ALOHOMORA | CEDRIC DIGGORY

21〝twenty-one〞

A CLEARING SOON CAME INTO view, wherein lounged a couple of magnificent horses, both with beautiful tan coats and manes the same shade as Ellis's—palominos. They were idly swishing their long, silky tails, cream-colored wings folded by their sides.

"Wow," breathed Cedric, mesmerized.

On the other hand, Ellis's attention was diverted by a silhouette bearing a white, pupil-less eye. Contours shaped like the profile of another, albeit very tall, horse, it ambled slowly in the direction of Hagrid, whose giant strides had taken him many yards ahead and almost to the clearing.

Light was sparse where Ellis and Cedric still were—deep inside the forest—and only fell intermittently upon the dark figure. When it did, though, Ellis saw what she could not, wholeheartedly, call a horse: It looked to be made literally out of skin and bone; those she knew tended to have flesh. Hairless, its black covering was leathery instead, and clung tightly to its ribs and limbs. It had a gaunt face that was more reptilian than mammalian, featherless wings it could well have stolen from dragons, and a whip for a tail. The only similarity it had with a horse was the manner in which it walked...

With a pang of horror, Ellis jolted out of her thoughts.

The black winged horse—all seven plus feet of it—was sauntering into the path of Cedric, who seemed to have picked up his pace in his revere for the palominos. He was making straight for them, acting as though so enthralled that he was unaware of the upcoming obstacle. Ellis deliberated; the black horse was converging on him—surely he couldn't miss it now? Cedric, however, had shown every sign that he did: he continued forwards, without so much as finding his sight blocked whatsoever, for the black horse's head was currently between him and the clearing, then it was its body...

Cedric was inches from colliding into the black horse when Ellis dashed up to him and hurled him back by the elbow. Steadying his footing, he turned to her, baffled. She noticed him staring and hastily released her grasp, but glared at him all the same.

"Watch where you're going, won't you?" said Ellis sharply.

"What?"

"You nearly walked into that horse!"

"What d'you mean?" said Cedric, sounding still more bemused. "They're over there!"

He tilted his chin towards the palominos, for whom Hagrid was filling a trough not with water, but with transparent golden liquid he was emptying by the barrel.

"Not those!" snapped Ellis. "That one!"

His eyes followed her finger towards the black horse, who was currently sniffing the dead cow slumped in the wheelbarrow. But for all the comprehension they gained, she might as well have indicated a tuft of grass. He looked back to her, worry written on his face.

"Are you okay?" said Cedric, visibly concerned.

In her utter incredulity, Ellis wanted nothing more than to shout at him, but words could not find their way to her lips. Instead, she gaped at him, speechless and fuming. If it had been moments ago, in the shadows of the dense trees, she would have understood...but now, it was simply impossible that he had not seen the black horse, large and contrasting as it was standing in the clearing that turned out to be more of a paddock the size of the Quidditch pitch. The case hadn't been a joke, but this must be...

It was Hagrid who broke the silence.

"Ya can see Blake, can ya?" His tone was rather serious.

A pair of emptied barrels in his hands, Hagrid was looking only at Ellis, which informed her he had addressed her rather than both of them.

"Who?" said Ellis.

"Hang on—"

Hagrid returned the barrels to the wheelbarrow and heaved the carcass onto the ground. Carving out one of the legs, he dropped it at the hoof of the black horse, who promptly bowed its head and tucked into its meal. When it bit off the first piece, Cedric gasped.

"Blake," repeated Hagrid, stroking the scaly neck of the black horse. "He's a thestral. First male we got here in Hogwarts. His mates are all gone now, and he's getting on himself—rheumatism and all... Can't handle on his own in the Forbidden Forest with the rest of his herd, so we brought him down here... Oh yeah," he added to their surprised looks, "we've got a herd all right. Was just pulling the school carriages this—"

"Wait," interrupted Cedric, "don't the carriages pull themselves?"

"No, no," replied Hagrid, chuckling. "They seem so only because most people can't see them. It's too much work to Charm so many carriages—hundreds of them every term...much easier with these guys—great sense of direction!"

"So why can't I see them?" said Cedric curiously.

"Thestrals are a rare breed of winged horses who possess the power of invisibility," explained Hagrid. "Only people who have seen death are able to see them."

Upon this pronouncement, the atmosphere, if not already intense, became considerably so—and, in equal measure: uncomfortable. There was a lengthy pause, during which Ellis stared at Hagrid, Cedric stared at Ellis, and Hagrid darted his eyes shiftily between the two of them. Hagrid relented first, and attempted to ease the awkwardness with a distraction.

"Diggory, come help me give these to the abraxans."

For a while, Ellis registered little else. Somehow, her legs of lead had carried her towards the palominos as well, where Hagrid and Cedric were doling out a sack of red apples into a manger behind the trough. Perhaps because they looked proportionate alongside Hagrid earlier, Ellis had only just woken up to the fact that the palominos were actually huge as elephants.

"This is Fontaine and Louis," introduced Hagrid as they devoured several apples at a time, "retirees from Beauxbatons Academy—wizarding school in France. Silvanus knows the gamekeeper there, gave these to him last birthday. They prefer the reds and drink—"

"—only single-malt whiskey." Professor Kettleburn had arrived; he remarked, with just the slightest hint of criticism, "Very lavish, the French..."

Reporting that he would head off to the hippogriffs, Hagrid disappeared quite gratefully with what remained of the cow's corpse. Kettleburn then told Ellis and Cedric that he would call for the other horses, and made a neighing sort of noise that was eventually echoed back from somewhere above.

As the susurrus of wings grew louder and louder, three grey pegasi emerged overhead, hurtling towards the clearing. Two landed gracefully in a canter, while the smallest careered to a wobbly halt. In jumping out of its way, Ellis tripped, and would be bathing in a tub of scotch if Cedric hadn't caught hold of her in the nick of time.

Yet, without any whisper of gratitude, she wrenched herself from his grip, arms wrapped firmly around herself as though stung by his touch.

Kettleburn, who was busying himself with another gunny, however, overlooked this. He flicked his wand at the hovering bag and it split open at the bottom, spilling a torrent of green apples into another manger. The grey pegasi began to eat.

Desperately needing something else to think about, Ellis listened hard to what Professor Kettleburn said next.

"These are granians, just wee bigger than your regular horse—not as imposing as the abraxans—but because of that, have an edge: they are incredibly fast, both on land and in the air. They outstrip those Muggle sports cars easily, and I believe they've even recently outflown the latest Nimbus racing broom."

Ellis tried to feel impressed with little success. It seemed difficult to feel anything right now, like an unknown numbness was coursing through her veins.

She missed something he mentioned about Quidditch, but heard the names of the pegasi. Apparently, the burliest one was a stallion, Philip; Elizabeth was the leaner mare, and their filly, Anne, all of whom were happily lunching and necessitated no further intervention.

"Miss Grindelwald, I'll require your assistance with the last creatures we're feeding," said Kettleburn.

Ordering Cedric behind him, he made a whistling cry... Ellis felt herself cheer up immediately.