You Gotta Love Her (Harry Potter Love Story)

Its Killed Me!

☆⋆⋆⋆☆   song: respect by aretha franklin   ☆⋆⋆⋆☆  

Hope you enjoy!

Harry was pleased to get out of the castle after lunch. Yesterday's rain had cleared; the sky was a clear, pale grey, and the grass was springy and damp underfoot as they set off for their first-ever Care of Magical Creatures class.

Ron and Hermione weren't speaking to each other. Harry and Lyra walked beside them in silence as they went down the sloping lawns to Hagrid's hut on the edge of the Forbidden Forest. It was only when he spotted three-too-familiar backs ahead of them that he realized they must be having these lessons with the Slytherins. Malfoy was talking animatedly to Crabbe and Goyle, who were chortling. Harry was quite sure he knew what they were talking about.

Lyra shivered beside him. Even though it wasn't cold out, Lyra had a tendency of being cold even on the warmest summer days. Harry never understood a thing about it.

"You cold?" Harry asked quietly.

"N-no," Lyra whispered as she shivered again.

Harry huffed and put his arm around her. She looked up at him gratefully, and that look was payment enough.

Hagrid was waiting for his class at the door of his hut. He stood in his moleskin overcoat, with Fang the boarhound at his heels, looking impatient to start.

"C'mon, now, get a move on!" he called as the class approached. "Got a real treat for yeh today! Great lesson comin' up! Everyone here? Right, follow me!"

For one nasty moment, Harry thought that Hagrid was going to lead them into the forest; Harry had had enough unpleasant experiences in there to last him a lifetime. However, Hagrid strolled off around the edge of the trees, and five minutes later, they found themselves outside a kind of paddock. There was nothing in there.

"Everyone gather 'round the fence here!" he called. "That's it - make sure yeh can see - now, firs' thing yeh'll want ter do is open yer books -"

"How?" came the cold, drawling voice of Draco Malfoy.

"Eh?" said Hagrid.

"How do we open our books?" Malfoy repeated. He took out his copy of The Monster Book of Monsters, which he had bound shut with a length of rope. Other people took theirs out too; some, like Harry, had belted their books shut; others had crammed them inside tight bags or clamped them together with binder clips. Lyra was the only one who seemed to know how to handle it, for she took out her book from her bag with nothing keeping it secure. She held it close to her chest, and the book purred.

"How did you do that?" Harry asked, astonished.

Lyra shrugged. "I guess I'm good at making friends with unexpected things."

Harry smiled.

"Hasn' - hasn' anyone bin able ter open their books?" said Hagrid, looking crestfallen.

'The class all shook their heads, except for Lyra, of course.

"Yeh've got ter stroke 'em," said Hagrid, as though this was the most obvious thing in the entire world. "Look-"

He took Hermione's copy and ripped off the Spellotape that bound it. The book tried to bite, but Hagrid ran a giant forefinger down its spine, and the book shivered, and then fell open and lay quiet in his hand.

"Oh, how silly we've all been!" Malfoy sneered. "We should have stroked them! Why didn't we guess!"

"I - I thought they were funny," Hagrid said uncertainly to Hermione.