1. | BAD ROMANCE. (Draco Malfoy!)

❖ chapter ten

Our first class of the next day was Divination, a subject I wasn't at all interested in. Learning spells, riding brooms, looking after magical creatures, awesome! But staring into a crystal ball just to find out what you're going to have for dinner in a week? not very intriguing.

I didn't pay attention for the entirety of the lesson, which annoyed Melody since this was a subject she actually wanted to learn. Professor Trelawney didn't mind my slacking off, either because she was crazy and didn't notice, or because she noticed how messed up I was from my fight and wanted to go easy on me.

The only time I paid attention was when someone brought up something called 'The Grim'. "What's the Grim?" One of the students asked.

"Taking the form of a giant spectral dog. It's among the darkest omens in our world. It's an omen... of death." Someone else replied. I shuddered.

*

 "I'm so excited!" I exclaimed as Melody and I walked down the steps outside to 'Care of Magical Creatures' class. "Me too! I wonder what we'll be learning today." Melody replied, skipping ahead of me. We met up with everyone else at Hagrid's hut, where the giant was waiting for us.

"Follow me." Hagrid told us, leading us into the forest. We walked deeper into the forest, where Hagrid gave us copies of the "Magic book of Monsters" which seemed impossible to open, considering the books were somewhat alive.

"Open your books to page 49." Hagrid told us as we walked a bit further into the forest. "Exactly how do we do that?" Draco asked as he glared at his book of monsters. "Just stroke the spine, of course." Hagrid replied, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Draco ran his fingers down the spine of the book, causing it to purr like a cat. I did the same thing before opening my book, all my fingers intact. Melody had a bit of worse luck, she dropped her book which fell open, gnawing its fangs in anger as it tried to bite her foot off. Melody let out a frightened scream as she jumped on my back, trying to get away from her demonic book. "Don't be such a wimp, Melody." Hagrid said, causing me to laugh even harder. "I always knew books would be your downfall, Melody." I laughed. "Wait until father hears Dumbledore's got this oaf teaching classes." Draco said haughtily. "Shut up, Malfoy." Harry said angrily, approaching Malfoy. "Do you ever know when to quit, Malfoy?" I asked Malfoy rhetorically, using what he'd said to me to my advantage. Draco shot me a dangerous looking glare. Then he looked right behind Harry with a look of terror on his face.

"Dementor, dementor!" Harry and I whipped around in fear, but there was nothing there. "Ooooh!" Draco teased, putting on his hood and making ghost noises. "Correct me if i'm wrong, but I seem to vividly remember you screaming like a girl when you last encountered a dementor." I told Draco with my arms crossed, causing Crabbe and Goyle to break into a laughing fit. Draco looked me up and down and bit his lip, taking a challenging step towards me with a smirk on his face. I don't know what it was, but something stirred inside my stomach uncomfortably as he towered over me, but before he could say whatever it was he was going to say, Hagrid began the lesson. I released a deep breath I didn't realise I was holding and took a step back, rejoining Melody and watching as Draco backed away, his eyes locked on mine. "The way he looked at you-" Melody whispered. "Yep." I interrupted her quickly, watching as Melody's expression darkened. "Not what I was going to say.."

"Say hello to Buckbeak!" Hagrid announced, revealing a bird-horse like creature with massive talons and huge wings. Melody and I gasped, taking a few steps closer to the creature. "What is that?" I asked, mesmerised. "That is a hippogriff." Hagrid told us, tossing a dead ferret towards Buckbeak, who picked it up and ate it hungrily. "First thing you wanna know about hippogriffs is that they're very proud creatures. Very easily offended. You do not want to insult a hippogriff. It may be the last thing you ever do. Now, who'd like to come and say hello?" Hagrid asked. I was about to volunteer, but then I realised Hagrid's version of 'hello' probably had something to do with lifting off the ground, and I wasn't a massive fan of large heights. Melody and I stepped back, along with the rest of the class except Harry, who had no idea he was being thrown under the bus. Harry went forward nervously and bowed to Buckbeak, who bowed in return and let Harry mount him. Harry looked terrified, but with Hagrid's help he took off on Buckbeak. We watched in awe as Harry soared away on Buckbeak, before circling back and landing with a bright smile on his face. "Nice one Harry!" I applauded him. "Anyone could've done that, all you did was sit on him and do nothing." Melody snarled at Harry. I looked at her in shock, this was nothing like the shy and kind Melody i'd met on my first day of Hogwarts. Harry looked a little hurt, but turned around and ignored her malicious comment. I pulled on Melody's elbow to grab her attention. "Melody, I told you about how Harry saved the school and you in our second year, so why do you still hate him?" I whispered harshly to Melody. "He's obsessed with attention, I doubt we're ever going to get a normal year of Hogwarts with him around, because everything's always about him." Melody whispered back. I sighed, there was no point getting in a fight over it, so I merely shrugged and stayed quiet.

 "Oh, please." I heard Malfoy's prideful voice. "Yes you aren't dangerous at all, are you, you great ugly brute." Draco said smugly, walking confidently up to Buckbeak, who began rearing angrily. "Draco get back!" I yelled at him in alarm, taking a few steps forward. Buckbeak stood up on his hind legs, before slashing Draco's arm with his wing, sending Draco falling onto the ground clutching his arm in pain. "It's killed me! It's killed me!" Draco panicked, rolling around on the floor in pain. "Calm down, it's just a scratch!" Hagrid reassured him, although visibly panicking himself. "Hagrid, he needs to be taken to the hospital!" Hermione exclaimed, coming forward through the crowd. "I'm the teacher, I'll do it." Hagrid said anxiously as he scooped Malfoy into his arms and walked back towards the castle. "You're going to regret this, you and your bloody chicken." Malfoy whimpered as he was taken away.