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THE FIRST TWO weeks of school quickly went by in Annabeth's opinion, she quickly adapted back into the school rhythm. The four had settled in quickly and only after a couple of days the four friends had noticed that Hagrid wasn't home.
When the four had visited his cabin, it looked abandoned, like he hadn't been there for weeks and to their surprise the half-giant hadn't opened the door either. It was wierd. Hagrid had never missed the start of a new school year.
Another shocker was that his Care of Magical Creatures lesson were now held by a replacement, Professor Grubbly-Plank.
"Maybe he's on a mission for you know-", Ron stated quietly while the four friends made their way down to Hagrid Cabin and the forbidden forest.
Occasionally a raindrop landed on Annabeth's face which made her eyes wandered up towards the grey coulds that slowly covered the sky.
When they arrived by the cabin, Professor Grubbly-Plank was standing infront of the class, a long trestle table in front of her laden with twigs.
Annabeth jumped a little bit when she suddenly heard a loud shout of laughter from behind them. When the brunette curiously glanced over her shoulder she saw no other than Draco Malfoy, who was striding towards the rest of the class, the usual gang of Slytherins' following behind him, sniggering.
By their sniggering and how they were smirking over into Harry's direction, Annabeth could already guess the topic of his joke.
"Everyone here?" Professor Grubbly-Planks voice caught Annabeth's attention and made her turn around to the Professor. "Let's crack on then. Who can tell me what these things are called?"
She motioned with her hands down to the heap of twigs in front of her. Unsurprisingly Hermione's hand immediately shot up from besides Annabeth.
Malfoy imitated Hermione jumping up and down in eagerness to answer the question. This made Pansy Parkinson let out a shrinking laughter which then caused the twigs on the table to leap up into the air and reveal themselves to be what looked like tiny pixie-ish creatures.
"So- anyone knows the names of these creatures?", Professor Grubbly-Plank questioned, one of her eyebrows raised before she slowly nodded at Hermione. "Miss Granger?"
"Bowtruckles- they're tree-guardians, usually live in wand-trees", Hermione answered her confidently.
The professor nodded at her, "Five points to Gryffindor.- Yes, these are Bowtruckles and as Miss Granger rightly says, they generally live in tress whose wood is of wand quality. Anybody know what they eat?"
"Woodlice", Hermione immediately answered without raising her hand. "- but fairy eggs if they can get them."
"Good girl, take another five points!", Professor Grubbly-Plank stated with a small smile before she went on. "So, whenever you need leaves or wood from a tree in which Bowtruckles lodges, it is wise to have a gift of woodlice ready to distract or placate it. They may not look dangerous, but if angered they will try to gouge at human eyes with their fingers, which, as you can see, are very sharp and not at all desirable near the eyeballs."
She motioned with her hand for them to step closer, "So if you'd like to gather closer, take a few woodlice and a Bowtruckle- I have enough here for one between three- you can study them more closely. I want a sketch from each of you with all body-parts labelled by the end of the lesson."
The students all went to grabbed everything they needed while Harry looked sceptically at Professor Grubbly-Plank, "Where's Hagrid?"
"Never you mind", the Professor responded to him dismissively.
Annabeth saw how Harry gave the Professor another curious look, but then Malfoy suddenly appeared besides them, a large smirk over his face.
He leaned across Harry and seized the largest Bowtrucklefrom the table, his voice low, "Maybe - the stupid oaf's got himself badly injured."
"Maybe you will if you don't shut up", Harry immediately hissed back at the blond boy.
Annabeth quickly placed a hand on Harry's arm and gave him a warning look, "Harry- don't."
But Malfoy just continued smirking at him, "Maybe he's been messing with stuff that's too big for him, if you get my drift."
The blond boy then walked away from them, while giving the siblings one last smirked when he glanced over his shoulder.
Annabeth's mind immediately started running, did he knew something? His father was a Death Eater after all. Maybe he knew something that hadn't reached the Order yet. Maybe Hagrid was in trouble-
Annabeth was pulled out of her thoughts when Hermione grabbed her by her arm and dragged her after her towards their Bowtruckle.
The rest of the lesson went by rather quickly and except for a few students that had been scratched by the Bowtruckle. But Annabeth's mind was still preoccupied with worrying about Hagrid.
After Professior Grubbly-Plank had dismissed them from her lesson the day continued with a lesson of Herbology and to Annabeth it was no surprise that Professor Sprout started her lesson by telling them about the importance of their OWL's.
Everytime the teachers did that, Annabeth felt this discomforting anxious feeling that turned her stomach into knots.
The brunette girl started fiddling with her fingers while she mentally created a list of all the things she still had to do today.
She hadn't written a single word into her dream diary for Professor Trelawney yet and she didn't had time to study her vanishing spells as well.
Her leg nervously bounced up and down while she continued to listen to Professor Sprout giving them instructions on their homework.
