Chapter 10

After Boggarts, they studied Red Caps, nasty little goblin-like creatures that lurked wherever there had been bloodshed. in the dungeons of castles and the potholes of deserted battlefields, waiting to bludgeon those who had gotten lost. From Red Caps they moved on to kappas, creepy water-dwellers that looked like scaly monkeys, with webbed hands itching to strangle unwitting waders in their ponds.

Then there was Potions. Snape was in a particularly vindictive mood these days, and no one was in any doubt why. The story of the Boggart assuming Snape’s shape, and the way Neville had dressed it in his grandmother’s clothes, had traveled through the school like wildfire.

Snape didn’t seem to find it funny. His eyes flashed menacingly at the very mention of Professor Lupin’s name, and he was bullying Neville worse than ever.

Grace didn’t even dare to make her presence felt so as not to provoke Snape even further.

Pansy, seeing how cautious Grace had become, couldn’t help but smile smugly, feeling proud of herself, thinking Grace had been scolded severely last time.

Others were also growing to dread the hours they spent in Professor Trelawney’s stifling tower room, deciphering lopsided shapes and symbols, trying to ignore the way Professor Trelawney’s enormous eyes filled with tears every time she looked at them.

Harry couldn’t like Professor Trelawney, even though she was treated with respect bordering on reverence by many of the class. Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown had taken to haunting Professor Trelawney’s tower room at lunchtimes, and always returned with annoyingly superior looks on their faces, as though they knew things the others didn’t. They had also started using hushed voices whenever they spoke to Harry, as though he were on his deathbed.

Nobody really liked Care of Magical Creatures, which, after the action-packed first class, had become extremely dull. Hagrid seemed to have lost his confidence. They were now spending lesson after lesson learning how to look after Flobberworms, which had to be some of the most boring creatures in existence.

Grace watch Hagrid looks lifeless. She had tried to save Draco, thinking there would be a different outcome for Buckbeak but what happened next still made her hopeless. She couldn’t help but sigh, realizing that maybe she had thought too lightly of the situation before. ‘I should have stopped Draco from the very beginning,’ she thought. ‘However, if I had really stopped him at that time, it would have looked so weird and might have aroused unnecessary suspicion.’

While Grace was deep in thought, she heard Ron.

” Why would anyone bother looking after them?” said Ron, thinking of those Flobberworms after yet another hour of poking shredded lettuce down their throats.

Grace was reading near the fireplace, feeling full of excitement. She liked this kind of noise around her, it brought her a warm feeling.

She was enjoying the moment reading peacefully when Harry came in and heard the trio’s conversation, she can’t help but eavesdrop and watch the drama unfold.

Harry returned to the Gryffindor common room one evening after training, cold and stiff but pleased with the way practice had gone, to find the room buzzing excitedly.

” What’s happened?” he asked Ron and Hermione, who were sitting in two of the best chairs by the fireside and completing some star charts for Astronomy.

” First Hogsmeade weekend,” said Ron, pointing at a notice that had appeared on the battered old bulletin board. “End of October. Halloween.”

” Excellent,” said Fred, who had followed Harry through the portrait hole. ” I need to visit Zonko’s. I’m nearly out of Stink Pellets.”

Harry threw himself into a chair beside Ron, his high spirits withering away. Hermione seemed to read his mind.

” Harry, I’m sure you’ll be able to go next time,” she said. ” They’re bound to catch Black soon. He’s been sighted once already.”

” Black’s not fool enough to try anything in Hogsmeade,” said Ron. ” Ask McGonagall if you can go this time, Harry. The next one might not be for ages -“

” Ron!” said Hermione, “Harry’s supposed to stay in school-“

” He can’t be the only third year left behind,” said Ron. ” Ask McGonagall, go on, Harry-“

” Yeah, I think I will,” said Harry, making up his mind.

Hermione opened her mouth to argue, but at that moment Crookshanks leapt lightly onto her lap. A large, dead spider was dangling from his mouth.

” Does he have to eat that in front of us?” said Ron, scowling.

” Clever Crookshanks, did you catch that all by yourself?” said Hermione.

Crookshanks slowly chewed up the spider, his yellow eyes fixed insolently on Ron.

” Just keep him over there, that’s all,” said Ron irritably, turning back to his star chart. ” I’ve got Scabbers asleep in my bag.”

Harry yawned. He really wanted to go to bed, but he still had his own star chart to complete. He pulled his bag toward him, took out parchment, ink, and quill, and started work.

” You can copy mine, if you like,” said Ron, labeling his last star with a flourish and shoving the chart toward Harry.

Hermione, who disapproved of copying, pursed her lips but didn’t say anything. Crookshanks was still staring unblinkingly at Ron.

” And Scabbers was here first, and he’s ill!” Ron marched through the common room and out of sight up the stairs to the boys’ dormitories.

Grace thought of her permission slip, it was signed and she could go to Hogsmeade, but she felt sorry for Harry. She knew what would happen next and she wasn’t sure if she should intervene.

The next day, Grace finally decided to stay with Harry. ‘He’s still a child,’ she thought.

Ron was still in a bad mood with Hermione next day. He barely talked to her all through Herbology, even though he, Harry, and Hermione were working together on the same Puffapod.

” How’s Scabbers?” Hermione asked timidly as they stripped fat pink pods from the plants and emptied the shining beans into a wooden pail.

” He’s hiding at the bottom of my bed, shaking,” said Ron angrily, missing the pail and scattering beans over the greenhouse floor.

” Careful, Weasley, careful!” cried Professor Sprout as the beans burst into bloom before their very eyes.

They had Transfiguration next. Harry, who had resolved to ask Professor McGonagall after the lesson whether he could go into Hogsmeade with the rest, joined the line outside the class trying to decide how he was going to argue his case. He was distracted, however, by a disturbance at the front of the line.

Lavender Brown seemed to be crying. Parvati had her arm around her and was explaining something to Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas, who were looking very serious.

” What’s the matter, Lavender?” said Hermione anxiously as she, Harry, and Ron went to join the group.

” She got a letter from home this morning,” Parvati whispered. ” It’s her rabbit, Binky. He’s been killed by a fox.”

” Oh,” said Hermione, ” I’m sorry, Lavender.”

” I should have known!” said Lavender tragically. ” You know what day it is?”

” Er -“

” The sixteenth of October! ‘That thing you’re dreading, it will happen on the sixteenth of October!’ Remember? She was right, she was right!”

The whole class was gathered around Lavender now. Seamus shook his head seriously.

Hermione hesitated, then she said, “Y-you were dreading Binky being killed by a fox?”

” Well, not necessarily by a fox,” said Lavender, looking up at Hermione with streaming eyes, ” but I was obviously dreading him dying, wasn’t I?”

” Oh,” said Hermione. She paused again. Then, ” Was Binky an old rabbit?”

” N-no!” sobbed Lavender. ” H-he was only a baby!”

Parvati tightened her arm around Lavender’s shoulders.

” But then, why would you dread him dying?” said Hermione.

Parvati glared at her.

” Well, look at it logically,” said Hermione, turning to the rest of the group. ” I mean, Binky didn’t even die today, did he? Lavender just got the news today- ” Lavender wailed loudly. ” ..and she can’t have been dreading it, because it’s come as a real shock-“

” Don’t mind Hermione, Lavender,” said Ron loudly, ” she doesn’t think other people’s pets matter very much.”

Professor McGonagall opened the classroom door at that moment, which was perhaps lucky, Hermione and Ron were looking daggers at each other, and when they got into class, they seated themselves on either side of Harry and didn’t talk to each other for the whole class.

Harry still hadn’t decided what he was going to say to Professor McGonagall when the bell rang at the end of the lesson, but it was she who brought up the subject of Hogsmeade first.