Care of Magical Creatures: Years 3-4

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[ASTORIA GREENGRASS]

Astoria didn’t know why she signed up for this class. She wasn’t really much of an animal person. She liked cats, but that was about it. Oh right, it was a required class. Sighing, she slipped on her shoes, grabbed her book and headed down the stairs. She looked around and saw a bunch of people gossiping in the common room and once she entered, the conversation completely stopped. Rolling her eyes, she went out the door and into the hallways. Ever since word got out that she was friends with Harry, everyone stared and talked about her. She knew it would come to this, but it was really starting to get annoying. She couldn’t let anyone know about the plan other than the three other people that knew, and she trusted them. She wanted to let her sister know, but she didn’t know how Daphne would react.

Before she knew it, she was on the grounds, nearing the spot where the class was being held. She noticed a couple other students, and, like the others, conversation stopped abruptly. She glared at them and went to a spot by herself. Maybe she would actually be able to pay attention instead of hearing gossip and smack talk all period. She listened to the professor and remembered Draco telling her about the incident. She thought he took it bit too far, but figured he was just mad about it when he told his father. Lucius was one to overreact. When the professor asked if someone wanted to come forward, she shrugged. She was judged anyways, so why the bloody hell not. She set her things on a nearby rock and stepped forward a little. ”I’ll try it out professor.” She gave a little smile to let him know she was serious and not just another Slytherin trying to be funny.

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[eleven]

[ASTORIA GREENGRASS]

As Astoria stepped forward some more, she listened to the professors instructions. Or at least, attempted to listen. She was mostly just staring at the hippogriff. It was actually rather cute. Big and deadly, but cute. Her hatred of animals lessened a little bit. Maybe this class wouldn’t be so bad after all. She didn’t hate the class or this creature for what it did to Draco. She had found that rather amusing when her sister told her. Draco was a good friend of hers, but she couldn’t help but laugh at the story. He may be school smart, but sometimes he could be really dunce.

She took a deep breathe in, and got just a little bit closer to the hippogriff. She looked the animal in the eye, and gave a little bow. It seemed like she had waited forever. She was probably debating on charging at Astoria or bowing, and Astoria hoped she chose bowing. When the hippogriff finally bowed, Astoria sighed in relief. She smiled at her accomplishment and walked toward the animal to pet it. On the way there though, she stumbled on a rock that was in the ground. Catching her balance, she looked up at the hippogriff, who looked worried at its new friend, but relaxed once she realized Astoria wasn’t hurt. Smiling, Astoria started petting her. She was really soft and Astoria was half tempted to jump on and fly until she was far away. Far enough to just get away and think.

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((Wow. This was a horrible post, and I apologize for it. ))

[GINEVRA WEASLEY]

Ginny was rather excited for her Care of Magical Creatures class. It had been one she enjoyed since last year, and it almost didn't even feel like schoolwork to her. However, she was a bit displeased at hearing that Hagrid was gone, and would not be teaching the class this year. Questions ran through Ginny's head of why he was gone, but nothing seemed to make sense. The new teacher, Professor Arden, was a nice man and a good teacher, so she wasn't at all upset by who Dumbledore had chosen as a replacement. Why Dumbledore had chosen the pink toad for Defense Against the Dark Arts, though, was anyone's guess. Her and Hermione's guess was that the Ministry was interfering, and Headmaster Dumbledore had no choice in the matter of hiring her. She followed Professor into the Forest, unafraid of it, as several other students seemed to be. Ginny was lucky enough to be stuck in class with Slytherins like Astoria Greengrass (oh joy), and other incompetent third years. How she dearly wished to be in the same year as most of her friends, which of course, was a year ahead of herself.

They made it until the Forest and come to a beautiful Hippogriff. Ginny had only seen a few in her life, but loved how beautiful, smart, and graceful they were. She listened to Professor Arden intently, not wanting to screw up the assignment and getting hurt. Everything he told them to do was simple enough. "I'll try as well." Ginny said confidently as she watched Astoria successfully communicate with the creature. She chuckled as the Slytherin third year tripped. Ginny gave Astoria a look that said 'move over or risk getting hurt', and continued to the Hippogriff. "Hello." she said to it softly, remembering what the Professor said about it being able to understand them. She looked the large animal in the eyes and bowed slowly. After a few seconds, the Hippogriff bowed back, and Ginny was delighted. "Hello Fleetwing. Such a beautiful creature." she said, stroking Fleetwing gently.

After a few minutes of murmuring to Fleetwing and petting her, she let other have a chance at it. Ginny backed up and asked a question that had been haunting her mind. "So, did Draco Malfoy really get attacked by a Hippogriff?" she said, holding back a chuckle. He would terrify a creature enough for it to attack him. Ginny had heard the stories from Ron, but didn't really believe him. Ron had a knack for making up the most absurd stories. "And if he really did, what did he do to get attacked?" This was educational in a sense, she could always make sure to avoid doing what Malfoy did to get hurt. But it could also be used as blackmail. Ah, the sweet joys of blackmail.

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[chi]

Signing up for Care of Magical Creatures had been a no brainer as far as Malachi was concerned. Especially considering his other options for elective courses. Any class that involved going out to the Forbidden Forest and within reach of creatures that could potentially kill him couldn't have been half bad. In fact, he was almost excited for it... not that he had any intentions of admitting that. With Umbridge having taken over the one class he put an effort into, he needed some sort of outlet to actually enjoy his time at Hogwarts and practice magic. And if this wasn't going to be as fun as he thought, it was always easy enough to slip away and kill the hour with something that he actually did want to do. He'd snuck out here enough times to know his way around, and the new teacher was just that- new. He'd probably get himself lost if he went searching, and Chi chuckled at the thought of it.

When the class stopped and started circling around the teacher- Arden, or something like that, Chi dropped to a seat somewhere on the grass, pushing around a pebble with his outstretched feet and really just not listening. Seeing the Hippogryff though, he nearly leaped up, interest suddenly peaked and mind racing. For a few moments he wanted nothing more than to hop on Fleetwing and fly away, somewhere far from the castle, where he'd never have to come back. More accurately, he wanted to see if he could fly the creature without killing himself, before sneaking Galatea out here and running away with her. There wasn't anything in particular that he was running from. Not some horrible tragedy of the commons; everyone had one these days and it was just so overrated. But the idea of freedom, of not knowing where he would land, or even if he would land, and of just starting life completely from scratch sent a rush through him. It was something that would only happen in fairy tales. Who wouldn't want to do that?

It was his best restraint that kept him from doing anything at all. That- and the fact that the slytherin princess of melodrama and mass Hogwarts rumors otherwise known as Astoria Greengrass was already walking her way up to the creature. When she tripped on her way, Chi didn't bother holding back his laughter and he gave a sly grin to Ginny who'd done the same. "Smooth." he added in a sarcastic deadpan, rolling his eyes at the green-clad girl.

Seeing that Ginny had already approached Fleetwing, he stepped closer to the creature to take his turn at bowing, but he stopped himself when she asked a question, bringing his attention back to the overall group. He spoke up before the Professor could despite not having actually been present for the incident- or knowing very much about it. "Malfoy got himself attacked 'cause he's a bloody idiot." He shrugged. That was the nice way of saying it. "He's so used to hanging around with people that can't knock him down, or just don't have the guts to -I expect it's more of 'em, that last bit- he forgot to think that maybe insultin' something twice his size, strength, and clearly intelligence probably wouldn't end up being his best idea.. Actually, it could have been his best idea. But that's just sad." He didn't have much faith in the older Slytherin's intellligence, clearly. In fact, that Hippogryff that had almost gotten killed- he had more respect for the creature than he probably did for most of the people around him right now. The one in front of him as well. He was far more amazed by it up close, and his impulses from before seemed much more doable with the lot of the class behind him. He smiled faintly, as he'd just given hismelf a challenge. A glance back at the others. They'd never know what they were missing.

[ASTORIA GREENGRASS]

As Astoria was petting Fleetwing, she saw Ginny Weasley volunteer as well. Wonderful. She knew the girl hated her. Jealousy played a big role in the youngest Weasleys life. It didn’t help that Astoria was a Slytherin. Still. It amused her to no end. The look on Ginny’s face whenever Astoria was with Harry. It. Was. Priceless. She had to try and be nice to her though. For the plans sake. She couldn’t go around being nice to Harry and then mean to all his friends. It would look suspicious. If Ginny went out of her way to be mean to Astoria, she couldn’t be the one to blame when she was mean back. She would just be defending herself is all. She definitely wasn’t one to let people just walk all over her, no matter who it was.

She heard Ginny chuckle as she stumbled. She didn’t blame her though. If the roles were reversed, Astoria would laugh too. It was always funny when somebody tripped. When she gave her a look, she didn’t take to kindly to that. There wasn’t much she could do though. Only because a professor was around. She gave Ginny a glare right back as the red head came and petted Fleetwing along with herself. It was a strange sight to see. A Gryffindor and a Slytherin petting the same animal at the same time. People might think they were mental. It’d be better than hating her at least. She was sacrificing so much for this plan. It better work.

When Draco’s name came up, Astoria got a little more defensive than she should have. Especially when another Gryffindor, whom she also glared when he commented on her tripping, decided he should be the one that answered the question. She gave a scoff and couldn’t hold back responding to him. ”Oh like you’ve never done anything without thinking before. Everyone does stupid things. Yeah, I admin what Draco did was stupid, but people do stupid things. Like Weasley over here. Writing to some random person in a bloody diary. Anyone could’ve told you that wasn’t going to end well.” She gave a smirk to Ginny. You mess with the bull, you get the horns.

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[GINEVRA WEASLEY]

Ginny was slightly relieved as more and more decent people seemed to appear in her class. A Gryffindor a year under her, Malachi, was very much like her. Ginny was bold sometimes to the point of rudeness, and Malachi, well, was like that also. Malachi probably meant to do it more on purpose, but for Ginny, being like this was her nature. She smiled at the boy before looking back at Astoria. "Very smooth, I'd say. I give that fall a seven. Could have been a bit more graceful on the dismount." she said, biting her knuckles to keep from laughing again. Now Ginny was just being mean, but she had several reasons to be rude towards Astoria. She was a friend stealer. And a rude one at that. She acted innocent when she was really an evil little Slytherin, like the rest of them. "Just lift your right leg a little higher, and that dismount will go much more beautifully. Right, Malachi?" Ginny barely saw or talked to this kid in her entire life, but she needed someone to spend time with in this class. He seemed like a good type to be around, though with her and him together, they could get in mucho trouble with their attitudes. Ginny wondered if Astoria would retaliate, or keep playing the innocent card.

Ginny listened to Malachi's reasoning with an amused expression. He had a lot of guts to say something like that in front of a professor, even if the professor was a very cool one at that. "Well, everyone knows that..." she said with the roll of her eyes at Malfoy's being an idiot. "I'd be concerned if Malfoy wasn't acting idiotic." Ginny completely forgot, or stopped caring, that she was talking like this in front of Professor Arden. "Yeah, I do suppose Fleetwing here is better than him in all senses. She's bigger, stronger, smarter, and quite frankly, cuter. Not to sound stereotypically girly." Ginny said with her mouth in a flat line and her eyes narrowed. The last thing she wanted to look like was an airhead. No, that would be Greengrass's job. Now that Ginny had finished the assignment for the day, she didn't know what to do for the rest of the time. Socialize, maybe, but none of her friends were really in the class. Sneak out early? No, that could possibly get her in trouble. Ginny sneaked food out of her knitted bag and started munching on an apple, for lack on anything better to do. She probably should have gotten rid of the apple before going near a live creature who enjoys apples, but she got lucky that Fleetwing didn't attack her. Ginny almost choked on a piece of the apple as she heard what Greengrass said next.

"'Scuse me?" she said, not really believing what she heard at first. No one had ever dared to confront her about what had happened those three years ago. How would Astoria even know about such things; she was still too young to attend Hogwarts at the time. Ginny assumed Draco must have told her; which he was going to get hell about later. "And who told you about that?" she glared, throwing her apple to the ground. "And if that bloody idiot even bothered to tell you the whole story, you would have known your precious Malfoy was the one to give me the diary. Not to mention I was 11, and thought my mum had charmed the book." Ginny left several cuss words out of her sentences that she so desperately wanted to throw in. Her face was scrunched into something death would be afraid of, and she took steps forward towards Astoria. "How dare you mention such a thing to me." she snarled. It back such terrible memories. Just mentioning it to her made her skin crawl and her eyes wander about the grounds to make sure Voldemort wasn't there. Oh, how she wanted to get her wand out and bat-bogey hex the naive Slytherin, but she would not get in trouble. Ginny had been trying to work on her temper, and doing something like this would not help...

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[chi]

Malachi had never really gotten to know Ginny before or considered her one of his friends, but he couldn't help cracking a wide grin as she went on embellishing Astoria's little mishap. "A seven?" he raised an eyebrow. "That's on a reverse scale, right?... I'd give it a five; five and a half tops." Where Ginny was trying to stifle her laughter, Chi didn't bother pretending he was anything less than amused. He didn't see any merit in the Slytherin girl. She was nothing more than a attention seeking whore.That was leaving out all the other bad qualities that came with her being a Slytherin. "Yeah, just like that Ginny." he offered his agreement before addressing Astoria. "Occasionally picking up our feet helps us walk. Funny concept it is. Don't suppose you'd know anything about it."

As Ginny began sneaking pieces of her apple, Malachi focused his attention back on the hippogryff. His great escape plan had been halted, and he was now only petting her back, still looking at the two girls and even daring a glance over at the Professor who he was surprised hadn't said someone else should take his place yet. Watching his hand run over Fleetwing's feathers, he wondered of the hippogryff liked being used as a learning tool at Hogwarts. He couldn't imagine that it would be fun, but then.. he supposed he was in a position that he'd be inclined to think differently. Only one way to know though. Professor Arden had said they understood human speech. He whispered the question close to it's ear and then took a step back as it turned it's head towards him. He watched it for a moment before it learned forward and gently brushed his face against his in a manner that resembled a cat. Looking up at Professor Arden, he stated "I take it that's his way of saying yes?"

When Astoria spoke again, he narrowed his eyes, stepping away from the hippogryff and closer to the Slytherin girl. He hadn't been in school for whatever happened with Ginny, and in fact, he didn't have a clue what they were talking about, but he knew for a fact he liked Ginny better than Astoria. And if she wanted to bring Ginny into a fight that he instigated, then he had every intention of defending the Weasley girl. "Piss off." he said firmly, and without warning he grabbed the girl's upper arm and swept one of his legs under hers so that she'd fall over. He didn't give her a second look as he went back to sit with Ginny. He didn't look happy, but he didn't look particularly like he cared what he'd just done either. "And that was a perfect ten."

[ASTORIA GREENGRASS]

Astoria rolled her eyes at the two Gryffindors as they continued to comment at her tripping. She didn’t care about their opinion. Ginny just hated her because she stole Harry from her and Malachi, well he just seemed like your typical Gryffindor that hated Slytherins. She didn’t really care for them, so she really didn’t care what he had to say. So she tripped, big deal. ”I’ll have to keep those tips in mind then.” She said it with sarcasm just dripping off the ends of it. Deep breathing. You don’t want to blow your cover now. She watched as the red head pulled an apple from her bag and debated even more about just hopping up onto Fleetwing and flying off, away from this so she didn’t get pissed and do something that would get her in trouble and Harry mad at her. Though, he might not if he heard the rest of the story. How Ginny picked the fight with her and she was defending herself. Stupid girl.

”Draco didn’t tell me darling, it was Harry actually. He told me everything about his Hogwarts years. I heard it was Draco’s father, not him. You confused Tom Riddle with your mother? And you were all saying I was dunce.” She was threatening Astoria. That made her smirk. Yeah, Ginny may be older than her, but Astoria could put up on hell of a fight. ”Oh, I dare.”

When the boy spoke up, she whipped around that way. ”Not a gentleman, are we?” The next thing she knew, she was falling to the ground. She then caught herself with her arm and instantly pushed herself back up. Really now? Did this boy want to rumble? ”Everte Statum!” She got hit with the spell once. Felt like she got hit by a frying pan. She aimed it at Malachi, but was hoping it might hit both of them.

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[GINEVRA WEASLEY]

"Obviously the reverse scale. I'd never give someone like her something THAT high." Ginny continued in her teasing of Astoria. It really wasn't neccesary, but she was going to take advantage of this opportunity. Malachi was bold as brass and Ginny loved it. She tried to be a bit more inconspicuous, while as he just did whatever he liked and didn't think twice about it. "Picking up your feet does help. It is something you learn when you were little, not when you're bloody thirteen years old." Then again, Astoria didn't seem like the smartest person around. Sly, clever, but not book smart. Ginny almost awed at Chi and Fleetwing's encounter. It was endearing. She was in such a good mood for most of the day, and an even better one when she found ways to make fun of Astoria. Ginny never expected the Slytherin to fight back with everyone there. There was going to be hell to pay.

Just as Ginny was going to blow a gasget, Malachi surprisingly stepped in. She wasn't exactly sure what 'piss off' meant, but she figured it was the equivalent to 'bugger off' or 'shut up'. It was sweet how Chi was so protective over her, even though they didn't know each other too well. Two against one, Astoria was most certainly not going to win this fight. Assuming it was going to fizzle down, she didn't pay much attention to what Malachi did next...except Gin's eyes barely bugged out of her head when Chi went up and tripped her. She laughed , not holding anything back this time. "Yes, that most certainly was a ten. Bravo." Ginny watched Astoria from the ground. "See, you can learn new things from us. We're much smarter than you take us for." Gin's anger was boiling within her. Harry had told her something so intimate? Well, it shouldn't have been such a big deal. Most people of the school had heard of it anyway. She just didn't want a pity party, you know? "I'm not confusing anyone. It was your Draco's fault that Voldemort possessed me, love." she said in a sarcastically sweet voice.

Ginny turned away from the Slytherin, trying to end the fight at that. She alwasy loved getting the last word in. The Weasley almost wasn't prepared for what she heard out of Astoria's mouth from behind her. Did she really have to start a wand duel over this? Ginny turned and saw the spell coming right towards Malachi. No, if this was going to be anyone's fight, it was going to be hers and Astoria's. She wasn't bringing Chi in unless he wanted to come in, which of course he probably would because that's just how he was. "Finite Incantatum." Her voice rang loudly as she stepped in front of the boy to block the hex. "Vespertilio Bogarus!" she sent her bat-bogey hex flying towards Astoria. No mercy.

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