The Outcasts Of Hogwarts

Chapter 13 Unexpected

Amaris visited Hagrid often over the next few weeks. His hut was a refuge from the staring and the name-calling that had become the norm in the Hogwarts corridors. Harry insisted that the whole thing would gloss over soon, but she was beginning to doubt that they had the same definition of soon.

But in Hagrid's hut, she was away from all that. They would talk for hours, swapping stories and knowledge. Sometimes he would let her help care for some of the creatures on his rounds as Gamekeeper: feeding the hippogriffs, health checks on the giant squid. He wouldn't let her too close to any of them though, after what had happened to Malfoy, which was a shame. But Amaris felt more at home than she had done since arriving at Hogwarts.

She had been heading back from one of these trips rather later than usual, late in October. She had noticed it getting dark outside but she had also noticed the sound of the wind and rain hammering against the window. She knew It would be very cold out there, while inside the fire had been burning and the mugs of tea had been steaming. Also, her limbs were beginning to ache again so she'd wanted to put off the long walk up to the Gryffindor Tower for as long as possible.

Hagrid had been far too interested in Pachua to notice the time, he sat entranced, while feeding the occamy a selection of beetles. Amaris had thought it was about time that she introduced them, especially after she heard about Norbert the Dragon. She had known Hagrid would love her size-shifting companion. Pachua was enjoying all the attention too.

But she'd had to brave the weather at some point. Waving goodbye to Hagrid, cloak wrapped tightly around her, she headed out into the night. The wind tugged at her clothes and blew the rain directly into her face. Screwing up her eyes, Amaris trudged up the slippery glass towards the blurry lights from the castle. 

A shadow crossed her path and she stopped abruptly. The shape was small, barely the height of her knee and it streaked through the darkness with speed. Amaris tracked its movement up to the castle, stepping warily, scouring her mind for what type of creature it might be. 

The creature passed through the light from one of the great hall's windows and came to a stop. The light spilt over its sodden ginger hair, revealing a once fluffy tail and a smushed face turned to face her. Amaris sighed, Crookshanks, what was he doing out in this weather? She continued slowly up the slope towards the cat, who stayed where it was. When she was only a few paces away, she stopped and watched it closely. She realised that the cat wasn't actually looking at her, its gaze was just off to her left, back towards the forest. 

Amaris turned and scanned the silhouetted trees for what Crookshanks was staring so intently at. Just as she was turning back again, something caught her eye. Two disks of pale silvery light stared at her from the darkness. Amaris stood frozen, caught in the unmoving gaze. 

Then a slight parting in the clouds spilt the scene with the light of the waxing moon. She got a glimpse of pointed ears and a canine snout surrounding the eyes before they vanished. Spinning around, she searched the grass for the cat but was gone too. She was alone.

Amaris walked through Hogwarts' corridors, tired, cold and deep in thought. What had that thing been? She couldn't think of anything that matched it from her Fantastic Beast book and it certainly wasn't a normal dog. And why did Crookshanks, of all animals, seem to have a connection with it? After all, he was just Hermione's cat, albeit a rather strange cat with an unexplained grudge against Ron and his rat. But still just a cat.

She was so caught up in her thoughts that she nearly collided with a group of people who were walking the other way. She managed to swerve past just in time, with a quick apology before continuing.

A voice called out from behind her, "Hey skunk!"

Amaris didn't turn or slow her pace.

"Skunk!" The voice called again with a jeering tone. Amaris sighed, recognising the voice. She was about to speed up when a hand fell on her shoulder, forcing her to turn. She was met with the sneering face of Draco Malfoy. "I was calling you, didn't your mother teach you it's rude to ignore people? Oh, that's right, you had an assortment of zoo attractions for a family. No wonder you don't have any manners." He was flanked, as always, by his two henchmen Crabbe and Goyle, who were grinning dimly.