"Who's it from?" Mike asked curiously, looking at Alexandra as she started opening up the envelope to take out the letter, a smile upon her lips.

She already knew who had sent it.

Dear Alex,
Hope you're doing well. Do you think you can come visit me after your classes this afternoon for a cup of tea? Send a respond to me with this owl.

Hagrid

With that, Alexandra took a quill and ink out of her bag and turned the paper over to write back to him.

Ever since the end of her first year at Hogwarts, Alexandra had become close to Rubeus Hagrid. It had all started when she was trying to find a unicorn within the forest, out of curiosity, wondering what they looked like up close. But she had come across Hagrid at the edge of the forest.

     At first he had tried to talk her off it, saying that the Dark Forest wasn't a safe place. But once they got to talking, they spent hours on end discussing magical creatures.

After that, Hagrid invited Alexandra to his little hut once a month for a cup of tea, so they could sit around and chat about dragons, unicorns, or even thestrals.

"It's Hagrid," Alexandra informed Mike, who looked like he was just about to burst with curiosity. "He wants me to go visit him after my last class."

With that, she started writing behind his letter,

Dear Hagrid,
I would love to come down for a cup of tea at around five o'clock. I've read the most fascinating thing about Phoenixes that I can't wait to tell you.

See you soon,
Alex

***

After her last class, Alexandra bid Mike goodbye as he went to the Quidditch pitch for his team's tryouts and she went down to Hagrid's hut, at the edge of the Dark Forest.

She knocked twice on the wooden door until a familiar voice called from behind it, "Who is it?"

"It's me," Alexandra called back and moments later, a big smile spread through her face as the door opened and she saw her old friend, Rubeus Hagrid.

"Alex!" Hagrid boomed, bringing Alexandra in a bone-crushing hug. "How are yeh? How was yer summer?"

Alexandra shrugged, forcing a polite smile. "Just as always. How about you?"

"Great! Well, come on in! I've got a surprise for yeh that I'm sure you'll find fascinating!" Hagrid said cheerfully, stepping aside so Alexandra could go inside.

"So what's the surprise?" she asked curiously, taking off her cloak and placing it on the giant chair nearby, looking around the cabin.

"It's outside. Yer gonna love it!" Hagrid laughed happily. "But first how about that tea, eh? Yeh must be tired after firs' day of school!"

"Oh, yes, thank you." Alexandra smiled at him, sitting down:

Even though she was more excited to know what the surprise was, she still didn't want to disappoint Hagrid by turning down his invitation to tea and his home-made cake.

"Yer granddad didn't give yeh a hard time this summer, did he?" Hagrid questioned rather sympathetically, pouring both of them some tea.

"He was not better nor worse than before," she answered earnestly, shrugging. "He still wouldn't let me out without Edna accompanying me, or still hated it if I wanted to associate with the Muggles in the village nearby our house. Same old, same old."

"Did yeh say he used to come to Hogwarts?" Hagrid asked, placing a cup before Alexandra as he took the seat before her around the table.

"Yes." Alexandra nodded, taking a sip from her drink. "Marcellus Starling. He was in Slytherin."

"Hmm... I don't really remember him."

"Well, he was at school when Professor Dippet was Headmaster."

"Yeah, I was there at Professor Dippet's time," said Hagrid rather gloomily, grimacing at something he must've remembered.

Despite the close bond Alexandra had with him, Hagrid never told her why he had gotten expelled from Hogwarts in his third year, and so she never asked either, not wanting to make him uncomfortable.

"But yeh know what?" Hagrid started after a short pause. "I think I did know a Marcellus Blackwood, in Slytherin. He was in his sixth year when I was in my second. He was a nasty one, I'm telling yeh. Can he be related to your grandpa?"

      Alexandra giggled. "Hagrid, people are usually related through the same surnames. Not when they share the same first names."

     "Oh... right." Hagrid chuckled nervously.

      But just then, when Hagrid took a quick glance out the hut's window, he promptly got to his feet angrily.

      "Oi! Yeh four!" Hagrid shouted out of the window. "Away from the forest!"

      But whoever was out there apparently didn't stop, seeing as Hagrid made his way over the hut's door, mumbling grumpily under his breath as he walked outside to stop them.

      Alexandra glanced out of the window, seeing James Potter and Sirius Black walking toward the forest with Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew right behind them.

      Hagrid kept yelling after them until the four boys finally gave up and made their way back to the castle.

      Hagrid sighed to himself as he walked back into the hut. "Those four would give me a heart attack some day, I'm telling yeh."

       "Do they do this often, then?" Alexandra asked amusingly.

      "Too often that I've lost count," he said, shaking his head. "Sometimes at nights, when I look out of the window, I even imagine four pairs of legs walking into the forest. I must be goin' mad..."

      But Alexandra thought otherwise. She thought that the only logical answer was that the four boy were probably using an Invisibility cloak, but couldn't fit their whole bodies under it. But she said nothing and just sipped on her drink.

"So how about that surprise, eh?" Hagrid said cheerfully after some while, getting to his feet again.

Feeling the excitement fill her up, Alexandra stood up and followed Hagrid out of the little hut as he led her toward the edge of the Dark Forest.

But they couldn't have gone for more than a few minutes that Alexandra stopped in her tracks, gasping when she saw a beautiful creature within the woods, laying gracefully on the ground and resting.