Cassia's POV

This morning, our first class was Divination. We all filed into the classroom and sat three to these miniature tea tables. Harry, Ron, and I sat together, of course.

"Welcome, my children. In this room, you shall explore the noble art of Divination. In this room, you shall discover if you possess the Sight," the professor explained. She stood up and bumped into a table in front of her, much to the class' amusement. "Hello. I am Professor Trelawney," she greeted, "Together, we shall cast ourselves into the future! But for this lesson, we will be focusing on Tessomancy, which is the art of reading tea leave, so please take the cup of the person sitting opposite you. But first, you must broaden your minds. First, you must look beyond."

"What a load of rubbish," I heard Hermione say suddenly, drawing our attention to her.

"Where'd you come from?" Ron asked.

"Me? I've been here all this time," Hermione snapped. I raised an eyebrow at her. Somehow, I could tell she was lying.

Professor Trelawney instructed us to take a cup from the person sitting opposite us, and interpret what the tea leaves at the bottom of the cup represented. Harry got mine, Ron got Harry's, and I got Ron's.

"You, boy, is your grandmother quite well?" Professor Trelawney asked, looking at Neville.

"I-I-I think so," Neville replied.

"Give me the cup," Trelawney requested. He complied, and she looked into it. "Oh...pity," she muttered, placing the cup down. She walked around the room, reminding us to broaden our minds, but then she stopped suddenly when she saw Ron. "Oh! Your aura is pulsing, dear. Are you in the beyond? I think you are!" she exclaimed.

"Sure," Ron replied.

"Look at the cup. Tell me what you see," Trelawney urged him.

"Well, Harry's got sort of a wonky cross. That's trials and suffering. And...there-there could be the sun. That's happiness. So, uh, you're gonna suffer...but you're gonna be happy about it," Ron read, looking at his Divination book every few seconds to translate the meaning of the tea leaves in Harry's cup.

Trelawney made eye contact with Harry. "And your sister, boy?"

Harry examined my cup, squinting a little as he tried to get a good look at what the tea leaves meant. "Well...Cass has a heart. That's a symbol of love," he said, "But -- but I can see it has cracks in it, and they're -- they're mending. So..." He glanced at Ron's book. "...she's going to fall in love, and it'll be a struggle, but the love will last a long time."

"Give me the cups," Trelawney ordered. Harry and Ron handed them to her, but as soon as she looked inside, a look of pure shock crossed her face, and she almost dropped the cups. "Oh, my-my dears, you have...the Grim," she managed to say in between heavy gasps.

"The Grin? What's the Grin?" Seamus asked.

"Not the Grin, you idiot. The Grim," Dean corrected him.

"Taking form of a giant spectral dog. It's among the darkest omens in our world. It's an omen...of death." someone read from their book. Wait, does that mean Harry and I might die?! Oh my God, this is insane!

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"Don't think that Grim thing's got anything to do with Sirius Black, do you?" Ron asked as we made our way down to Hagrid's hut for Care of Magical Creatures class.

"Oh, honestly, Ron. If you ask me, Divination's a very wooly discipline. Ancient Runes, there's a fascinating subject," Hermione snapped.

Ron had a confused look on his face. "Ancient Runes? Exactly how many classes are you taking this term?" he questioned.

"A fair few," Hermione answered.

Ron paused. "Hang on. That's not possible. Ancient Runes is at the same time as Divination. You have to be in two classes at once," he objected.

Hermione scoffed in reply and said, "Don't be silly, Ron. How could anyone be in two classes at once?" She shook her head and walked ahead of us a little bit. "Broaden your minds...Use your inner eye to see the future!" she mocked Trelawney.

"Gather round, ev'ryone. Less talking, if you don't mind. I've got a real treat fer yeh today! A great lesson. Follow me," Hagrid said once we all got to his hut. He took us into the Forbidden Forest, and then stopped us at a small clearing surrounded by some trees. "Less chatter. Form a group over there, and open yer books to page forty-nine," he instructed us.

"Exactly how do we do that?" Malfoy snapped, earning an eye roll from yours truly.

"Yeh just stroke the spine, o'course," Hagrid said, clearly as annoyed as I was.

We all stroked the spines of our Monster Book of Monsters books. Except Neville. He forgot that part, which resulted in his book attacking him.

"Don't be such a wimp, Longbottom," Malfoy taunted him.

"I'm okay. I'm okay," Neville panted, just before his book attacked him again. After a while, the book finally stopped acting crazy, allowing Neville to pick it up and close it..

"You're supposed to stroke it," Ron said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Right," Neville panted.

"I think they're funny," Hermione sarcastically remarked.

"Oh, yeah. Terribly funny. God, this place is going to the dogs. Wait until my father hears we have this oaf teaching classes," Malfoy commented. Some of his goons laughed.

"Shut up, Malfoy," Harry and I both snapped, walking over to him.

Malfoy and the other Slytherins "ooh"ed at our remark. Then he threw his bag at Goyle and sauntered up to us. His usual cocky expression suddenly turned into one of terror. "D-Dementor! Dementor!" he shouted, pointing to the sky. We turned to look, and I heard a barrage of laughter from the Slytherins. When we looked back at them, I saw that Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle had put their hoods up and were making noises to imitate the Dementors. I would've hexed him into oblivion if Hermione hadn't pulled us back to where she and Ron had been standing in the group. I swear, that boy is getting on my last nerve!

Hagrid cleared his throat to gain our attention. "Da-da-da-daaaah!" he sang, gesturing to a creature as it made its way into the clearing. It was grey all over, and it looked like it was half-bird, half-horse. "Isn't he beautiful? Say hello to Buckbeak!" Hagrid said, tossing the creature a dead fur-covered animal that I couldn't identify.

"Hagrid, exactly what is that?" Ron asked.

"That, Ron, is a Hippogriff," Hagrid answered, gesturing to Buckbeak. "Now, first thing yeh wanna know about Hippogriffs is that they're very proud creatures. Very easily offended. You do not want to insult a Hippogriff. It may just be the last thing you ever do," he warned us, "Now, who'd like to come up here an' say hello?"

Everyone else stepped back except Harry and I.

Hagrid took this as us volunteering. "Well done, Harry, Cassia. Well done," he said. He beckoned us to step closer to the Hippogriff. "Now, yeh have to let him make the first move. It's only polite. So step up, give 'im a nice bow. If he bows back, you can go an' touch 'im. If not...well, we'll get to that later," he instructed.

Harry and I stopped a few feet away from Buckbeak.

"Go on. Make yer bow. Both of yeh," Hagrid urged us.

We bowed. Buckbeak eyed us for a moment and cawed loudly, flapping his wings.

"Back off, you two. Back off!" Hagrid whispered.

We started to back up (still bowing, of course), but Harry stepped on a twig by accident. I grasped his hand tightly, afraid of what this creature would do to us. One wrong move, and we'd be in big trouble.

"Keep still. Keep still," Hagrid urged us.

I took a quick glance up at Buckbeak. Buckbeak cocked his head slightly, and then bowed. "Wow," I whispered.

"Well done, you two. Well done," said Hagrid. He threw another furry thing at Buckbeak, who swallowed it. "Think you can go and pet him now."

I heard someone shoving others aside so they could watch us. Probably Malfoy. No surprise there. Harry and I slowly stretched out one arm and made our way closer to Buckbeak, a little bit too fast. Buckbeak snapped at us.

"Not so fast. Nice and slow," Hagrid instructed us. We slowed down. "Now let him come to you." Both of us stopped.

Buckbeak slowly came closer and let us stroke his beak, first Harry, and then me.

"That's it...Well done. Oh, well done, you two! Well done!" Hagrid praised. Everyone else applauded for us. Except Malfoy, of course, but who cares?

"I think he may let yeh ride 'im now," I heard Hagrid say after the applause died down.

"What?" Harry and I said at the same time.

"Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey! Hagrid!" Harry protested as Hagrid picked him up and plopped him on Buckbeak's back.

"Hagrid, put me down!" I added as Hagrid picked me up and placed me right behind Harry.

"Don't pull out any of his feathers, 'cause he won't thank you for that," Hagrid warned us. He slapped Buckbeak on the back, who reared up and then broke into a running start before becoming airborne.

"Whoaaaa!" Harry exclaimed.

I held onto my brother for dear life as we flew over the school. Buckbeak cawed quite loudly- I guess he was happy that he finally got to go up in the air. I felt my adrenaline rushing when I took a peek at the ground below. Yes, it was scary, but at the same time, it was really exciting. I can't even tell you how amazing it is, riding a Hippogriff. It was even more incredible than flying on a broom. Buckbeak flew lower until his talons just grazed the water. I saw Harry let go of Buckbeak's neck and slowly hold his arms out like a plane, until they were parallel with the Hippogriff's wings. "Wahoo! Waaaaahoo!" he cheered.

"Having fun there, Harry?" I said, enjoying the feeling of the wind blowing through my hair, which was in a fishtail braid.

"Yeah!" he exclaimed.

"That makes two of us!" I agreed.

Buckbeak suddenly flew back up, away from the lake, making Harry and I cling to him to steady ourselves. We soared back over the school, and over the Forbidden Forest, and then landed in the clearing.

Hagrid came over and helped us dismount the Hippogriff. "Well done, Harry and Cassia! And well done, Buckbeak!" he praised.

Everyone applauded for us, while Malfoy looked annoyed.

Hagrid leaned close to us. "How'm I doin' me first day?" he whispered.

"Brilliant, 'Professor'," Harry replied. I nodded in agreement, giving a cheerful smile. Our response made Hagrid playfully roll his eyes at us, probably because Harry had called him "Professor".

Malfoy strutted right up to Buckbeak. Idiot, he didn't even bow! "Yeah, you're not dangerous at all, are ya, you great ugly-" he was cut off by Buckbeak rearing up and scratching him on the arm, making him fall backwards onto the ground.

Hagrid rushed over and put his hands up, trying to calm Buckbeak down.
"Whoa! Whoa! Buckbeak!" he scolded. He threw a dead ferret off and Buckbeak went to get it. "Away, yeh silly creature..." I heard Hagrid mutter.

"Oh, it's killed me! It's killed me!" Malfoy whined. And I thought Ron was a wimp.

"Calm down. It's just a scratch!" Hagrid tried to calm Malfoy.

"Hagrid! He has to be taken to the hospital!" Hermione exclaimed, coming up to Hagrid.

"I'm the teacher. I'll do it," Hagrid said. He scooped Malfoy up and started to walk away.

"You're gonna regret this. You and your bloody chicken!" Malfoy protested.

"Class dismissed!" Hagrid called over his shoulder as he walked away with Malfoy in his arms.

Buckbeak suddenly nudged me, and then I petted him. Harry was nudged next, and he did the same thing as me. Guess Buckbeak just wanted some attention.

"Can't say I blame you, Buckbeak. That white-haired git had it coming," I said to Buckbeak as we stroked his feathers.