The Adopted Weasley

3~ Why I Hate Snape

"Hermione!" Ron shouted across the common room, holding Crookshanks back the scruff of his neck. "This thing was in my room again!!" He shook the poor thing and Grace jumped up, Lola was on her shoulder.

"Ronald! Leave the cat alone!"

"He tried to kill Scabbers!"

"He's a cat! He's supposed to do that!"

Hermione stood up and stalked over, taking Crookshanks.

"He is a cat, if you're so worried about Scabbers, take better care of him!" Hermione said angrily.

"Well then keep your cat away!"

"STOP!" Grace shouted, the screaming was really getting to her. "That's enough! Both of you go cool off. We have Care of Magical Creatures soon and we need to be supporting Hagrid." She glared at them until they went their separate ways.

Grace sighed and collapsed on the couch, absolutely exhausted. While she had been sleeping, it wasn't very restful and she was ready to jump out a window.

Lola nudged her and cuddled up in her hand, falling asleep. Grace went back upstairs and put her in the hammock and then went back to the common room to wait on Ron and Hermione.

After about an hour, they both came downstairs again, Ron with Harry, ready to head outside.

The air was humid, and Grace was having a hard time breathing. When they got down there, she was practically gasping for breath.

Neville took one look at her and took her bag, digging into it for the inhaler he knew she kept on her. By the time he pulled it out, Grace was sitting on the ground, taking shallow breaths.

All the students had formed a ring around them, Harry and Hermione were keeping them back, while Ron was kneeling next to her, holding her hand.

As Neville was helping her take the dose with shaking hands, Hagrid broke through the circle.

"What's going on?"

"I'm fine." Grace said carefully. "I'm sorry."

Ron helped her stand up, and they followed Hagrid to a clearing in the forbidden forest.

Grace heard a branch snap, and she turned to see Atron in the shadows. He waved at her with a smile, and then disappeared into the woods.

Hagrid called for attention and Grace looked forward, gasping when she saw the Hippogriff standing there.

He was a beautiful beast, with black, white, and grey feathers, yellow eyes, and a dark orange beak. He was taller than Hagrid, which was quite a feat.

And he was staring right at Grace.

She immediately dropped her gaze, not wanting him to think she was looking to assert dominance when she wasn't.

Harry went first, he bowed low, and for a tense moment, it looked bad, but then Buckbeak, which was his name, bowed low to the ground.

"Great job Harry! I expect he'll let you ride him!"

Before Harry could protest, he was on the back of the bird, and they were off.

They were gone for several minutes, in which Hagrid had everyone line up, and he explained that not everyone may get to ride and it completely depended on Buckbeak.

Grace was next in line when Harry got back, when Harry had thanked Buckbeak, and walked away, Grace slowly walked towards him.

But before she could bow, something that made everyone behind her gasp, happened.

Buckbeak bowed to her.

Grace froze and Hagrid seemed at a loss for words.

Then Malfoy ruined everything.

He stalked up and shoved Grace to the ground, then basically got in Buckbeak's face. Demanding that the beast bow to him.

Buckbeak did what anyone would do. He smacked Malfoy's arm, he immediately started wailing even though Buckbeak had now lost interest and had trotted off.

Hagrid quickly picked Malfoy up and barked instructions to stay away from Buckbeak, and said he'd be back shortly.

Grace walked over to where she had seen Atron, a piece of paper was laying there, a map. Grace stuffed it in her robe pocket and hurried back to her class.

. . .

Neville had to drag Grace to potions class on Thursday afternoon. Snape had been very angry about Remus getting the DADA position, and Grace was not looking forward to dealing with old rivalries that she had nothing to do with.

When they finally got there, Snape was obviously not happy. There was broken glass everywhere and it really looked like he had thrown a tantrum. Grace and Neville slid in a seat next to Hermione. Trevor was sitting next to them calmly for once.

"Today we'll be doing the shrinking charm." Snape said in his usual cold voice. "The first hour will be spent as a test, the second will actually be doing the potion."

Grace and Neville started gathering ingredients for themselves and then they went to their own separate cauldrons.

After an hour, Grace had a perfect, acid green brew, but Neville's was orange and bubbled in all the wrong ways. When Snape was inspecting, he froze there and grabbed Neville by the front of his robes.

"I'm sick of your failures, boy. This is supposed to be green! This next attempt will be fed to your toad." He let him go and stormed back to his desk, reviewing papers.

Neville looked at her in panic and Grace shook her head.

"It's going to be okay." She signed. "Let's go wash our cauldrons, and then get all the ingredients you need."

Over the next hour, Grace signed instructions to Neville under the table.

"Now sprinkle that in slowly, turn clockwise twice, counter clockwise three times."

"Now add the crushed root."

"Stir it clockwise and count to 15 with me... now zig zag across the pot."

"One rat spleen."

While Grace was helping Neville, she also had to help Ron fix some roots he had chopped up badly, intending them for Malfoy, who was really starting to get on Grace's nerves for his whole arm thing. Hagrid was a mess and worried to death about Buckbeak.

After the one of the most stressful hours of Grace's life, Neville's potion looked good enough that it wasn't going to kill Trevor. Snape glanced at the hourglass and started inspecting potions.

When he got to Neville, he grabbed Trevor and, using a syringe, put a few drops on the toads back. Everyone watched in tense silence.

Nothing happened for a few seconds, then Trevor shrunk to a tadpole and the room exploded in cheers. Snape scowled and turned Trevor back begrudgingly.

"Five points from Gryffindor. You shouldn't have helped him Miss. Weasley. Class dismissed."

When they got out of the classroom, Neville hugged Grace.

"Thanks, you didn't have to help me."

Grace hugged him back.

"What are friends for?"