elara was worried, not only about what hagrid might have decided to teach them, but also about how the rest of the class, particularly draco and his cronies, would behave if umbridge was watching them.

however, the high inquisitor was nowhere to be seen as they struggled through the snow toward hagrid, who stood waiting for them on the edge of the forest. he did not present a reassuring sight; the bruises that had been purple on saturday night were now tinged with green and yellow and some of his cuts still seemed to be bleeding. elara could not understand this: gad gagrid perhaps been attacked by some creature whose venom prevented the wounds it inflicted from healing? as though to complete the ominous picture, hagrid was carrying what looked like half a dead cow over his shoulder.

"we're workin' in here today!" hagrid called happily to the approaching students, jerking his head back at the dark trees behind him. "bit more sheltered! anyway, they prefer the dark. . . ."

"what prefers the dark?" elara heard draco say sharply to crabbe and goyle, a trace of panic in his voice. "what did he say prefers the dark — did you hear?"

"ready?" said hagrid happily, looking around at the class. "right, well, i've bin savin' a trip inter the forest fer yer fifth year. thought we'd go an' see these creatures in their natural habitat. Now, what we're studyin' today is pretty rare, i reckon i'm probably the on'y person in britain who's managed ter train 'em —"

"and you're sure they're trained, are you?" said draco, the panic in his voice even more pronounced now. "only it wouldn't be the first time you'd brought wild stuff to class, would it?"

the slytherins murmured agreement and a few gryffindors looked as though they thought draco had a fair point too.

" 'course they're trained," said hagrid, scowling and hoisting the dead cow a little higher on his shoulder.

"so what happened to your face, then?" demanded draco.

"mind yer own business!" said hagrid, angrily. "now if yeh've finished askin' stupid questions, follow me!"

he turned and strode straight into the forest. Nobody seemed much disposed to follow. elara glanced at harry, ron, and hermione, who sighed but nodded, and the four of them set off after hagrid, leading the rest of the class.

they walked for about ten minutes until they reached a place where the trees stood so closely together that it was as dark as twilight and there was no snow on the ground at all. hagrid deposited his half a cow with a grunt on the ground, stepped back, and turned to face his class again, most of whom were creeping toward him from tree to tree, peering around nervously as though expecting to be set upon at any moment.

"gather roun', gather roun'," said hagrid encouragingly. "now, they'll be attracted by the smell o' the meat but i'm goin' ter give 'em a call anyway, 'cause they'll like ter know it's me. . . ."

he turned, shook his shaggy head to get the hair out of his face, and gave an odd, shrieking cry that echoed through the dark trees like the call of some monstrous bird. nobody laughed; most of them looked too scared to make a sound.

hagrid gave the shrieking cry again. a minute passed in which the class continued to peer nervously over their shoulders and around trees for a first glimpse of whatever it was that was coming. and then, as hagrid shook his hair back for a third time and expanded his enormous chest, harry nudged elara and pointed into the black space between two gnarled yew trees.

a pair of blank, white, shining eyes were growing larger through the gloom and a moment later the dragonish face, neck, and then skeletal body of a great, black, winged horse emerged from the darkness. it looked around at the class for a few seconds, swishing its long black tail, then bowed its head and began to tear flesh from the dead cow with its pointed fangs.

a great wave of relief broke over elara. here at last was proof that she had not imagined these creatures, that they were real: hagrid knew about them too. elara and harry looked eagerly at ron, but ron was still staring around into the trees and after a few seconds he whispered, "why doesn't hagrid call again?"

most of the rest of the class were wearing expressions as confused and nervously expectant as ron's and were still gazing everywhere but at the horse standing feet from them. there were only two other people who seemed to be able to see them: a stringy slytherin boy standing just behind goyle was watching the horse eating with an expression of great distaste on his face, and neville, whose eyes were following the swishing progress of the long black tail.

"oh, an' here comes another one!" said hagrid proudly, as a second black horse appeared out of the dark trees, folded its leathery wings closer to its body, and dipped its head to gorge on the meat. "now . . . put yer hands up, who can see 'em?"

immensely pleased to feel that she was at last going to understand the mystery of these horses, elara raised her hand. hagrid nodded at her and harry. "yeah . . . yeah, i knew you two'd be able ter," he said seriously.

"an' you too, neville, eh? an' —"

"excuse me," said draco in a sneering voice, "but what exactly are we supposed to be seeing?"

for answer, hagrid pointed at the cow carcass on the ground. the whole class stared at it for a few seconds, then several people gasped and parvati squealed. elara understood why: bits of flesh stripping themselves away from the bones and vanishing into thin air had to look very odd indeed.

"what's doing it?" parvati demanded in a terrified voice, retreating behind the nearest tree. "what's eating it?"

"thestrals," said hagrid proudly and hermione gave a soft "oh!" of comprehension at elara's shoulder. "hogwarts has got a whole herd of 'em in here. now, who knows — ?"

"but they're really, really unlucky!" interrupted parvati, looking alarmed. "they're supposed to bring all sorts of horrible misfortune on people who see them. professor trelawney told me once —"

"no, no, no," said hagrid, chuckling, "tha's jus' superstition, that is, they aren' unlucky, they're dead clever an' useful! 'course, this lot don' get a lot o' work, it's mainly jus' pullin' the school carriages unless dumbledore's takin' a long journey an' don' want ter apparate — an' here's another couple, look —"

two more horses came quietly out of the trees, one of them passing very close to parvati, who shivered and pressed herself closer to the tree, saying, "i think i felt something, i think it's near me!"

"don' worry, it won' hurt yeh," said Hagrid patiently. "Righ', now, who can tell me why some o' you can see them an' some can't?"

hermione raised her hand.

"go on then," said hagrid, beaming at her.

"the only people who can see thestrals," she said, "are people who have seen death."

elara's eyebrows furrowed. of course, she'd cedric die, but she's always been able to see them.

"tha's exactly right," said hagrid solemnly, "ten points ter gryffindor. now, thestrals —"

"hem, hem." professor umbridge had arrived. she was standing a few feet away from elara, wearing her green hat and cloak again, her clipboard at the ready. hagrid, who had never heard umbridge's fake cough before, was gazing in some concern at the closest thestral, evidently under the impression that it had made the sound.

"hem, hem."

"oh hello!" hagrid said, smiling, having located the source of the noise.

"you received the note i sent to your cabin this morning?" said umbridge, in the same loud, slow voice she had used with him earlier, as though she was addressing somebody both foreign and very slow. "telling you that i would be inspecting your lesson?"

"oh yeah," said hagrid brightly. "glad yeh found the place all righ'! well, as you can see — or, i dunno — can you? we're doin' thestrals today —"

"i'm sorry?" said umbridge loudly, cupping her hand around her ear and frowning. "what did you say?"

hagrid looked a little confused.

"er — thestrals!" he said loudly. "big — er — winged horses, yeh know!"

he flapped his gigantic arms hopefully. professor umbridge raised her eyebrows at him and muttered as she made a note on her clipboard, " 'has . . . to . . . resort . . . to . . . crude . . . sign . . . language . . .' "

"well . . . anyway . . ." said hagrid, turning back to the class and looking slightly flustered. "erm . . . what was i sayin'?"

" 'appears . . . to . . . have . . . poor . . . short . . . term . . . memory . . .' " muttered umbridge, loudly enough for everyone to hear her. draco malfoy looked as though christmas had come a month early; hermione, on the other hand, had turned scarlet with suppressed rage.

"oh yeah," said hagrid, throwing an uneasy glance at umbridge's clipboard, but plowing on valiantly. "yeah, i was gonna tell yeh how come we got a herd. yeah, so, we started off with a male an' five females. this one," he patted the first horse to have appeared, "name o' tenebrus, he's my special favorite, firs' one born here in the forest —"

"are you aware," umbridge said loudly, interrupting him, "that the ministry of magic has classified thestrals as 'dangerous'?"

elara's heart sank like a stone, but Hagrid merely chuckled.

"thestrals aren' dangerous! all righ, they might take a bite outta you if yeh really annoy them —"

" 'shows . . . signs . . . of . . . pleasure . . . at . . . idea . . . of . . . violence . . . ' " muttered umbridge, scribbling on her clipboard again.

"no — come on!" said hagrid, looking a little anxious now. "i mean, a dog'll bite if yeh bait it, won' it — but thestrals have jus' got a bad reputation because o' the death thing — people used ter think they were bad omens, didn' they? jus' didn' understand, did they?"

umbridge did not answer; she finished writing her last note, then looked up at hagrid and said, again very loudly and slowly, "please continue teaching as usual. i am going to walk" — she mimed walking — draco and pansy parkinson were having silent fits of laughter — "among the students" — she pointed around at individual members of the class — "and ask them questions." she pointed at her mouth to indicate talking.

hagrid stared at her, clearly at a complete loss to understand why she was acting as though he did not understand normal english. hermione had tears of fury in her eyes now.

"you hag, you evil hag!" she whispered, as umbridge walked toward pansy parkinson. "i know what you're doing, you awful, twisted, vicious —"

"erm . . . anyway," said hagrid, clearly struggling to regain the flow of his lesson, "so — thestrals. yeah. well, there's loads o' good stuff abou' them. . . ."

"do you find," said professor umbridge in a ringing voice to pansy parkinson, "that you are able to understand professor hagrid when he talks?"

just like hermione, pansy had tears in her eyes, but these were tears of laughter; indeed, her answer was almost incoherent because she was trying to suppress her giggles. "no . . . because . . . well . . . it sounds . . . like grunting a lot of the time. . . ."

umbridge scribbled on her clipboard. the few unbruised bits of hagrid's face flushed, but he tried to act as though he had not heard pansy's answer.

"er . . . yeah . . . good stuff abou' thestrals. well, once they're tamed, like this lot, yeh'll never be lost again. 'mazin' senses o' direction, jus' tell 'em where yeh want ter go —"

"assuming they can understand you, of course," said draco loudly, and pansy parkinson collapsed in a fit of renewed giggles. professor umbridge smiled indulgently at them and then turned to neville.

"you can see the thestrals, longbottom, can you?" she said. neville nodded. "whom did you see die?" she asked, her tone indifferent.

"my . . . my grandad," said neville.

"and what do you think of them?" she said, waving her stubby hand at the horses, who by now had stripped a great deal of the carcass down to bone.

"erm," said neville nervously, with a glance at hagrid. "well, they're . . . er . . . okay. . . ."

" 'students . . . are . . . too . . . intimidated . . . to . . . admit . . . they . . . are . . . frightened. . . .'" muttered umbridge, making another note on her clipboard.

"no!" said neville, looking upset, "no, i'm not scared of them — !"

"it's quite all right," said umbridge, patting neville on the shoulder with what she evidently intended to be an understanding smile, though it looked more like a leer to elara. "well, hagrid," she turned to look up at him again, speaking once more in that loud, slow voice, "i think i've got enough to be getting along with. . . . you will receive" — she mimed taking something from the air in front of her — "the results of your inspection" — she pointed at the clipboard — "in ten days' time." she held up ten stubby little fingers, then, her smile wider and more toadlike than ever before beneath her green hat, she bustled from their midst, leaving draco and pansy parkinson in fits of laughter, hermione actually shaking with fury, and neville looking confused and upset.

"that foul, lying, twisting old gargoyle!" stormed hermione half an hour later, as they made their way back up to the castle through the channels they had made earlier in the snow. "you see what she's up to? it's her thing about half-breeds all over again — she's trying to make out hagrid's some kind of dim-witted troll, just because he had a giantess for a mother — and oh, it's not fair, that really wasn't a bad lesson at all — i mean, all right, if it had been blast-ended skrewts again, but thestrals are fine — in fact, for hagrid, they're really good!"

"umbridge said they're dangerous," said ron.

"well, it's like hagrid said, they can look after themselves," said hermione impatiently, "and i suppose a teacher like grubbly-plank wouldn't usually show them to us before n.e.w.t. level, but, well, they are very interesting, aren't they? the way some people can see them and some can't! i wish i could."

"do you?" harry asked her quietly.

she looked horrorstruck.

"oh harry, lara — i'm sorry — no, of course I don't — that was a really stupid thing to say —"

"it's okay," harry said quickly, "don't worry. . . ."

"it's alright," said elara. "i don't even know who i saw die."

"what d'you mean? you saw cedric die," said ron.

hermione glared at him malevolently.

"no, i've always been able to see them," said elara, and she trailed off, lost in the thoughts of who she might've seen die before her time at hogwarts.

"i'm surprised so many people could see them," said ron. "four in a class —"

"yeah, weasley, we were just wondering," said a malicious voice nearby. unheard by any of them in the muffling snow, draco, crabbe, and goyle were walking along right behind them. "d'you reckon if you saw someone snuff it you'd be able to see the quaffle better?"

he, crabbe, and goyle roared with laughter as they pushed past on their way to the castle and then broke into a chorus of "weasley is our king." ron's ears turned scarlet.

"it's alright, ron," said elara. "they'll get what's coming to them."

seconds later, they dropped to the ground as they were being attacked by bat-bogeys. ginny waved enthusiastically at them from across the courtyard.

december arrived, bringing with it more snow and a positive avalanche of homework for the fifth years. ron and hermione's prefect duties also became more and more onerous as christmas approached. they were called upon to supervise the decoration of the castle ("you try putting up tinsel when peeves has got the other end and is trying to strangle you with it," said ron), to watch over first and second years spending their break times inside because of the bitter cold ("and they're cheeky little snotrags, you know, we definitely weren't that rude when we were in first year," said ron), and to patrol the corridors in shifts with argus filch, who suspected that the holiday spirit might show itself in an outbreak of wizard duels ("he's got dung for brains, that one," said ron furiously). they were so busy that hermione had stopped knitting elf hats and was fretting that she was down to her last three.

"all those poor elves i haven't set free yet, having to stay over during christmas because there aren't enough hats!"

elara nor harry, who had not had the heart to tell her that dobby was taking everything she made, bent lower over their history of magic essays. over the next several days, harry kept pestering elara about the patronus lessons.

on the last day before break, they had another da meeting. harry went early to set up, and elara, hermione, ron, and neville joined him not long after. elara took her normal spot by harry's side, throwing her traditional glare at zacharias, and exchanging annoyed looks with ginny.

"okay," harry said, calling them all to order. "i thought this evening we should just go over the things we've done so far, because it's the last meeting before the holidays and there's no point starting anything new right before a three-week break —"

"we're not doing anything new?" said zacharias smith, in a disgruntled whisper loud enough to carry through the room. "if i'd known that, i wouldn't have come. . . ."

"we're all really sorry harry didn't tell you, then," said fred loudly.

"damn it, harry!" exclaimed aurora.

several people sniggered. fred and aurora high-fived.

"we can practice in pairs," said harry. "we'll start with the impediment jinx, just for ten minutes, then we can get out the cushions and try stunning again."