Was thinking.. if there's maybe 6 students per carriage, and perhaps 600 students (Not including first years who go by boat..).. Hogwarts has 100 trained Thestrals (assuming only 1 per carriage)..
Feels like once you see them, they should be everywhere..
73 Votes in Poll
Wait, forgive me if I'm being dumb, but why couldn't Harry see Thestrals before Cedric's death? Didn't he witness his mother's death? Anyway sorry if I'm wrong
Just had an idea bouncing around in my head that I thought I'd share..
Thestrals were and are the spirits of murdered Unicorns.
I vaguely remember we see 'young' Thestrals- so they're still able to reproduce in the new form, or we're looking at the spirits of murdered Unicorn foals.
I have been hearing a lot of Potterheads ask about Quirinus Quirrell's death near the end of Philosopher's Stone and why Harry couldn't see thestrals afterwards, chalking it all up to unexplained and unexplored plotholes.
In my personal opinion, everyone is thinking too much with the movie adaption, because it was mentioned in the book that Harry never saw Quirrell die after touching him via the protective magic that caused not only Voldemort pain, but him as well by making him crumble away because Harry was knocked out.
I have an idea to clear the air for how Quirrell's death would give justice to both the book and movie by marrying the two into one with the book version.
Ever since Voldemort "hitched a ride" on the back of Quirrell's head via possession, Quirrell was slowly dying from the Dark Lord's semi-possession of him based on Snakeface's soul being mutilated from years and years of the excessive use of dark magic other than creating his Horcruxes. So, Quirrell had no choice but to drink the blood of unicorns to prolong not only his own life, but Voldemort's as well until they would be able to retrieve the Philosopher's Stone and create a new body for Riddle via the Elixir of Life.
And I would say that this pretty much sums up that Quirrell was more or less than already dead, which was why Harry was unable to see thestrals. Because someone has to see another person genuinely die and accept their deaths by coming to terms with it would be the catalyst for whomever to see thestrals.
Even when Harry's parents were murdered, he was WAY too young to understand their deaths despite seeing his mother die because most babies do not learn at such a young age when they are only a year old, especially about life and death. Which means Cedric Diggory's death was the very first genuine death that Harry ever witnessed and was the catalyst for him to able to see thestrals.
26 Votes in Poll
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Chapter Thirty-Seven: The Department of Mysteries
(Hey, got some good news, after not being able to find a job all summer, yesterday I had two different exciting companies express interest in me so I'm finally going to get a good job.)
Harry wound his hand tightly into the mane of the nearest thestral, placed a foot on a stump nearby, and scrambled clumsily onto the horse’s silken back. It did not object, but twisted its head around, fangs bared, and attempted to continue its eager licking of his robes.
He found there was a way of lodging his knees behind the wing joints that made him feel more secure and looked around at the others. Neville had heaved himself over the back of the next thestral and was now attempting to swing one short leg over the creature’s back. Luna was already in place, sitting sidesaddle and adjusting her robes as though she did this every day. Theodore was trying to find the best way to get onto his thestral. Canini, Tracey, and Allison, however, were still standing motionless on the spot, openmouthed and staring.
‘What?’ said Harry.
‘We can’t see them, how are we supposed to get on?’ asked Tracey.
‘Oh it’s easy,’ said Luna, sliding obligingly from her thestral and marching over to help Tracey and Allison. ‘Come here…’
‘And I’ll help Canini,’ said Theodore as he discontinued his own attempt to mount his thestral and head to her.
Luna pulled them over to the other thestrals standing around and one by one managed to help them onto the backs of their mounts, Theodore did the same with Canini. All three looked extremely nervous as Luna wound their hands into the horses’ manes and told them to grip tightly before getting back onto her own steed.
‘This is just crazy,’ Allison said faintly, trying to feel what parts of the animal were where. ‘This’d be easier if I could just see them—‘
‘You’d better hope it stays invisible,’ said Harry darkly. ‘We all ready, then?’
They all nodded and he saw six pairs of knees tighten beneath their robes.
‘Okay…’
He looked down at the back of his thestral’s glossy black head and swallowed. ‘Ministry of Magic, visitors’ entrance, London, please,’ he said uncertainly. ‘Er…if you know…where to go…’
For a moment his thestral did nothing at all. Then, with a sweeping movement that nearly unseated him, the wings on either side extended, the horse crouched slowly and then rocketed upward so fast and so steeply that Harry had to clench his arms and legs tightly around the horse to avoid sliding backward over its bony rump. He closed his eyes and put his face down into the horse’s silky mane as they burst through the topmost branches of the trees and soared out into a bloodred sunset.
Harry did not think he had ever moved so fast: The thestral streaked over the castle, its wide wings hardly beating. The cooling air was slapping Harry’s face; eyes screwed up against the rushing wind, he looked around and saw his six fellows soaring along behind him, each of them bent as low as possible into the neck of their thestral to protect themselves from its slipstream.
They were over the Hogwarts grounds, they had passed Hogsmeade. Harry could see mountains and gullies below them. In the falling darkness Harry saw small collections of lights as they passed over more villages, then a winding road on which a single car was beetling its way home through the hills…
‘It’s indescribable!’ Harry heard Tracey yell from somewhere behind him, and he imagined how it must feel to be speeding along at this height with no visible means of support…
Not long after Harry could hear the unmistakable sound of his sister hurling behind him. It was only then that Harry realized how committed Canini was to Harry and saving Sirius as his sister suffered greatly when riding something at high speeds and yet she never complained once when it was determined they would be flying to London. Despite how grateful he was to her, he couldn’t help feeling bad for her thestral.
Twilight fell: The sky turned to a light, dusky purple littered with tiny silver stars, and soon it was only the lights of Muggle towns that gave them any clue of how far from the ground they were or how very fast they were traveling. Harry’s arms were wrapped tightly around his horse’s neck as he willed it to go even faster. How much time had elapsed since he had seen Sirius lying on the Department of Mysteries floor? How much longer would he be able to resist Voldemort? All Harry knew for sure was that Sirius had neither done as Voldemort wanted, nor died, for he was convinced that either outcome would cause him to feel Voldemort’s jubilation or fury course through his own body, making his scar sear as painfully as it had on the night Mr Weasley was attacked…
On they flew through the gathering darkness; Harry’s face felt stiff and cold, his legs numb from gripping the thestral’s sides so tightly, but he did not dare shift positions lest he slip…He was deaf from the thundering in his ears and his mouth was dry and frozen from the rush of cold night air. He had lost all sense of how far they had come; all his faith was in the beast below him, still streaking purposefully through the night, barely flapping its wings as it sped ever onward…
If they were too late…He’s still alive, he’s still fighting, I can feel it…If Voldemort decided Sirius was not going to crack…I’d know…
Harry’s stomach gave a jolt. The thestral’s head was suddenly pointing toward the ground and he had actually slid forward a few inches along its neck. They were descending at last…He heard one of the girls shriek behind him and twisted around dangerously but could see no sign of a falling body…Presumably they had received a shock from the change of position, just as he had…
And now bright orange lights were growing larger and rounder on all sides. They could see the tops of buildings, streams of headlights like luminous insect eyes, squares of pale yellow that were windows. Quite suddenly, it seemed, they were hurtling toward the pavement. Harry gripped the thestral with every last ounce of his strength, braced for a sudden impact, but the horse touched the dark ground as lightly as a shadow and Harry slid from his back, looking around at the street where the overflowing dumpster still stood a short way from the vandalized telephone box, both drained of color in the flat orange glare of the streetlights.
Canini landed a short way away and toppled immediately off her thestral onto the pavement.
‘Sweet, sweet ground, how I missed you,’ she said, struggling to her feet. She made as though to stride away from her thestral, but, unable to see it, collided with its hindquarters and almost fell over again. ‘Sorry, and sorry about earlier to…’
Allison and Tracey touched down on either side of Harry. Both slid off their mounts a little more gracefully than Canini, though with similar expressions of relief at being back on firm ground. Theodore gave his thestral a thankful neck rub. Neville jumped down, shaking, but Luna dismounted smoothly.
‘Where do we go from here, then?’ she asked Harry in a politely interested voice, as though this was all a rather interesting day-trip.
‘Over here,’ he said. He gave his thestral a quick, grateful pat, then led the way quickly to the battered telephone box and opened the door. ‘Come on!’ he urged the others as he entered and they hesitated.
Allison and Theodore marched in obediently; Tracey and Neville managed to squeeze theirselves in, Canini and Luna had to get on top of Theodore and Allison’s back and shoulders; Harry took one glance back at the thestrals, now foraging for scraps of rotten food inside the dumpster, then forced himself to focus on the task at hand.
‘Whoever’s nearest the receiver, dial six two four four two!’ he said.
Tracey did it, her arm bent bizarrely to reach the dial. As it whirred back into place the cool female voice sounded inside the box, ‘Welcome to the Ministry of Magic. Please state your name and business.’
‘Harry Potter, Canini Howling, Theodore Nott,’ Harry said very quickly, ‘Allison Runcorn, Tracey Davis, Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood…We’re here to save someone, unless your Ministry can do it first!’
‘Thank you,’ said the cool female voice. ‘Visitors, please take the badges and attach them to the front of your robes.’
Over half a dozen badges slid out of the metal chute where returned coins usually appeared. Neville scooped them up and handed them mutely to Harry over Allison’s head; he glanced at the topmost one.
“HARRY POTTER
rescue mission”
‘Visitor to the Ministry, you are required to submit to a search and present your wand for registration at the security desk, which is located at the far end of the Atrium.’
‘Fine!’ Harry said loudly, as his scar gave another throb. ‘Now can we move?’
The floor of the telephone box shuddered and the pavement rose up past the glass windows of the telephone box. The scavenging thestrals were sliding out of sight, blackness closed over their heads, and with a dull grinding noise they sank down into the depths of the Ministry of Magic.
A chink of soft golden light hit their feet and, widening, rose up their bodies. Harry bent his knees and held his wand as ready as he could in such cramped conditions, peering through the glass to see whether anybody was waiting for them in the Atrium, but it seemed to be completely empty. The light was dimmer than it had been by day. There were no fires burning under the mantelpieces set into the walls, but he saw as the lift slid smoothly to a halt that golden symbols continued to twist sinuously in the dark blue ceiling.
‘The Ministry of Magic wishes you a pleasant evening,’ said the woman’s voice.
The door of the telephone box burst open; Luna and Canini fell off of Theodore and Allison’s backs as the four tumbled out, Tracey and Neville followed, and Harry exited last. The only sound in the Atrium was the steady rush of water from the golden fountain, where jets from the wands of the witch and wizard, the point of the centaur’s arrow, the tip of the goblin’s hat, and the house-elf’s ears continued to gush into the surrounding pool.
‘Come on,’ said Harry quietly and the seven of them sprinted off down the hall, Harry in the lead, past the fountain, toward the desk where the security man who had weighed Harry’s wand had sat and which was now deserted.
‘This isn’t right,’ said Allison. ‘I’ve been to dad’s office even later than we are now, there are usually some people walking around, and there is ALWAYS at least one guard.’
Harry agreed that there ought to be a security person there, and was sure that their absence was an ominous sign, and his feeling of foreboding increased as they passed through the golden gates to the lifts. He pressed the nearest down button and a lift clattered into sight almost immediately, the golden grilles slid apart with a great, echoing clanking, and they dashed inside. Harry stabbed the number nine button, the grilles closed with a bang, and the lift began to descend, jangling and rattling. Harry had not realized how noisy the lifts were on the day that he had come with Mr Weasley—he was sure that the din would raise every security person within the building, yet when the lift halted, the cool female voice said, ‘Department of Mysteries,’ and the grilles slid open again, they stepped out into the corridor where nothing was moving but the nearest torches, flickering in the rush of air from the lift.
Harry turned toward the plain black door. After months and months of dreaming about it, he was here at last…
‘Let’s go,’ he whispered, and he led the way down the corridor, Luna right behind him, gazing around with her mouth slightly open.
‘Okay, listen,’ said Harry, stopping again within six feet of the door. ‘Maybe…maybe a couple of people should stay here as a—as a lookout, and—‘
‘And say something was coming, how would you have us let you know?’ asked Canini sceptically. ‘Especially if you’re far away.’
‘We’re coming with you, Harry,’ said Neville.
‘We should keep moving,’ said Tracey, uneasily at the emptiness of the Ministry.
Harry still did not want to take them all with him, but it seemed he had no choice. He turned to face the door and walked forward. Just as it had in his dream, it swung open and he marched forward, leading the others over the threshold.
They were standing in a large, circular room. Everything in here was black including the floor and ceiling—identical, unmarked, handle-less black doors were set at intervals all around the black walls, interspersed with branches of candles whose flames burned blue, their cool, shimmering light reflected in the shining marble floor so that it looked as though there was dark water underfoot.
‘Someone shut the door,’ Harry muttered.
He regretted giving this order the moment Neville had obeyed it. Without the long chink of light from the torch-lit corridor behind them, the place became so dark that for a moment the only things they could see were the bunches of shivering blue flames on the walls and their ghostly reflections in the floor below.
In his dream, Harry had always walked purposefully across this room to the door immediately opposite the entrance and walked on. But there were around a dozen doors here. Just as he was gazing ahead at the doors opposite him, trying to decide which was the right one, there was a great rumbling noise and the candles began to move sideways. The circular wall was rotating.
Canini grabbed Harry’s arm as though frightened the floor might move too, but it did not. For a few seconds the blue flames around them were blurred to resemble neon lines as the wall sped around and then, quite as suddenly as it had started, the rumbling stopped and everything became stationary once again.
Harry’s eyes had blue streaks burned into them; it was all he could see.
‘Why did it do that?’ whispered Theodore fearfully.
‘I think it is a trespasser trap,’ said Tracey in a hushed voice. ‘Confuse anyone who gets in here who’s not supposed to, they won’t even know what door they had come through. I bet only Unspeakables truly know how to navigate this department fully.’
Harry realized at once that she was right: He could no sooner have picked the exit from the other doors than located an ant upon the jet-black floor. Meanwhile, the door through which they needed to proceed could be any of the dozen surrounding them.
‘How’re we going to get back out?’ said Neville uncomfortably.
‘Well, that doesn’t matter now,’ said Harry forcefully, blinking to try and erase the blue lines from his vision, and clutching his wand tighter than ever. ‘We won’t need to get out till we’ve found Sirius—‘
‘We shouldn’t go around calling for him though,’ said Allison, but Harry had never needed her advice less; his instinct was to keep as quiet as possible for the time being.
‘So where to now, Harry?’ asked Canini, now letting go of his arm.
‘I don’t—‘ Harry began. He swallowed. ‘In the dreams I went through the door at the end of the corridor from the lifts into a dark room—that’s this one—and then I went through another door into a room that kind of…glitters. We should try a few doors,’ he said hastily. ‘I’ll know the right way when I see it. C’mon.’
He marched straight at the door now facing him, the others following close behind him, set his left hand against its cool, shining surface, raised his wand, ready to strike the moment it opened, and pushed. It swung open easily.
After the darkness of the first room, the lamps hanging low on golden chains from this ceiling gave the impression that this long rectangular room was much brighter, though there were no glittering, shimmering lights such as Harry had seen in his dreams. The place was quite empty except for a few desks and, in the very middle of the room, an enormous glass tank of deep-green water, big enough for all of them to swim in, which contained a number of pearly white objects that were drifting around lazily in the liquid.
‘What are they?’ whispered Allison.
‘Dunno,’ said Harry.
‘Are they some kind of fish?’ breathed Theodore.
‘Aquavirius maggots!’ said Luna excitedly. ‘Dad said the Ministry were breeding—‘
‘No,’ said Tracey. She sounded queasy. She moved forward to look through the side of the tank. ‘I’ve seen some of my dad’s medical books. They’re brains.’
‘Brains?’
‘Yes,’ said Tracey. ‘And I don’t want to know why they’re here or how the Ministry obtained them.’
Harry joined her at the tank. Sure enough, there could be no mistake now that he saw them at close quarters. Glimmering eerily they drifted in and out of sight in the depths of the green water, looking something like slimy cauliflowers.
‘Let’s get out of here,’ said Harry. ‘This isn’t right, we need to try another door—‘
‘Hey, Harry, there are more doors in here,’ said Theodore, pointing around the walls. Harry’s heart sank; how big was this place?
‘In my dream I went through that dark room into the second one,’ he said. ‘I think we should go back and try from there.’
So they hurried back into the dark, circular room; the ghostly shapes of the brains were now swimming before Harry’s eyes instead of the blue candle flames.
‘Wait!’ said Tracey sharply, as Luna made to close the door of the brain room behind them. ‘Colovaria!’
She aimed her wand at the dark blue door and it became a bright shade of jade. No sooner had the door clicked shut behind them than there was a great rumbling, and once again the wall began to revolve very fast, but now there was a great green blur in amongst the faint blue, and when all became still again, the door remained jade green, showing the door they had already tried.
‘Good thinking,’ said Harry. ‘Okay, let’s try this one—‘
Again he strode directly at the door facing him and pushed it open, his wand still raised, the others at his heels.
This room was larger than the last, dimly lit and rectangular, and the center of it was sunken, forming a great stone pit some twenty feet below them. They were standing on the topmost tier of what seemed to be stone benches running all around the room and descending in steep steps like an amphitheater, or the courtroom in which Harry had been tried by the Wizengamot. Instead of a chained chair, however, there was a raised stone dais in the center of the lowered floor, and upon this dais stood a stone archway that looked so ancient, cracked, and crumbling that Harry was amazed the thing was still standing. Unsupported by any surrounding wall, the archway was hung with a tattered black curtain or veil which, despite the complete stillness of the cold surrounding air, was fluttering very slightly as though it had just been touched.
‘Who’s there?’ said Harry, jumping down onto the bench below. There was no answering voice, but the veil continued to flutter and sway.
‘Be careful!’ whispered Tracey.
Harry scrambled down the benches one by one until he reached the stone bottom of the sunken pit. His footsteps echoed loudly as he walked slowly toward the dais. The pointed archway looked much taller from where he stood now than when he had been looking down on it from above. Still the veil swayed gently, as though somebody had just passed through it.
‘Sirius?’ Harry spoke again, but much more quietly now that he was nearer.
He had the strangest feeling that there was someone standing right behind the veil on the other side of the archway. Gripping his wand very tightly, he edged around the dais, but there was nobody there. All that could be seen was the other side of the tattered black veil.
‘We should go,’ called Allison from halfway up the stone steps. ‘I got a bad feeling about this place. Come on Harry…’
She sounded scared, much more scared than she had in the room where the brains swam, yet Harry thought the archway had a kind of beauty about it, old though it was. The gently rippling veil intrigued him; he felt a very strong inclination to climb up on the dais and walk through it.
‘Harry, we got to go!’ said Allison more forcefully.
‘Okay,’ he said, but he did not move. He had just heard something. There were faint whispering, murmuring noises coming from the other side of the veil.
‘What are you saying?’ he said very loudly, so that the words echoed all around the surrounding stone benches.
‘Nobody said anything, Harry!’ said Tracey, who was holding the door open. Allison now made her way towards Harry.
‘Someone’s whispering behind there,’ he said.
‘Harry…’ Allison said very slowly as she reached for Harry’s arm, ‘no one is whispering…’
But Harry moved out of her reach and continuing to frown at the veil.
‘Can’t anyone else hear it?’ Harry demanded, for the whispering and murmuring was becoming louder; without really meaning to put it there, he found his foot was on the dais.
‘I can hear them too,’ breathed Luna, joining them around the side of the archway and gazing at the swaying veil. ‘There are people in there!’
‘In where?’ asked Allison, jumping down from the bottom step, her voice filled with concern. ‘It’s an empty archway, there is no space for anything to be in it—Harry, please, we have to go—‘
She grabbed his arm and pulled, but he resisted.
‘Harry, I hear it to, but Sirius is more important, we have to save Sirius!’ shouted Theodore from above.
‘Sirius,’ Harry repeated, still gazing, mesmerized, at the continuously swaying veil. ‘Yeah…’
And then something slid back into place in his brain: Sirius, captured, bound, and tortured, and he was staring at this archway…
He took several paces back from the dais and wrenched his eyes from the veil.
‘Let’s go,’ he said.
‘I know, that’s what I’ve been saying—whatever, come on!’ said Allison, and she led the way back around the dais. On the other side, Canini and Neville were staring, apparently entranced, at the veil too. Without speaking, Allison took hold of Neville’s arm, Theodore Canini’s, and they marched them firmly back to the lowest stone bench and clambered all the way back up to the door.
‘What d’you reckon that arch was?’ Harry asked Theodore as they regained the dark circular room and Tracey changed the door they just exited.
‘I’m not sure, but anything with that powerful lure can’t be safe,’ he said firmly.
Once more the wall spun and became still again. Harry approached a door at random and pushed. It did not move.
‘What’s going on?’ said Canini.
‘It’s…locked…’ said Harry, throwing his weight at the door, but it did not budge.
‘Maybe this is the one then?’ said Allison, joining Harry in the attempt to force the door open. ‘Only one locked so far.’
‘Let me help,’ said Tracey, and the others shifted out of the way. She pointed her wand at the place where a lock would have been on an ordinary door and said, ‘Alohomora!’
Nothing happened.
‘Sirius’s knife!’ said Harry, and he pulled it out from inside his robes and slid it into the crack between the door and the wall. The others all watched eagerly as he ran it from top to bottom, withdrew it, and then flung his shoulder again at the door. It remained as firmly shut as ever. What was more, when Harry looked down at the knife, he saw that the blade had melted.
‘Okay, maybe this wasn’t the one after all,’ said Allison.
‘But what if it was?’ said Canini, staring at it with a mixture of apprehension and longing.
‘I don’t think it is, in my dream all the doors I went through were unlocked,’ said Harry as Tracey turned the locked door green. Harry replaced the now-useless handle of Sirius’s knife in his pocket.
‘You know what could be in there?’ said Luna eagerly, as the wall started to spin yet again.
‘Something non existent, I bet,’ said Theodore under his breath, and Neville gave a nervous little laugh.
The wall slid back to a halt and Harry, with a feeling of increasing desperation, pushed the next door open.
‘This is it!’
He knew it at once by the beautiful, dancing, diamond-sparkling light. As Harry’s eyes became more accustomed to the brilliant glare he saw clocks gleaming from every surface, large and small, grandfather and carriage, hanging in spaces between the bookcases or standing on desks ranging the length of the room, so that a busy, relentless ticking filled the place like thousands of minuscule, marching foot-steps. The source of the dancing, diamond-bright light was a towering crystal bell jar that stood at the far end of the room.
‘This way!’
Harry’s heart was pumping frantically now that he knew they were on the right track. He led the way forward down the narrow space between the lines of the desks, heading, as he had done in his dream, for the source of the light, the crystal bell jar quite as tall as he was that stood on a desk and appeared to be full of a billowing, glittering wind.
‘Oh, cool!’ said Canini, as they drew nearer, pointing at the very heart of the bell jar.
Drifting along in the sparkling current inside was a tiny, jewel-bright egg. As it rose in the jar it cracked open and a hummingbird emerged, which was carried to the very top of the jar, but as it fell on the draft, its feathers became bedraggled and damp again, and by the time it had been borne back to the bottom of the jar it had been enclosed once more in its egg.
‘Keep going!’ said Harry sharply, because Canini showed signs of wanting to stop and watch the egg’s progress back into a bird, possibly because it resembled her Patronus.
‘I’m coming, I’m coming,’ she said crossly, but followed him past the bell jar to the only door behind it.
‘This is it,’ Harry said again, and his heart was now pumping so hard and fast he felt it must interfere with his speech. ‘It’s through here—‘
He glanced around at them all. They had their wands out and looked suddenly serious and anxious. He looked back at the door and pushed. It swung open.
They were there, they had found the place: high as a church and full of nothing but towering shelves covered in small, dusty, glass orbs. They glimmered dully in the light issuing from more candle brackets set at intervals along the shelves. Like those in the circular room behind them, their flames were burning blue. The room was very cold.
Harry edged forward and peered down one of the shadowy aisles between two rows of shelves. He could not hear anything nor see the slightest sign of movement.
‘You had mentioned Sirius was being held in row ninety-seven,’ whispered Allison.
‘Yeah,’ breathed Harry, looking up at the end of the closest row. Beneath the branch of blue-glowing candles protruding from it glimmered the silver figure 53.
‘I believe then that we must go right,’ said Theodore quietly, looking at the following row. ‘That one says fifty-four…’
‘Keep your wands out,’ Harry said softly.
They crept forward, staring behind them as they went on down the long alleys of shelves, the farther ends of which were in near total darkness. Tiny, yellowing labels had been stuck beneath each glass orb on the shelf. Some of them had a weird, liquid glow; others were as dull and dark within as blown lightbulbs.
They passed row eighty-four…eighty-five…Harry was listening hard for the slightest sound of movement, but Sirius might be gagged now, or else unconscious…or, said an unbidden voice inside his head, he might already be dead…I’d have felt it, he told himself, his heart now hammering against his Adam’s apple. I’d already know…
‘Ninety-seven!’ whispered Tracey.
They stood grouped around the end of the row, gazing down the alley beside it. There was nobody there.
‘He’s right down at the end,’ said Harry, whose mouth had become slightly dry. ‘You can’t see properly from here…’
And he led them forward, between the towering rows of glass balls, some of which glowed softly as they passed…’
‘He should be near here,’ whispered Harry, convinced that every step was going to bring the ragged form of Sirius into view upon the darkened floor. ‘Anywhere here…really close…’
‘Harry?’ said Theodore tentatively, but he did not want to respond. His mouth was very dry now.
‘Somewhere about…here…’ he said.
They had reached the end of the row and emerged into more dim candlelight. There was nobody there at all. All was echoing, dusty silence.
‘He might be…’ Harry whispered hoarsely, peering down the alley next door. ‘Or maybe…’ He hurried to look down the one beyond that.
‘Harry?’ said Theodore again.
‘What?’ he snarled.
‘Sirius isn’t here, I think you’ve been tricked, we need to go…’
Nobody spoke. Harry did not want to look at any of them. He felt sick. He did not understand why Sirius was not here. He had to be here. This was where he, Harry, had seen him…
He ran up the space at the end of the rows, staring down them. Empty aisle after empty aisle flickered past. He ran the other way, back past his staring companions. There was no sign of Sirius anywhere, nor any hint of a struggle.
‘Harry?’ Neville called, curiosity in his voice.
‘What?’
He did not particularly want any of them talking to him right now, that everyone should be quiet so that he could think and a perfectly logical explanation would come to him and he’d be able to find Sirius. But the heat was rising in his face and he felt as though he would like to skulk down here in the darkness for a long while before facing the brightness of the Atrium above and the others’ accusing stares…
‘Harry, did you see this?’ said Neville.
‘What?’ said Harry, but eagerly this time—it had to be a sign that Sirius had been there, a clue—he strode back to where they were all standing, a little way down row ninety-seven, but found nothing except Neville staring at one of the dusty glass spheres on the shelves.
‘What?’ Harry repeated glumly.
‘Well…it has your name on it,’ said Neville.
Harry moved a little closer. Neville was pointing at one of the small
glass spheres that glowed with a dull inner light, though it was very dusty and appeared not to have been touched for many years.
‘My name?’ said Harry blankly.
He stepped forward. Harry had to crane his neck to read the yellowish label affixed to the shelf right beneath the dusty glass ball. In spidery writing was written a date of some sixteen years previously, and below that:
“S.P.T.to A.P.W.B.D. Dark Lord
and (?) Harry Potter”
Harry stared at it.
‘That’s odd,’ said Theodore, sounding unnerved. ‘Why is there a glass ball with Harry’s name right where Sirius is supposed to be?’
The others glanced around at the surround balls.
‘I don’t see any of our names here other than yours, Harry,’ said Tracey, sounding perplexed.
‘Wait, Harry, I really don’t think you should touch that!’ said Allison sharply, as he stretched out his hand.
‘Why not?’ he said. ‘It’s something to do with me, isn’t it?’
‘Don’t, Harry,’ said Neville suddenly. Harry looked around at him. Neville’s round face was shining slightly with sweat. He looked as though he could not take much more suspense.
‘It’s got my name on,’ said Harry. And feeling slightly reckless, he closed his fingers around the dusty ball’s surface. He had expected it to feel cold, but it did not. On the contrary, it felt as though it had been lying in the sun for hours, as though the glow of light within was warming it. Expecting, even hoping, that something dramatic was going to happen, something exciting that might make their long and dangerous journey worthwhile after all, he lifted the glass ball down from its shelf and stared at it.
Nothing whatsoever happened. The others moved in closer around Harry, gazing at the orb as he brushed it free of the clogging dust.
And then, from right behind them, a drawling voice said, ‘Very good, Potter. Now turn around, nice and slowly, and give that to me.’
Previous Chapters:
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@Bellatrisblack @CatsAndRoblox @Rose.gold.kiisses @MeowTasticCat @Jellybean Jade @Missy Clara Oswald @Teddy.J.B @Pervaza972 @BellatrixLestrangeLover
(Final of the three chapters I finished while on vacation, next update will be whenever I finish the next chapter.)
Chapter Thirty-Five: Fight and Flight
Harry had no idea what Allison was planning, he was barely convinced she had a plan at all. Umbridge undid her restraints and Harry walked half a pace behind Allison as they headed down the corridor outside Umbridge’s office, knowing it would look very suspicious if he appeared not to know where they were going. He did not dare attempt to talk to her; Umbridge was walking so closely behind them that he could hear her ragged breathing.
Allison led the way down the stairs into the entrance hall. The din of loud voices and the clatter of cutlery on plates echoed from out of the double doors to the Great Hall. It seemed incredible to Harry that twenty feet away were people who were enjoying dinner, celebrating the end of exams, not a care in the world…
Allison walked straight out of the oak front doors and down the stone steps into the balmy evening air. The sun was falling toward the tops of the trees in the Forbidden Forest now as Allison marched purposefully across the grass, Umbridge jogging to keep up. Their long dark shadows rippled over the grass behind them like cloaks.
‘It’s hidden in Hagrid’s hut, is it?’ said Umbridge eagerly in Harry’s ear.
‘What? No!’ said Allison scathingly. ‘Anyone could have found it if it was there. And let’s be honest, Hagrid probably would have accidentally broken it.’
‘Yes,’ said Umbridge, whose excitement seemed to be mounting. ‘Yes, he would have done, of course, the great half-breed oaf…’
She laughed. Harry felt a strong urge to swing around and seize her by the throat, but resisted. His scar was throbbing in the soft evening air but it had not yet burned white-hot, as he knew it would if Voldemort had moved in for the kill…
‘Then…where is it?’ asked Umbridge, with a hint of uncertainty in her voice as Allison continued to stride toward the forest.
‘In the forest, obviously,’ said Allison, pointing into the dark trees. ‘It had to be built somewhere where no one would find it accidentally.’
‘Of course,’ said Umbridge, though she sounded a little apprehensive now. ‘Of course…very well, then…you two stay ahead of me.’
‘Can we have your wand, then, if we’re going first?’ Harry asked her.
‘No, I don’t think so, Mr Potter,’ said Umbridge sweetly, poking him in the back with it. ‘The Ministry places a rather higher value on my life than yours, I’m afraid.’
As they reached the cool shade of the first trees, Harry tried to catch Allison’s eye; walking into the forest without wands seemed to him to be more foolhardy than anything they had done so far this evening. She, however, merely gave Umbridge a contemptuous glance and plunged straight into the trees, moving at such a pace that Umbridge, with her shorter legs, had difficulty in keeping up.
‘Is it very far in?’ Umbridge asked, as her robe ripped on a bramble.
‘It is, yes,’ said Allison. ‘It was very well hidden.’
Harry’s misgivings increased. Allison was not taking the path they had followed to visit Grawp, but the one they had followed three years ago to the lair of the monster Aragog. Allison had been on that journey and like Harry had barely survived, and that was with their wands; he doubted she had any idea where she was going.
‘Er—are you sure this is the right way?’ he asked her pointedly.
‘Oh yes,’ she said in a steely voice, crashing through the undergrowth with what he thought was a wholly unnecessary amount of noise.
Behind them, Umbridge tripped over a fallen sapling. Neither of them paused to help her up again; Allison merely strode on, calling loudly over her shoulder, ‘We’re almost there!’
‘Allison, keep your voice down,’ Harry muttered, hurrying to catch up with her. ‘Anything could be listening in here—‘
‘I know, that’s the point,’ she answered quietly, as Umbridge jogged noisily after them. ‘Don’t worry…’
They walked on for what seemed a long time, until they were once again so deep into the forest that the dense tree canopy blocked out all light. Harry had the feeling he had had before in the forest, one of being watched by unseen eyes…
‘How much further?’ demanded Umbridge angrily from behind him.
‘Nearly there!’ shouted Allison, as they emerged into a dim, dank clearing. ‘Just up ahead—‘
An arrow flew through the air and landed with a menacing thud in the tree just over her head. The air was suddenly full of the sound of hooves. Harry could feel the forest floor trembling; Umbridge gave a little scream and pushed him in front of her like a shield—
He wrenched himself free of her and turned. Around fifty centaurs were emerging on every side, their bows raised and loaded, pointing at Harry, Allison, and Umbridge, who backed slowly into the center of the clearing, Umbridge uttering odd little whimpers of terror. Harry looked sideways at Allison. She was wearing a triumphant smile.
’Who are you?’ said a voice.
Harry looked left. The chestnut-bodied centaur called Magorian was walking toward them out of the circle; his bow, like the others’, was raised. On Harry’s right, Umbridge was still whimpering, her wand trembling violently as she pointed it at the advancing centaur.
‘I asked you who are you, human,’ said Magorian roughly.
‘I am Dolores Umbridge!’ said Umbridge in a high-pitched, terrified voice. ‘Senior Undersecretary to the Minister of Magic and Headmistress and High Inquisitor of Hogwarts!’
‘You are from the Ministry of Magic?’ said Magorian, as many of the centaurs in the surrounding circle shifted restlessly.
‘That’s right!’ said Umbridge in an even higher voice. ‘So be very careful! By the laws laid down by the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, any attack by half-breeds such as yourselves on a human—‘
‘What did you call us?’ shouted a wild-looking black centaur, whom Harry recognized as Bane. There was a great deal of angry muttering and tightening of bowstrings around them.
‘You shouldn’t call them that!’ Allison said loudly, but Umbridge did not appear to have heard her. Still pointing her shaking wand at Magorian, she continued, ‘Law Fifteen B states clearly that “Any attack by a magical creature who is deemed to have near-human intelligence, and therefore considered responsible for its actions—“‘
‘“Near-human intelligence”?’ repeated Magorian, as Bane and several others roared with rage and pawed the ground. ‘We consider that a great insult, human! Our intelligence, thankfully, far outstrips your own—‘
‘What are you doing in our forest?’ bellowed the hard-faced gray centaur whom Harry and Allison had seen on their last trip into the forest. ‘Why are you here?’
‘Your forest?’ said Umbridge, shaking now not only with fright but also, it seemed, with indignation. ‘I would remind you that you live here only because the Ministry of Magic permits you certain areas of land—‘
An arrow flew so close to her head that it caught at her mousy hair in passing. She let out an earsplitting scream and threw her hands over her head while some of the centaurs bellowed their approval and others laughed raucously. The sound of their wild, neighing laughter echoing around the dimly lit clearing and the sight of their pawing hooves was extremely unnerving.
‘Whose forest is it now, human?’ bellowed Bane.
‘Filthy half-breeds!’ she screamed, her hands still tight over her head. ‘Beasts! Uncontrolled animals!’
‘Shut up!’ shouted Allison, but it was too late—Umbridge pointed her wand at Magorian and screamed, ‘Incarcerous!’
Ropes flew out of midair like thick snakes, wrapping themselves tightly around the centaur’s torso and trapping his arms. He gave a cry of rage and reared onto his hind legs, attempting to free himself, while the other centaurs charged.
Harry grabbed Allison and pulled her to the ground. Facedown on the forest floor he knew a moment of terror as hooves thundered around him, but the centaurs leapt over and around them, bellowing and screaming with rage.
‘Nooooo!’ he heard Umbridge shriek. ‘Noooooo…I am Senior Undersecretary…you cannot…unhand me, you animals…nooooo!’
He saw a flash of red light and knew that she had attempted to Stun one of them—then she screamed very loudly. Lifting his head a few inches, Harry saw that Umbridge had been seized from behind by Bane and lifted high into the air, wriggling and yelling with fright. Her wand fell from her hand to the ground and Harry’s heart leapt, if he could just reach it—But as he stretched out a hand toward it, a centaur’s hoof descended upon the wand and it broke cleanly in half.
‘Now!’ roared a voice in Harry’s ear and a thick hairy arm descended from thin air and dragged him upright; Allison too had been pulled to her feet. Over the plunging, many-colored backs and heads of the centaurs Harry saw Umbridge being borne away through the trees by Bane, still screaming nonstop; her voice grew fainter and fainter until they could no longer hear it over the trampling of hooves surrounding them.
‘And these?’ said the hard-faced, gray centaur holding Allison.
‘They are young,’ said a slow, doleful voice from behind Harry. ‘We do not attack foals.’
‘They brought her here, Ronan,’ replied the centaur who had such a firm grip on Harry. ‘And they are not so young…He is nearing manhood, this one…’
He shook Harry by the neck of his robes.
‘Please,’ said Allison breathlessly, ‘please, don’t kill us, we don’t have her bigoted views, and we aren’t from the Ministry! We only entered the forest to try and get something to get rid of her for us—‘
Harry knew at once from the look on the face of the gray centaur holding Allison that she had made a terrible mistake in saying this. The gray centaur threw back his head, his back legs stamping furiously, and bellowed, ‘You see, Ronan? They already have the arrogance of their kind! So we were to do your dirty work, were we, human girl? We were to act as your servants, drive away your enemies like obedient hounds?’
‘No!’ said Allison in a horrorstruck squeak. ‘I apologize—I didn’t mean it like that! We were just hoping someone would—would help us—‘
But she seemed to be going from bad to worse.
‘We do not help humans!’ snarled the centaur holding Harry, tightening his grip and rearing a little at the same time, so that Harry’s feet left the ground momentarily. ‘We are a race apart and proud to be so…We will not permit you to walk from here, boasting that we did your bidding!’
‘We’re not going to say anything like that!’ Harry shouted. ‘We know you didn’t do anything because we wanted you to—‘
But nobody seemed to be listening to him. A bearded centaur toward the back of the crowd shouted, ‘They came here unasked, they must pay the consequences!’
A roar of approval met these words and a dun-colored centaur shouted, ‘They can join the woman!’
‘But you claim you don’t hurt the innocent!’ shouted Allison, ears of terror sliding down her face now. ‘We have not done anything against you, we haven’t insulted you, we haven’t attacked you with our wands. We just want to go back to our school so we can learn—‘
‘We are not all like the traitor Firenze, human girl!’ shouted the gray centaur, to more neighing roars of approval from his fellows. ‘Perhaps you thought us pretty talking horses? We are an ancient people who will not stand wizard invasions and insults! We do not recognize your laws, we do not acknowledge your superiority, we are—‘
But they did not hear what else centaurs were, for at that moment there came a crashing noise on the edge of the clearing so loud that all of them—Harry, Allison, and the fifty or so centaurs filling the clearing—looked around. Harry’s centaur let him fall to the ground again as his hands flew to his bow and quiver of arrows; Allison had been dropped too, and Harry hurried toward her as two thick tree trunks parted ominously and the monstrous form of Grawp the giant appeared in the gap.
The centaurs nearest him backed into those behind. The clearing was now a forest of bows and arrows waiting to be fired, all pointing upward at the enormous grayish face now looming over them from just beneath the thick canopy of branches. Grawp’s lopsided mouth was gaping stupidly. They could see his bricklike yellow teeth glimmering in the half-light, his dull sludge-colored eyes narrowed as he squinted down at the creatures at his feet. Broken ropes trailed from both ankles.
He opened his mouth even wider.
‘Hagger.’
Harry did not know what ‘hagger’ meant, or what language it was from, nor did he much care—he was watching Grawp’s feet, which were almost as long as Harry’s whole body. Allison gripped his arm tightly; the centaurs were quite silent, staring up at the giant, whose huge, round head moved from side to side as he continued to peer amongst them as though looking for something he had dropped.
‘Hagger!’ he said again, more insistently.
‘Get away from here, giant!’ called Magorian. ‘You are not welcome among us!’
These words seemed to make no impression whatsoever on Grawp. He stooped a little (the centaurs’ arms tensed on their bows) and then bellowed, ‘HAGGER!’
A few of the centaurs looked worried now. Allison, however, gave a gasp.
‘Harry!’ she whispered. ‘I think what he’s trying to say is “Hagrid”!’
At this precise moment Grawp caught sight of them, the only two humans in a sea of centaurs. He lowered his head another foot or so, staring intently at them. Harry could feel Allison shaking as Grawp opened his mouth wide again and said, in a deep, rumbling voice, ‘Alli?’
‘Impossible,’ whispered Allison, gripping Harry’s arm so tightly it was growing numb and looking as though she was about to pass out, ‘he—he remembered my name!’
‘ALLI!’ roared Grawp. ‘WHERE HAGGER?’
‘I don’t know!’ squealed Allison, terrified. ‘I’m so sorry, Grawp, but I don’t know where Hagrid is!’
‘GRAWP WANT HAGGER!’
One of the giant’s massive hands swooped down upon them—Allison let out a scream, ran a few steps backward and tripped over a branch. Wandless, Harry braced himself to punch, kick, bite, or whatever else it took as the hand flew toward him and knocked a snow-white centaur off his legs.
It was what the centaurs had been waiting for—Grawp’s out-stretched fingers were a foot from Harry when fifty arrows went soaring through the air at the giant, peppering his enormous face, causing him to howl with pain and rage and straighten up again, rubbing his face with his enormous hands, breaking off the arrow shafts but forcing the heads in still deeper.
He yelled and stamped his enormous feet and the centaurs scattered out of the way. Pebble-sized droplets of Grawp’s blood showered Harry as he pulled Allison to her feet and the pair of them ran as fast as they could for the shelter of the trees. Once there they looked back—Grawp was snatching blindly at the centaurs as blood ran all down his face; they were retreating in disorder, galloping away through the trees on the other side of the clearing. As Harry and Allison watched, Grawp gave another roar of fury and plunged after them, smashing more trees aside as he went.
‘No,’ said Allison, quaking so badly that her knees gave way. ‘Oh, I’m going to be sick. What if they kill him Harry?’
‘I’m not that fussed, to be honest,’ said Harry bitterly, then Allison threw up what little she had for lunch.
The sounds of the galloping centaurs and the blundering giant were growing fainter and fainter. As Harry listened to them his scar gave another great throb and a wave of terror swept over him.
They had wasted so much time—they were even further from rescuing Sirius than they had been when he had had the vision. Not only had Harry managed to lose his wand but they were stuck in the middle of the Forbidden Forest with no means of transport whatsoever.
‘Smart plan,’ he spat at Allison as she regained her composure, keen to release some of his fury. ‘Really smart plan. Where do we go from here?’
‘We got to get back to the castle,’ said Allison, colour slowly returning to her face.
‘By the time we’ve done that, Sirius’ll probably be dead!’ said Harry, kicking a nearby tree in temper; there was a high-pitched
chattering overhead and he looked up to see an angry bowtruckle flexing its long twiglike fingers at him.
‘Harry, we’ll our wands to rescue Sirius,’ said Allison hopelessly, dragging herself up again. ‘Anyway, how were you planning us to get to London?’
‘Yeah, that was something we were thinking about too,’ said a familiar voice from behind her.
Harry and Allison moved instinctively together, peering through the trees, as Tracey came into sight, with Theodore, Canini, Neville, and Luna hurrying along behind him. All of them looked a little the worse for wear—there were several long scratches running the length of Canini’s already scarred cheek, a large purple lump was swelling above Neville’s right eye, Tracey was favouring her left leg—but all were looking rather pleased with themselves.
‘So Harry,’ said Theodore, pushing aside a low-hanging branch and holding out Harry and Allison’s wands, ‘got any ideas?’
‘How did you get away?’ asked Harry in amazement, taking his wand from Theodore as Allison did the same.’
‘Seven Disarming Charms, a few Stun Spells, Neville produced a really nice Impediment Jinx,’ said Tracey airily. ‘But Canini was the most successful, she pretended she was about to transform and it scared Pansy so much she nearly peed herself, she and a few other ran for their lives. Idiots, they it isn’t even a full moon.’
‘Once we were all free we came here,’ said Theodore. ‘I had seen you heading towards the forest through Umbridge’s window…speaking of the hag where is she?’
‘She got carried away,’ said Harry. ‘By a herd of centaurs.’
‘And they let you go unharmed?’ asked Tracey, looking astonished.
‘No, they got chased off by Grawp,’ said Harry.
‘Who’s Grawp?’ Luna asked interestedly.
‘Hagrid’s younger brother,’ said Allison promptly. ‘Now Harry, what did you find out from your floo chat? Does You-Know-Who have your godfather—?’
‘Yes,’ said Harry, as his scar gave another painful prickle, ‘and I’m sure Sirius is still alive, but I can’t see how we’re going to get there to help him.’
They all fell silent, looking rather scared. The problem facing them seemed insurmountable.
‘Well, we’ll have to fly, won’t we?’ said Luna in the closest thing to a matter-of-fact voice Harry had ever heard her use.
‘Okay,’ said Harry irritably, rounding on her, ‘first of all, “we” aren’t doing anything if you’re including yourself in that, and second of all, Allison’s the only one with a broomstick that isn’t being guarded by a security troll, so—‘
‘I’m coming!’ said Canini, as though that were the end of the discussion.
‘You are not!’ said Harry angrily.
‘Nothing you say will change my mind, Sirius is my father too!’
‘You’re too—‘ Harry began.
‘I’m older than you were when you fought You-Know-Who over the Philosopher’s Stone, and when you fought him to save Hermione,’ she said fiercely, ‘and I know more defensive spells now than you did at my age—‘
‘Yeah, but—‘
‘We were all in the D.A. together,’ said Neville quietly. ‘It was all supposed to be about fighting You-Know-Who, wasn’t it? And this is the first chance we’ve had to do something real—or was that all just a game or something?’
‘No—of course it wasn’t—‘ said Harry impatiently.
‘Then we should come too,’ said Neville simply. ‘We want to help.’
‘That’s right,’ said Luna, smiling happily.
Harry’s eyes met Theodore’s. He knew that Theodore was thinking exactly what he was: If he could have chosen any members of the D.A. in addition to himself, Theodore, Allison, and Tracey, to join him in the attempt to rescue Sirius, he would not have picked Neville, Luna, or their little sister.
‘Well, it doesn’t matter anyway,’ said Harry frustratedly, ‘because we still don’t know how to get there—‘
‘I thought we’d settled that?’ said Luna maddeningly. ‘We’re flying!’
‘Luna,’ said an exhausted Allison, ‘you might somehow be able to fly to London, but the rest of us can’t just fly by sheer will—‘
‘There are other ways of flying than with broomsticks,’ said Luna serenely.
‘Then what,’ said Allison, ‘are you going to have us ride one of your imaginary creatures?’
‘Not every REAL creature I know can fly,’ said Luna in a dignified voice, ‘but they can, and Hagrid says they’re very good at finding places their riders are looking for.’
Harry whirled around. Standing between two trees, their white eyes gleaming eerily, were two thestrals, watching the whispered conversation as though they understood every word.
‘Yes!’ he whispered, moving toward them. They tossed their reptilian heads, throwing back long black manes, and Harry stretched out his hand eagerly and patted the nearest one’s shining neck. How could he ever have thought them ugly?
‘Are those horse thingies there?’ asked Tracey uncertainly, staring at a point slightly to the left of the thestral Harry was patting. ‘The ones untouched can only see if you’ve seen someone die?’
‘Yeah,’ said Harry.
‘How many are there?’ asked Allison.
‘Just two.’
‘Then we need to find two more,’ said Allison, who was still looking a little shaken, but determined just the same.
‘Five, we need five!’ said Canini, scowling.
‘I believe there are seven of us, actually,’ said Luna calmly, counting.
‘Don’t be stupid, we can’t all go!’ said Harry angrily. ‘Look, you two’— he pointed at Neville Luna— ‘you’re not involved in this, and’— he now looked at Canini, —‘I can’t risk anything happening to my little sister, so you all aren’t—‘
They burst into more protests. His scar gave another, more painful, twinge. Every moment they delayed was precious; he did not have time to argue.
‘Okay, fine, it’s your choice,’ he said curtly. ‘But unless we can find more thestrals you’re not going to be able—‘
‘Don’t worry, more are on their way,’ said Theodore confidently, as he went two the second Thestral and began petting its neck as well.
‘What makes you think that?’
‘I know a lot was happening, but did you not pay attention to Hagrid’s lesson at all?’ said Theodore with curiosity in his voice. ‘You and Allison are covered in blood, they eat raw meat, you two are probably the reason these ones showed up and you’re the reason more will be here very soon.’
Harry felt a soft tug on his robes at that moment and looked down to see the closest thestral licking his sleeve, which was damp with Grawp’s blood.
‘Okay, then,’ he said, a bright idea occurring. ‘Allison and I are the ones covered in blood, Theodore, Neville, Luna, and I are the ones that can see them, so I’ll take Tracey and fly ahead and Theodore and Allison can wait behind for more thestrals to arrive—‘
‘I’m not getting left behind!’ said Allison furiously.
‘There’s no need,’ said Luna, smiling. ‘Look, here come more now…You two must really smell…’
Harry turned. No fewer than six or seven thestrals were picking their way through the trees now, their great leathery wings folded tight to their bodies, their eyes gleaming through the darkness. He had no excuse now…
‘All right,’ he said angrily, ‘pick one and get on, then.’
I got a shiny thestral, shiny graphorn and 3 SHINY TOADS in 1 HOUR
My luck is crazy
I have more but they r not important
So i have a theory that all 3 of the deathly hallows have some connection with thestrals, because that would be interesting. There's not much basis for this theory, but i think it can make sense a little bit.
The first hallow is the elder wand. It obviously has a core of thestral hair, so that's that.
Second hallow is the resurrection stone. Now i thought it would be interesting if the stone was a stomach stone. Some animals have those and they help grind food. I have no idea if horses have them or if thestrals would be the kind of animal to have them. But regardless the second hallow is from a thestral, and perhaps would have been enchanted by Cadmus Peverell to function as a resurrection stone. I know in the tale, the stone was just picked up by death, but i like Dumbledore's idea that the hallows were created by the brothers themselves.
The third hallow is of course the cloak. It's unknown what the cloak is constructed from and how it's enchanted, or why it's worked without losing power for so many centuries. But other invisibility cloaks can be made from demiguise hair. That beast can of course become invisible. What if the cloak has thestral hair woven in it. It would fit with the death theme, as thestrals are invisible to those who haven't seen death.
So that's about it. What do you think of this theory?
Whats your favourite magical creature(s)? Mine are probably thestrals, mooncalves, dragons (specifically opaleye ones) and thunderbirds
(Thanks for the welcomes on my other post, you guys are really sweet ^^🩵)
66 Votes in Poll
Okay so I get why Harry couldn’t see them because of his mothers death BUT in his first year he literally killed Professor Quirrel and saw him die. How come after 1st year he doesn’t see them?
Do you think you could see Thestrals if an animal died?
All the muggle game hunters: 0.0 DID I JUST SEE A FLYING HORSE
So i had to sign in again in wiz world.
And i got my patronus as this
Is it possible ???
I mean i've got hippogriffs before but never a thestral
Wdyt ??
And thats my wandddd
If they can only be seen by those who have scenes death than why couldn't Harry see them in the beginning? He watched his parents die.
43 Votes in Poll
