บท 13: Chapter 13: Delivery Mail
Beta read by DOOMRAIDER
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-Forbidden Forest-
If I had had to give this creature a description, I'd suppose to call it a horse-looking creature, though it possessed something similar to a reptilian. It was completely fleshless, its black coat clinging to its skeletons, of which every bone was visible. Its head was dragonish, and its pupil-less eyes white and staring right at me. Wings sprouted from each wither — vast, black leathery wings that looked as though they ought to belong to giant bats. Standing still and quiet in the gathering gloom, the creatures looked eerie and sinister.
And it made every single cell in my body freeze up in terror!
"Waaahhhh!" I screamed in fright, falling to the ground and scurrying backward until my back hit the trunk of a tree.
The zombie-like horse just stood there and continued to stare at me, I think… It had no pupils after all. I brought out my wand and pointed it at the beast in front of me, prepared to fire a curse at the slightest sign of aggression. Meanwhile, in my head, I was going through every scene and memory I could muster of the earlier movies and any possible mention from the people I knew from the past. But nothing came, all I could remember was people mentioning dragons, snakes, and mermaids—not a single mention of a horse-like creature came to my head.
Was it something mentioned in the books perhaps?
I expected the horror aspect of the series to start in the later years and not in my first year!
"Jarius!"
I heard Hermione scream my name as she came running at me.
"Are you okay? What happened?" she said as her hands and eyes roamed across my face and my body in search of a possible injury.
"You need to get back, Hermione! I don't know what that thing is, but it could be dangerous and can hurt us at any moment!" I tried to push her away from me, but she remained adamant.
"Huh?"
Eyes roaming across the field in front of us, I grew confused as she seemed to not react to the scary-looking beast in front of us. And the latter wasn't even acknowledging Hermione as well, its eyes still locked on to me.
"Where? Did you see something in the woods?"
What?
"I'm talking about this monster horse that looks like it came from a b-rated horror movie in front of us!" I asked as my confusion kept growing by the second, why wasn't she reacting?
Hagrid soon came near us with hurried steps, he gazed at the horse for a second, relieving me slightly as it showed me that at least I wasn't being crazy here.
"Wha' is goin' on here? yeh okay there lad?" he asked with concern. "Here ye go, be careful with your feet there. I hope yer ain' injured, would look bad in me record as a teacher." he said jovially, trying to ease the mood around.
"Yeh can see it." Hagrid stated, and I nodded at this statement.
"..."
He went all silent, his face turning to that of pity and sadness as he gazed upon me. I could not decipher why he was acting so strangely, more and more questions presented themselves to me while I remained without any answers.
"What are you two talking about? I can't see anything!" Hermione said, getting frustrated by the lack of explanation.
"Is a good thing yeh aren' able ter see it, young lad. No, I would count it as a blessing an' hope fer yeh ter never experience life in such a way tha' it forces yeh ter see things tha' are bes' left alone."
"Do you know what it is and what it wants with us?" I asked, still gazing at the horse creature in front of me. It looked calm and still didn't look like it was going to attack us.
"Aye, tha''s a thestral, creepy giant buggers tha' roam the deepest part o' the forest where a usually keep 'em fed. Fer one ter wander so far away, it musta sensed summat it liked… or someone." he said while giving me another deep stare.
So this thing was attracted to me, if I understood correctly.
Not sure I liked that idea.
"Thestral? I read about them!" Hermione exclaimed after hearing the familiar name. "I read about them in 'Fantastic Beasts and where to find them'. If I remember correctly, they are a breed of winged horses native to the British Isles and Ireland and are said to be very dangerous by the ministry… there was something else about it, for the life of me I can't seem to recall. I merely just brushed through the pages and haven't made an in-depth lecture on it yet."
Hagrid nodded at her words, looking very impressed with her knowledge.
"Aye, I would've mistaken yeh fer a ravenclaw with yer smart thinking, girl!" he said, praising her further and making the girl blush from the compliment.
I guess she wasn't used to people expressing approval over efforts and studies.
Hagrid approached the horse, being cautious in his steps and carefully putting his hands over its head.
"These innocent creatures have unjustly bin slapped with the reputation o' carrying bad omens an' other hogwash claims. They jus be your average animal who's looking ter eat an sleep! they can be a bit aggressive at times so don' approach it willy-nily an' 'spect everything ter go smoothly. An' they can on'y be seen by very few, on'y those who've… gone through a lot." Hagrid said as he once again focused on me.
He put his large hands on my shoulders, as if trying to comfort me from something.
"I don' know wha' ter tell yeh, life can be harsh an' cruel. I cannot an' do not wan' ter imagine wha' yeh had gone through at such a young age ter be able ter see a thestral in the firs' place."
I could hear him start sniffing and failing at hiding his crying.
"If yeh ever feel in a dark place, if your thoughts wander they shouldn' be, come an' talk ter me. Whatever happen ter ya in the past musta left a scar on ya boyo. I almost wan' ter go ter yer father an' demand an answer but headmaster dumbledore will surely stop me, no kid should go through such a thing."
Now, I was completely at a loss.
Why did he suddenly treat me like I was some depressed kid caught in the middle of ending my life? Not that I didn't appreciate the sentiment and felt quite blessed to have to meet this man every day and consider him as a friend. Whatever the reason was, it has to do with these horses and Hagrid refused to elaborate on that—despite Hermione pleading for an answer. Why bother hiding if we would find the answer from the books? Maybe it was because he didn't feel comfortable bringing it up?
When I tried to talk to him about this, the man didn't take me seriously — he quickly pulled both of us away from the forest. We returned to his house, where he thanked us for visiting him and even gave us some rock cakes as gifts. We needed to head back when the time was running short, Hermione and I didn't forget to thank him once again. We made our way back to the castle, all of this felt weird and it was obvious the man was hiding something.
This entire thing just turned out so weirdly.
{Break}
-Great Hall-
A few days later, life continued as usual in Hogwarts.
I got to further concentrate on my classes while also hanging out with the boys and my Draco.
Also, after a bit of research it wasn't hard to find more details about this horse — a Thestral was its name.
Hermione meanwhile, managed to make more discoveries on the Thestral and found out the reason why some could see it. Apparently, these creatures were only visible only to those who had witnessed death at least once. It finally all made sense, not only had I witnessed death but had also experienced it in the past. The girl went a bit pale and worried when she understood the implication of me capable of seeing it.
She felt uncomfortable bringing up the subject, as she—just like Hagrid—began looking at me with melancholic eyes.
I assured her that everything was alright and that I was not going through a rough time. I told her that I knew the reason behind me being able to see them but didn't feel comfortable sharing this sensitive piece of information with her about my past yet. She was a bit hesitant at first, clearly still worried about me but after a few mor rounds of persuasion she ended up agreeing to leave this matter behind, for now.
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Back in the Great Hall, as we all sat for breakfast while some of us worked on our own things—owls suddenly flooded into the place, as usual, carrying letters and packages sent by our family. I searched for Whiteley until I found him stealing someone's breakfast from the Gryffindor's side before landing near me with an entire stack of raisins in his mouth.
"Didn't I just feed you this morning? I swear you'll get too fat to fly one of these days." I said while taking the envelope he was holding.
"It's father." Malfoy said as he held a similar envelope written by the same person. "Are we in trouble?"
"We haven't even read the damn thing and you're already assuming he's going to scold us or something?"
Despite his faults, that man was still our father and I knew that he genuinely cared about us. For some reason, he just wouldn't show the affection as one might think and come off as strict to many. Especially when he wouldn't hesitate to throw curses at us if we messed up on something, a habit that was most likely my fault.
Draco feared and respected the man, finding the idea of the latter caring about him foreign and weird. But I remember an instance years ago, when Draco and I were still very much so, in our early infancy, one of us had gotten sick. It wasn't me, my little brother came with a slight fever and it wasn't even dangerous in the first place. But I remember when our father came rushing in with an army of healers and doctors just to look over his sick son.
"Father is not someone who usually sends letters for trivial reasons."
I shrugged.
"But he can get worried about us, let's just read what he wants to say."
As we opened the letter, I couldn't help but smile.
'To Jarius and Draco,
I hope you two are pursuing your studies in Hogwarts attentively, without tarnishing our family's name with your tomfoolery — especially you, Jarius. We cannot have the others think of us as weak and easy targets, so letting your guard down will be considered as a sign of defeat.
I have received words that you both did wonderfully for your potions and charms classes, your mother and I are proud to hear about it.
But it came to our attention that Jarius is hanging around with a mud blood. I can not stress how much this piece of news displeased me when I first heard about it. If this person proves to be a leech then you better get rid of them or else I will do so in your stead.
Do not disappoint me.
Lucius Malfoy.'
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Well wasn't that a short and sweet letter.
"See? I told you he was just checking up on us."
The man couldn't express his love for us so easily with his words coming off as authoritative and harsh.
"I should have expected Professor Snape to keep him updated." Draco said, folding the letter and putting it in his robe. "Even in school, I feel like he's constantly watching us."
Yeah, he really did remind me of a helicopter parent.
"At least it's better than not caring about our studies at all, some don't even get letters from any family members. We should be grateful for the things we have, as others could easily kill to be in our position."
"Are you talking about Potter? Not like he'll be getting anything in the first place, seeing how any family member he has left is either dead, or locked up." he scoffed. "Even his Muggle family don't want anything to do with him, from what I've heard at least."
"Yeah, that's true. At least it's better than Clementine over there, poor girl is an orphan like him with not a single family member left alive." I whispered while secretly pointing at a third-year student.
He pondered before nodding at my words.
"I guess you're right, I would rather have our father always keep an eye on us than to not have him at all. Not like I'd care either way."
Awww, these two really were the same.
"Hey guys, Blaise's mother just got engaged a few days ago! Our boy here now has a stepfather!" Theodore said as he slapped the back of his depressed friend.
"I don't even know the name of the man she got engaged to… she never mentioned anything about this!"
"Ah come on man, what's the harm in this? At least your mother found a new lover and you yourself got a father to look up to."
Blaise sighed.
"You have no idea what kind of person my mother is, Theodore. I just hope everything turns out fine in the future."
Both Draco and I looked at each other with contemplating eyes. We both knew well enough about Ms. Zabini from our fathers and what kind of woman she was. Famously beautiful but secretly a venomous snake underneath that beautiful face.
"How long do you think he'll last?" I asked.
"A year at most, unless he dies like his predecessor under 'mysterious circumstances'. But then again, that incident could have been a freak accident."
We snickered, much to the confusion of some of the students.
At least the woman cared enough for her son and did not have him follow in his father's footsteps.
"Hm?"
Hoot!
From the corner of my eyes, I saw a familiar owl carrying something particular and everyone's attention was caught at once by the long, thin package carried by six large screech owls. I saw how Harry was just as interested as everyone else to see what was in this large parcel, and was amazed when the owls soared down and dropped it right in front of him, knocking his bacon to the floor. They had hardly fluttered out of the way when another owl dropped a letter on top of the parcel.
Oh right, the boy was going to get his broomstick, and jeez was that owl a clumsy one. Furthermore, this scene proved to me once again that I was most likely in the book version of Harry Potter and not the movies. Or had my meddling changed the events to such an extent that it didn't matter whether it was the book or the movie version? No matter, I already accepted this reality after seeing what happened in the trial chambers.
Ron and Neville talked about the mysterious package excitedly, pushing Harry to open it.
But to my surprise, the boy didn't do so after reading the letter. And instead brought the still sealed broom away from the table and cleaned up his plate. Meanwhile, Ron and Neville got hold of the letter and read the content before showing a very envious face to Harry.
"It's a broom." Theodore said. "What's the point of hiding it when we can figure it out with just the shape of the package?"
I already knew why, but to my surprise, Draco seemed to have guessed correctly as well!
"It must contain a rather rare or expensive broom that whoever wrote that letter must have asked Harry to not open it in public."
"Which broom do you think it is?" Hermione asked, having been quiet the entire time. She was getting used to the Slytherins house and its general atmosphere. Though most of the time the girl just hung out with me with along the other boys. Though there were some instances I saw of her approaching other girls after getting a few rounds of encouragement from me.
"Considering the sender does not want Harry to open it, it could be a Cleansweep model or the latest Comet one. But with the stunt my brother pulled a few days ago, it could be a new Nimbus 2000… then again, who would buy him such an expensive broom in the first place?"
"That fact is still kept a secret and I don't think Harry would know about it. Only Snape and the team players are aware of it." I tapped his shoulders, "Look where the owl landed."
As expected, the bird was resting on the teachers' side with Professor McGonagall scratching the bird's head.
"Well, that's just biased and unfair for the rest of us! You know she's planning to have Harry join the Quidditch teams and try to secure a win for Gryffindor this year!" Blaise muttered in displeasure.
"Hey, wanna go check it out?" I said, getting up from my seat and making my way towards the Gryffindor side.
Blaise and Theodore were quick to follow with Draco and Hermione catching up from behind. As we came close to them, I heard Ron's voice.
"A Nimbus 2000!" he moaned enviously. "I've never even touched one."
"That's a broomstick," I said, grabbing the broom next to Harry for a quick glance and giving it back to Harry while Hermione waved a greeting the twins.
Theodore and Blaise were throwing looks of jealousy and spite on their faces.
"You'll be in for it this time, Potter, first years aren't allowed to have them." Theodore said, followed by a quick jab to his stomach by Hermione, the latter asking him to not be rude.
Ron couldn't resist it.
"It's not any old broomstick," he said, "it's a Nimbus 2000. What did you say you've got at home, Nott, a Comet Two Sixty?" Ron grinned at Harry. "Comets look flashy, but they're not in the same league as the Nimbus."
"What would you know about it, Weasley, you couldn't afford half the handle," Malfoy commented with a frown back. "And it's Potter who got it, not you. Don't act all high and mighty for that."
I decided to get between them.
"Not arguing, boys. We just came to give it a look and have a civil talk."
'Children will be children, if not monitored they could easily start trouble in seconds.'
"So, seeing as to how you got yourself a broom, are you perhaps going to participate in this year's quidditch match? Quite impressive I must say, I won't ask how you managed to get into a team, but congratulations are in order. I'm sure you'll be a valuable addition to Gryffindor's team this year."
"Thanks," he said, embarrassed at my praise. "I guess it's kind of thanks to you and Draco I got in."
"Nonsense, you're also naturally talented, I guess that's natural as your father was an accomplished Quidditch player. Are you going to follow in his footsteps and become a seeker or a chaser?"
Ron's eyes widened along with Harry's as they heard me talk about the latter's father's past as a Quidditch player. Draco being an avid fan of the sport already knew about this information, though Theodore and Blaise reacted just as shocked about this fact.
"N-No… I-I didn't know." Harry said, looking at the broom in his hands. "No one told me."
"Bloody hell, even I didn't know that!" Ron exclaimed.
"Really?" Hermione joined the conversation. "You do realize that there is literally a row of medals displayed in the halls near the courtyard where one of the medals has the name James Potter engraved in it?" She gave them a deadpan stare, making both boys embarrassed to look at her.
"H-Hey, it's not our fault that we don't pay attention to every single small detail in school like you, miss know-it-all."
"Humph!"
She turned around and walked back to our side.
I smiled wryly, "Don't worry about her, anyways, did you know there hasn't been a first-year Quidditch player for about a century, quite an accomplishment, Potter."
"You bet it is! This shows that our house will win this year's cup! Guess our players this year are a step above the other teams. Not like any other first year will be joining aside Harry." Ron bragged.
All three boys behind me couldn't hold their laughter. For Ron to say this to my face was rather ironic and quite funny.
My smile grew as I replied, "Yeah, a once-in-a-century player, I can't wait to see how you'll perform in the next match against our house, Potter "
"Oh, what do I see here? Are you boys talking about your upcoming matches?"
Out of nowhere, Professor Flitwick approached us.
"Hope you aren't causing any trouble, Jarius." he said.
"Ah, don't worry, Professor. Just some light rivalry between our houses."
"Yes, yes, that's right," said Professor Flitwick, beaming at Harry. "Professor McGonagall told me all about the special circumstances, Potter. And what model is it?"
"A Nimbus 2000, it is," said the boy who lived. "I wouldn't have become a seeker if it weren't for the Malfoys."
{Break}
Draco and I headed to the dungeons, laughing in glee as we couldn't help but imagine the look on Ron's face if he were to know that I had become a seeker as well.
"I find it quite funny for a Gryffindor to admit that they received a Slytherin's help to become a seeker in the first place. Considering the intense rivalry going on between our houses."
"Well, it's true," Draco chortled as we reached the bottom of the marble staircase, "If we hadn't stolen Neville's Remembrall he wouldn't be on the team..."
"So I suppose you think that's a reward for breaking rules?" came an angry voice from just behind them. Hermione was stomping down the stairs, looking disapprovingly at us.
"Finally calmed down, Granger?" Draco said.
"Are you talking about the whole ordeal during the flying class?" I asked, hinting at the time I sneaked inside the forbidden area inside the castle.
"Among other things. What I'm conflicted about is how the teachers are turning a blind eye to all of this. As mentioned before, first years shouldn't even own broomsticks in the school before they finished their first year of classes with Madame Hooch, yet now we have two first years playing as seekers which are also technically not allowed. Rules exist for a reason, if we constantly go around them, then what's the point of having them in the first place?"
Ah, I guess all of this was getting to her.
"Don't worry about that, we aren't breaking any rules in the first place. We are merely exceptional cases overseen by the teachers."
I knew that in the upcoming years she would get more relaxed and not as uptight with the rules and so on. But since this was her first year, Hermione needed some time to adapt as well.
"I got an idea, why don't we head back to our dorm and we can finish our homework for Snape's classes? You can help out both of us with some of the questions as Theodore is busy working on another assignment while Blaise is probably not in the mood today."
"..."
"Come on, Granger, we don't have all day." Draco urged her, feeling impatient.
"Fine!" Hermione accepted. "If the school is fine with it, then I guess that I also shouldn't worry about it."
The three of us walked back to our dorm together and ended up spending an hour on hour homework before going to bed.
I still wondered about the Thestral, it felt creepy to know that a creature could feel death and sense it within me. I wondered if other wizards could detect something similar as well, could people like Dumbledore sense that something was wrong with me?
I certainly hoped not.
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The next 5 chapters of Snafu, Harry Potter and my 3 other Fate fics (Fate Coiling Sword with 3 chapters, A Fake Familiar Reborn with 3 chapters and To love a sword having 4 chapters) are already available on my P@treon. With 4 more Broly chapters at /NimtheWriter. Also, I post monthly commissioned arts on each story, already posted a few on an Archer's Promise, Broly and Snafu.
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