Classes Begin
Dazai wandered aimlessly through the corridors of the castle. He was meant to be at Arithmancy by now, but none of his Slytherin friends took the class, so he had to find it on his own.
As he walked, Dazai decided there was no way the school wasn’t magically telling other students where to go. His sense of direction wasn’t that bad, plus he could memorise the layout of just about anywhere else if he spent much time there.
He considered sitting down and waiting to be found, but he doubted anyone would pass by anytime soon. After another ten minutes of wandering, he was fairly certain he was half an hour late. Just as he was beginning to wonder if he’d make it to Arithmancy at all, he finally found the door.
“You’re late,” the teacher, Professor Vector, noted. Dazai grinned sheepishly and took a seat, finding a place next to Hermione.
“I got lost, Professor! It’s so hard for me to navigate, I thought I’d just die!” he said. Both Hermione and Professor Vector have him looks at that, though Hermione’s was admonishing while Vector looked almost concerned. Dazai couldn’t help but wonder if Snape was blabbing about his ‘concerning behaviours’ to the other teachers.
“I will be expecting you to arrive on time from here on out, and not disturb the class. Five points from Slytherin for the tardiness.”
A few Slytherin students groaned, but Dazai simply shrugged. He didn’t care for house point all that much.
“How on Earth are you so late?!” Hermione whispered at him chidingly.
“Got lost, remember? You know I can’t navigate this maze of a school!” Dazai said, looking not the least bit guilty.
Hermione sighed and got back to her work, while Dazai zoned out. The class was kind of like maths, but used in Divination. He got bored quickly and decided to have a nap on his desk. Hermione glared at him from above.
“That was so boringggg,” Dazai pouted as he followed Hermione to their next class.
“Actually, I found it to be fascinating. Maybe you found it boring because you spent the whole time napping,” she huffed. Dazai shrugged.
“Ah, I just realised I forgot something, Transfiguration is that door on the left over there,” she pointed Dazai to a door that was now in sight, and promptly disappeared around a corner.
Dazai was sure Hermione had lied about her reason for needing to go so suddenly, but he had no idea why. He knew she hadn’t forgotten something, Hermione never went anywhere unprepared, plus, he’d seen all of her transfiguration stuff in her bag.
He knew she wasn’t skipping either, she wasn’t a hypocrite, and was constantly preaching about how important school was. His confusion only increased when he entered the classroom to find her sitting in her usual seat.
He plopped down next to Blaise, and promptly began staring into space. He couldn’t be bothered with Transfiguration today. He was vaguely aware that Professor McGonagall had begun talking to the class.
He was mildly curious how Hermione had appeared in the class, but couldn’t parse it out. The only other odd thing he’d noticed with her had been Professor McGonagall pulling her over before the Sorting, but he couldn’t see how it would be connected.
At the front of the room, Professor McGonagall moved on to tell the class about a certain group of wizards called Animagi, who could transform into animals at will. There was silence for a few moments.
Whispers, and then applause broke out across the room, pulling Dazai’s attention partially back to the class. McGonagall (or, he assumed it was her) had become a tabby cat, who was now sitting in front of the class. She had markings around her eyes that mimicked her spectacles. Dazai wondered exactly how such things worked in the transformation, as the textbook hadn’t included too much on Animagi.
Now that he had been snapped out of his daydreaming, Dazai noticed that Ron and a few people around their group weren’t paying much, or really any attention. Surprisingly, this group included Hermione, who was the last person Dazai would have expected to be distracted during class. Something must have happened.
After changing back into her human form, McGonagall turned her attention toward the group.
“Students, I do expect all of you to listen during my class,” McGonagall said sternly.
Dazai had been allowed to move back to the same curriculum as the rest of the students, so unfortunately, this was directed to him as well. He was glad to be allowed to do actual magic, but he wasn’t a fan of being lumped in with everyone else. Especially in transfiguration.
Dazai whined childishly, despite the fact that she’d clearly been addressing the group, not just him. “It’s just too hard, Professor! Transfiguration just doesn’t work for me! Shouldn’t I get an exemption for this class?” He was fairly certain this was a theory lesson, but he still couldn’t be bothered with it. He probably knew everything she had to say already anyways. He doubted he’d be getting out of it, but it was worth a shot.
McGonagall sighed. “Today’s lesson is a lecture. You won’t be expected to perform any magic, so you should have no problem.”
Dazai shrugged noncommittally. McGonagall gave him a look, and he groaned dramatically.
“Fineeee,” he conceded. Despite still being clearly unsatisfied, the professor moved on.
Unfortunately for Ron, Dazai hadn’t been the only one who was distracted. Dazai watched as the Professor turned her attention back to the rest of the group.
“As for the rest of you, what’s going on? Usually, I get the attention of my whole class with that.”
Hermione spoke up, “Please, Professor, we’ve just had our first Divination class, we were reading tea leaves and-“
“Ah, of course,” McGonagall said with a frown. “Tell me, which one of you will be dying this year?” she asked. The group was silent for a few moments, as everyone’s eyes flitted to Ron, who looked like he was about to be sick. Or potentially cry. Dazai couldn’t decide which.
Though, why would McGonagall ask who was dying? Everyone clearly thought it was Ron, but why?
McGonagall noticed the stares, despite no one actually responding to her question. “I see. Well, Mr. Weasley, I don’t think you have too much to worry about. Sybil Trelawny has predicted the death of one student each year, and none of them has died yet. It’s her favourite way to greet a new class. Now, you look to be in perfect health, so I don’t think you should have any problems in class today,” she told them.
Ah, so that’s what it was. Dazai was no longer quite so jealous. If the predictions were usually false, that would’ve been quite a letdown if it had been his tealeaves with the death omen.
Dazai did wonder how Hermione could possibly have just had Divination though. She had just been in Arithmancy with him. She must have some way of being in two places at once, which checked out with what Dazai had seen earlier of her running around the corner only to already be sitting in class when he entered.
Either that, or she had some kind of clone wandering around pretending to be her.
Dazai followed Blaise to their next class. Probably-Hermione and Ron walked with them, they all had Care of Magical Creatures next.
“Has Blaise seen the new story that’s stealing my spotlight?” Dazai asked as they walked.
“Sirius Black?”
“Your what?!"
Blaise and Hermione responded at the same time. Ron just looked at Dazai and shook his head, and Dazai could have sworn he heard him mutter something about him being mad under his breath.
“My spotlight! This new story’s stealing all of my attention!” Dazai repeated. Ron and Hermione looked appalled.
“You should be glad they have a new story, the articles the Daily Prophet published about you were dishonest and horrible!” Hermione told him. He shrugged at her.
“Anyway, his story could get interesting. Any idea what he was in for in the first place?”
“His crimes were written in the articles you read, Dazai,” Blaise reminded him.
“Yeah, but we know how reliable that is,” Dazai remarked.
Blaise shrugged. They navigated the halls, moving seemingly at random. Dazai was sure they turned right three or four times in a row, but kept quiet, knowing it was still probably the right way.
“How come you picked Care of Magical Creatures, Dazai?” Blaise asked, though the subtle look he sent Dazai’s way asked a slightly different question. Won’t you just kill everything you touch?
“Eh, it seemed slightly less boring than the other options. Don’t look at me like that! I won’t do anything stupid. Probably,” Dazai huffed. He wiggled his fingers slightly, subtly pointing his gloves out to Blaise. I’m prepared, it’ll be ok. Blaise nodded slightly in approval.
The trio arrived at the courtyard and joined the rest of the class. They soon scouted out Draco and moved to stand with him.
“Got a real treat for yeh today!” a large man was telling the class. “Great lesson comin’ up! Everyone here? Right, follow me!”
The man - Hagrid, presumably, Dazai vaguely remembered the name from somewhere – lead them around the edge of the Forest, to a kind of paddock. It was empty.
“Everyone gather round the fence here!” he called. “That’s it, make sure everyone can see. Now, firs’ thing yeh’ll want ter do is open up yer books,” he told them.
The class stared at him for a few moments, expecting a demonstration. Hagrid stared back expectantly, then faltered.
“Uh, how do we open the books?” Hermione asked as politely as she could. A glance at Draco told Dazai he’d been about to ask the same question, but less nicely.
Hagrid looked crestfallen. “Hasn’ anyone been able ter open their books?” he asked. The class shook their heads.
“Yeh’ve got to stroke ‘em,” Hagrid told them, as if he thought it was obvious. He gestured for someone to give him their book, to which Hermione obliged.
“Look,” he said, and removed the Spellotape binding her book closed. Before the thing could snap at him, he ran a finger down its spine. The change was instant. The book shivered, before falling open in his hands.
Draco rolled his eyes. “Yeah, why didn’t we guess that,” he whispered sarcastically. Luckily, Hagrid didn’t hear. Dazai thought he might break down if anyone said anything too mean.
He’s pathetic a voice in his head supplied. It sounded a lot like Mori. Dazai frowned internally, pushing it aside. He didn’t need to hear what Mori had to say when he was at Hogwarts.
“Well, uh, now yeh can open yer books, I’ll go fetch the magical creatures.” With that, he strode into the Forest. Soon, a herd of strange looking bird-horses came trotting out.
The things were the size of horses, and their back half was, in fact, that of a horse. They had the heads, wings, and front talons of eagles.
Dazai wondered if there was any way he could be killed by those talons without nullifying the creature.
Each beast had a large leather collar around its neck, which attached to a long, metal chain which Hagrid was holding them by.
“Gee up, there!” Hagrid boomed, as he came jogging up behind the things.
He tethered each beast to the fence by its chain, and the class took a collective step back when any of them got too near. Too near really wasn’t all that close though, everyone was just terrified of the very sharp looking talons.
Hagrid then turned to face the class, “Hippogriffs!” he said happily. “Beau’iful, aren’ they?”
Dazai looked at the things sceptically. They reminded him of show horses that people loved to parade around. They weren’t ugly, but he wasn’t too impressed by them either.
“So, if yeh want to come a bit nearer…”
No one made a move to go closer. Dazai considered approaching, it would be good for his image, plus, he was curious. He dragged Hermione, Draco, and Blaise a little closer to the fence. A few of the Hippogriffs gave him dirty looks as he did so.
Hagrid appeared confused by the outward dislike the things had for Dazai, subtle as it was, but continued anyway.
“Uh, well, the firs’ thing yeh gotta know abou’ Hippogriffs is they’re proud,” Hagrid started, glancing at Dazai uneasily. “Easily offended, Hippogriffs are. Don’t never insult one, ‘cause it might be the last thing yeh do.”
“Hmm… perhaps that’s how I’ll go out, sounds pretty easy” Dazai said cheerily. He wondered how intelligent these things were. If they could understand verbal insults enough to get offended by them, they must have at least some real intelligence, unlike nonmagical creatures.
All of his friends, other than Blaise, gave him various looks for the comment, while Hagrid paled slightly.
“Don’ say that kinda thing, yeh’ll be fine. No need ter worry yourself with that,” he said. Dazai smiled at him.
“Yeh always wait for the Hippogriff to make the firs’ move, it’s polite, see?” Hagrid continued. “Yeh walk towards ‘im, and yeh bow, an’ yeh wait. If he bows back, yeh’re allowed ter touch ‘im. If he doesn’ bow, then get away from ‘im sharpish, ‘cause those talons hurt.”
He paused, looking over the class. Most looked scared to go anywhere near these creatures, let alone bow down and expose their necks to them.
“So, who wants ter go first?” he asked.
The class was silent, no one dared put their hand up to approach the creatures. Dazai considered volunteering but wasn’t sure how a Hippogriff would react to having No Longer Human so close. He wasn’t particularly keen to find out in front of a large group either.
He had half a mind to go up anyway, it would probably benefit his image, no matter the outcome. He ultimately chose not to, as he didn’t want to be sent to the infirmary on the first day of class, or accidentally reveal No Longer Human in front of a crowd.
“Come on, someone has to go! I’ll ‘ave to pick one of you out if no one volunteers,” Hagrid told them.
After a few moments of uncomfortable shuffling, Hermione raised her hand. “I’ll go,” she said.
“Ah, wonderful! Now, just walk up to Buckbeak here, all gentle like, an’ bow down to ‘im,” Hagrid told her, visibly relieved that someone put their hand up.
Hermione walked over to the creature and bowed deeply to it. The creature stared at her for a few moments, and just as Hagrid opened his mouth to tell her to back off, the Hippogriff bent its front knees, bowing to the girl in front of it.
Hagrid looked at her with pride. “All right, he’s given permission. Ye can reach out an’ touch ‘im if yer want,” he told her. He seemed glad that the first demonstration went so well, Dazai watched as he visibly relaxed.
Obediently, Hermione reached out to the thing and rested her hand on its beak. When it didn’t make any move to harm her, she moved her hand to touch its feathers. She ran her hand through its neck feathers for a few moments, before it brought itself back up on to its feet.
“He’s ‘ad enough now, I think. Bring yer hand back now,” Hagrid told her. She retracted her hand immediately and stepped back.
“Go on, ye can all do it now, just remember to back away if yer Hippogriff don’t bow down, got it?”
The students nodded and began approaching and bowing to the creatures all over the yard. Some practically ran off, while others seemed hesitant. Dazai felt he was part if the latter group, but he didn’t show it outwardly.
He walked with his little group over to where Buckbeak was tied up. Blaise went first, succeeding in getting the creature to allow him to pet it. After a few moments he backed away.
Dazai walked over next, forcing himself to look confident, despite his concern about how the animal may react to him. He bowed deeply, a few paces further from the beast than others did.
The creature took a step away from him, assessing him for a few moments. Just as Dazai was about to step back, it bent one of its knees. It wasn’t a full bow, like it had done for others, so he approached it carefully.
It narrowed its eyes at Dazai, but made no move to kick or bolt. He tentatively reached out a gloved hand, placing it on Buckbeak’s beak. It backed away after far less time than it allowed for most others. Dazai gave it a nod and returned to his group.
“Well, that went better than expected,” Dazai chirped.
Blaise nodded.
“Why? You did everything right, didn’t you?” Ron asked.
“Of course I did! It’s just that I’m also evil, and didn’t think Hippogriffs liked that,” Dazai replied. It was only a lie by omission.
“You’re not evil Dazai!” Hermione told him. Ah, just how wrong she was. Though, he also noticed Blaise looking at him disapprovingly for the comment.
“Hermione’s right, you know,” Blaise told him. “You aren’t evil.” Dazai shrugged. He had no idea how Blaise could still possibly believe that after last year.
Draco nodded to show his agreement with Blaise, then approached the Hippogriff himself and gave it a half-hearted bow.
Dazai sighed. “Please don’t hurt my stupid friend,” he said to it. Dazai was pretty sure this made it look like Blaise and Hermione were right, but he was just protecting a valuable subordinate and ally!
The Hippogriff narrowed its eyes at Draco disapprovingly.
“Draco, you should give him more respect! Hagrid told us not to insult them, and you barely bowed to it!” Hermione reprimanded, now clearly distracted from the earlier topic.
Buckbeak glanced from the boy in front of him to the smaller one that had approached just before. He wanted to slash out at the disrespectful one, teach him a lesson and all. Unfortunately, the smaller, bandaged boy was looking at him in such a way that told him it was a bad idea. The child’s aura was terrifying, and Buckbeak was sure it would hurt or possibly kill him if he touched the small boy directly.
The Hippogriff shoved Draco to the ground but didn’t really hurt him. Draco yelped in surprise. Dazai sighed, Hermione glanced between Draco on the ground and the hippogriff, now ignoring him. Her eyes were wide.
Draco picked himself up quickly and scurried back to the group as Hagrid hurried over.
“You kids alright?” he asked worriedly.
“Yup! Draco just got a little shove,” Dazai told him.
“Hey! That thing could’ve killed me!” Draco said indignantly.
Dazai rolled his eyes. “It didn’t even draw blood, you’re fine.”
“I’m glad yer all ok,” he told them. Dazai could hear the surprise in his voice, probably at the fact that the thing hadn’t done any real damage beyond the half-hearted shove. Dazai took note. Perhaps he had some sway with magical creatures purely due to No Longer Human.
Draco opened his mouth to say something but quickly decided against it. Hagrid told Draco not to approach again and left to supervise other groups.
Hermione turned on Draco. “What were you thinking?! You could have been seriously hurt, insulting a Hippogriff like that!”
“How could I have known it was so touchy? I barely did anything!” he did glance worriedly at the Hippogriff, as if afraid it would attack him for calling it touchy. It huffed at him, but didn’t move.
Hermione looked like she was about to go on a rant, so Dazai interrupted. “Now, now. No one got badly hurt, did they. Besides, now we know Hippogriffs listen to me!”
“They do?” Ron asked.
“Yeah, it definitely wanted to do worse, but I told it not to hurt Draco, so it didn’t!” he told him.
“I’m not sure that’s why it held back, Dazai,” Hermione told him. “Though, I’m also not sure why it did hold back,” she frowned, “from what I’ve read, they don’t tolerate any disrespect and often do a fair bit of damage if someone is rude to them.”
The group continued taking turns approaching the Hippogriff, apart from Draco, who sat quietly away from the creature and didn’t so much as make eye contact with it for the rest of the lesson.
Dazai sat at the Slytherin table for breakfast a few days later. He was really only there to keep up with the gossip, plus, his friends would pester him about eating if he didn’t at least pretend to consume something.
Blaise cut up an apple and placed it on Dazai’s plate, which he chose to ignore. Blaise gave him a look, and he made a face. Eventually Blaise started poking him in his bony side, which prompted Dazai to grumble and whine.
Eventually, of course, he caved. By this point, a few grapes and half a croissant had made it to his plate. He ate a few of the apple slices, ignoring the croissant completely.
Blaise looked satisfied with his efforts and continued with his own breakfast.
Around halfway through breakfast, when Dazai was almost finished with his apple, a letter was dropped in front of him. He looked at it like it had personally offended him but opened it regardless.
He was careful not to let other people see its contents, a letter from Mori could be anything from annoying crooning to orders to kill someone, and could easily be both. If it was closer to the latter, it could be really bad if someone saw it. He didn’t particularly like the idea of anyone seeing Mori’s typical crooning either, if he was honest.
Dear Dazai,
I haven’t seen your adorably evil face in any Daily Prophet papers recently! I’m starting to miss reading about your little adventures over there!
I’m quite sure I don’t need to remind you what happens if you cannot deliver for us. The DOE needs something to work with, and if you can’t provide that I may need to consider removing you from Hogwarts.
Cutting ties with the magical community would be such a hassle after we’ve dedicated so much time to it. I’d love having you back here though, I have so many new dresses for you to try on!
I’d hate to have to punish you, but I can’t make exceptions for anyone failing a mission. Not even you, no matter how cute you are!
Dazai made a face. He hated Mori’s way of switching from his slimy crooning to not-so-veiled threats. The little red hearts drawn in Elise’s crayons also didn’t make the letter any more tolerable.
He had hoped he’d have at least a few weeks before Mori sent him anything like this. It had been exactly a week since he’d arrived at Hogwarts. He hadn’t even had his first Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson yet!
He knew it would be advantageous to refresh his villain persona sooner rather than later, but he still would’ve liked a bit longer to work out how exactly he was going to do that.
He hadn’t really had an appetite before, but if he had, it would be long gone now. He only managed one more grape before giving up. Blaise noticed, frowning, but refrained from saying anything.