No Lie
It was soon know that Professor Lupin seemed to be a lot of people's favourite teacher and it wasn't hard to find out that was the case. Almost all of the school seemed to agree, and Defence Against the Dark Arts became an all-round favourite subject.
The year had been rather boring. The only eventful thing that had happened was when Raelynn got detention from punching Blaise Zabini for his remark about Professor Lupin. Theodore Nott had gone wining about it to the professors (even though his cousin Skylar just rolled her eyes at him).
Juliette and Paige were the only ones who took Care of Magical creatures; they didn't mind. Paige was incredibly good at Care of Magical Creatures.
"Do you think Hagrid will be a good teacher?" Paige asked Juliette as they walked towards the class.
"He's a nice person either way," Juliette replied,"Being a teacher? I'm not sure if it'll suit him but if anyone knows magical creatures, it's Hagrid."
Paige, Juliette and Katie stopped in the opening of the forest. People were crowding around with their books (which tried to eat you unless you stroked the spine); Paige had no problems with this of course.
Juliette didn't see Hagrid as much as Harry did. While she did wave in passing and say hi, she didn't always just go for a chat. Paige, on the other hand, did. This was mainly because she didn't have many friends in her first year until she met Cedric.
"Ta da!" he said proudly, drawing the attention of the class. "Say hello to the Hippogriffs. Now, firs' thing yeh gotta know abou' Hippogriffs is that they're proud - easily offended. Don't ever insult one, 'cause it might be the last thing yeh do. So, who wants ter come and say hello?"
Nobody moved - everyone knew what had happened to Draco with the BuckBeak incident. Hagrid hadn't wanted to do another lesson on Hippogriffs but Paige advised him that it might cheer him up as their year was more mature and had nicer people. So, Paige stepped forward with a light shrug.
"Eh, might be fun," She grinned sheepishly.
"Excellent!" Hagrid said, beaming gratefully at Paige. "Who's going first?"
"I will." Paige said, walking up to the fence. She could already tell that Harry was going to protest, but ignored him, not about to change her mind.
"Great, Paige." Hagrid said, smiling warmly at her. "Now, yeh always wait fer the Hippogriff ter make the firs' move. It's polite, see? Yeh walk toward him, yeh bow, an' yeh wait. If he bows back, yeh're allowed ter touch him. If he doesn' bow, then get away from him sharpish, 'cause those talons hurt."
Paige didn't need Hagrid to direct her on what to do. Paige knew that she needed to bow and wait for Buckbeak to bow back; It was dangerous if he didn't.
"Well done, Paige!" Hagrid said, sounding relieved as Buckbeak bowed. "Right - yeh can pat his beak, go on!"
Paige slowly walked forwards, extending her arm. She patted Buckbeak's beak, and the Hippogriff shut its eyes lazily. The class broke into applause, Juliette grinning at her.
It seemed that Buckbeak's mood had improved after receiving affection from Paige, as he bowed almost instantly for Juliette and Katie.
Buckbeak trotted back over to Hagrid as the class began to focus on the rest of the hippogriffs.
"How am I doing?" he asked anxiously.
"You're doing brilliantly." Paige said, beaming from ear to ear.
"Don't worry about Malfoy, Hagrid," Juliette assured,"He's just a twit."
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Paige adored Hogsmeade, being a lover of snow and small villages. This mainly came from the fact that Paige lived in a small village herself so she understood that the community was a lot more tightknit than other larger cities would be. However, it didn't often snow in her Village, other than around December and January. Hogsmeade was often snowy most of the year.
"Were shall we go?" Thomas questioned.
Paige adored Thomas, he was like her older brother. Having no siblings himself, Thomas bonded with the fact Paige was an only child as well. Not to mention, he loved to hold over the fact he was a year older so he was the better 'sibling'.
Paige and Cedric were very different. Paige knew that Cedric liked her, he made it rather obvious, but he didn't cross any lines because Paige never showed any interest back. Paige liked Cedric too but she didn't want to ruin their friendship or make Thomas feel as though he was a third-wheel. Cedric just assumed Paige hadn't noticed yet.
"I'll never say no to Honeydukes," Paige grinned, her hair flowing wildly in the wind.
"Great!" Cedric replied,"Then maybe we can go to the three broomsticks?"
Paige and Thomas both nodded.
"I feel quite bad for Juliette," Paige commented as they walked,"She's not actually meant to be here..."
"Why?" Cedric questioned.
"Her Aunt and Uncle are vile...they didn't sign Harry's permission slip," Paige explained,"Juliette feels guilty for leaving Harry in the castle but he told her to go."
"That's harsh," Thomas frowned,"I bet Juliette will take him some sweets from Honeydukes back."
"Of course she will!" Paige replied,"I think she's sneak him in next time...probably with the group's help."
"You know, I don't think you've ever actually introduced us to Skylar," Cedric commented.
That was partly true. Skylar and Paige didn't spend a large amount of time together until they were with Juliette and Raelynn. Raelynn spent the most time with Paige as Juliette and Skylar were often together. While Skylar had said "hello" to Paige's friends, they had never been formally introduced.
"Huh? I suppose we'll have to do that sometimes."
Honeydukes was incredibly busy so they didn't spend very long in there, deciding to head to the Three Broomsticks instead. The pub wasn't as busy as everyone expected it to be. A lot of people took their time in Zonko's.
Despite this, the trip to Hogsmeade had been quite nice for Paige and she hoped that every trip was as pleasant. (Even though a mass-murderer was on the loose.)