of humour then," Ron snapped, as the wheels below us creaked into motion.
Luna did not seem bothered by Ron's rudeness; on the contrary, she simply watched him for a while in a mildly interested manner.
The carriages rattled and swayed up the road, passing between the stone pillars topped with winged boars on either side of the gates to the school grounds. Harry kept leaning forward to look out of the window at the dark Forest, which was usually illuminated by the lights from Hagrid's cabin, but was now uncharacteristically dark.
I frowned. Where could Hagrid be?
The carriages jingled to a halt near the stone steps leading up to the castle's oak front doors. Harry got out first, and I followed, stopping to stand next to him as he stared out in the direction of Hagrid's cabin. I was suddenly very aware of the strange, skeletal creatures standing quietly in the chill night air, steam rising from their mouths and nostrils to prove it. It was hard to believe that they were invisible to everyone else.
"Are you coming or what?" Ron said, now standing next to Harry.
"Oh . . . yeah," Harry said quickly, and we joined the crowd hurrying up the stone steps into the castle.
We walked across the flagged stone floor of the warmly lit and crowded Entrance Hall and made for the double doors on the right, leading into the Great Hall and the start-of-term feast. The four long house tables were filling up under the starless black ceiling and candles floating in midair, which illuminated the silvery ghosts and the faces of the students talking eagerly about their summers, shouting greetings at friends from other houses and other things.
I noticed that people kept putting their heads together to whisper as we passed, their eyes on Harry. Glancing over at him, I saw that his jaw was clenched irritably, so I took hold of his hand.
