After a very filling lunch, Katie made her way across the Hogwarts grounds towards Hagrid's Hut for her first Care of Magical Creatures class. She was unfortunate enough to find herself walking with Pansy and Draco, who was still making jokes about Harry collapsing on the train. He imitated passing out and Pansy let out a roar of laughter. Katie, on the other hand, was not entertained in the slightest.

"You know, jokes tend to get old after you make them a hundred times." she said coolly.

"Oh, come on now, Blair. Loosen up. Have a laugh." Malfoy said casually, turning himself around so that he was walking backwards and facing Katie. She refused to meet his eyes and gazed off to the side.

"I'm not going to laugh at something that isn't funny."

"Alright, alright," Draco grinned and ran a hand through his hair. "You want funny? I'll tell you what's funny. That brainless oaf Hagrid teaching classes is what's funny."

Once again, Pansy broke out in a fit of laughter. Katie scowled at her former friend. When Katie left Hogwarts at the end of second year for summer, Pansy wasn't particularly friendly with Harry, Ron or Hermione, but she certainly wasn't cruel to them, and she was Katie's friend. So when Katie arrived back at school for her third year, she was both bewildered and downhearted by Pansy's sudden change in attitude, but it didn't take a genius to figure out why Pansy had decided to switch up her mannerisms. In fact, it only took Katie less than a day of classes to crack the case. Pansy had a crush on Draco and she was trying to impress him.

Of course it wasn't working. Draco barely paid any attention to Pansy at all. After all, no girl at Hogwarts would ever be good enough for Draco Malfoy, the Prince of Slytherin.

"Seriously?" Draco said, though his grin did not falter. "Not even a chuckle?"

Katie said nothing. Draco's eyes flashed around as he thought of ways to force a giggle from Katie, but he could only come up with one. He rolled up his sleeves, catching Katie's attention, and her eyes finally flickered to him. He smirked and before Katie had time to realise what was happening, Draco excessively poking at her sides. She jumped and swatted his hands away, but he just kept on coming back.

"Stop it!"

"I'll stop when you give in and laugh." Draco replied. He was smiling broadly — a real smile, perhaps? Katie wasn't too sure.

"Draco, I swear to—"

"Oh Merlin's Beard, Katie! Just laugh and he'll stop!" Pansy shouted angrily. Her lips formed a pout an her eyes were narrowed. Jealousy was definitely not a good look on her.

"Yeah Katie," Draco teased, Pansy's jealousy not registering with him. "Just laugh and I'll stop."

"You're not going to make me laugh!" Katie protested, but lo and behold, those very words came out stirred with a beautiful laugh, and Draco punched the air in triumph.

"I made you laugh!"

Katie rolled her eyes and scoffed. "Whatever."

However, when Draco turned around and was no longer looking at her, Katie smiled and pushed her hair behind her ear.

After what felt like a lifetime of pain and suffering, Katie arrived at the hut. Hagrid was waiting by the door for his entire class to arrive and Fang, his dog, was sat at his heels and scanning the students. He clearly wasn't used to being around that many people.

"C'mon, now, get a move on!" Hagrid called out and the class gathered around in front of him. "Got a real treat for yeh today! Great lesson comin' up! Everyone here? Right, follow me!"

As Hagrid led his class around the edge of the forest, Katie desperately scanned through the sea of heads in search of Harry, Ron and Hermione. Sadly, she had no luck, and accepted that she would have to suffer through an entire class with Malfoy as her only company.

The class arrived at a makeshift paddock, though it was vacant. Hagrid turned to face the students.

"Everyone gather round the fence here!" he said. "That's it —'make sure yeh can see. Now, firs' thing yeh'll want ter do is open yer books—"

"How exactly do we do that?" Draco shouted, sounding disgusted.

"How?" Hagrid repeated. He gazed around at all of the young witches and wizards only to find that they had all bound their books closed with belts, clips, or in Katie's case, sellotape.

"Yeh've got ter stroke 'em," Hagrid said as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Look..."

He snatched up Harry's copy of The Monster Book of Monster, tore the belt off and stroked the book's spine. The book shook around momentarily before opening and laying still in Hagrid's huge hands.

"Oh, how silly we've all been!" Malfoy sneered. "We should have stroked them. Why didn't we guess?"

Katie couldn't help but roll her eyes. "Do you ever shut up?"

"I... I thought they were funny..." Hagrid said sadly while sulking.

"Oh, tremendously funny!" Draco proclaimed. "Really witty, giving us books that try and rip our hands off!"

"Shut up, Malfoy." came a familiar voice, and Katie finally spotted Harry among the students, but they couldn't talk now because the class had begun.

Hagrid addressed the whole class. "Righ' then, so... so yeh've got yer books an'... an'... now yeh need Magical Creatures. Yeah. So I'll go an' get 'em. Hang on..."

Hagrid strode off and Malfoy decided that now would be the perfect time to earn a laugh from his Slytherin classmates.

"God, this place is going to the dogs," he said loudly. "That oaf teaching classes, my father'll have a fit when I tell him—"

"Shut up, Malfoy." Harry repeated, only this time he was louder and more aggressive.

"Careful, Potter, there's a dementor behind you—"

Draco was cut off by his own gasp of pain when he received a hard elbow to the rips from Katie.

"Knock if off." she hissed. Instead of glaring at Katie or insulting her, Malfoy merely smiled smugly and looked away, leaving Katie confused but still annoyed with him.

"Oooooh!" Lavender Brown, a Gryffindor girl, squealed in delight as she pointed towards the opposite side of the paddock.

Hagrid emerged from the trees holding a leash, and on the other end of that leash was possibly the most beautiful creature that Katie had ever laid eyes on. She knew what it was, of course, though she had only ever seen pictures, so to see one in real life was a truly wondrous experience.

A creature with the body, hind legs and tail of a horse, but the front legs and wings of a giant eagle, and a beak. It was a—

"Hippogriff!" Hagrid exclaimed proudly as he removed the leash from the majestic creature. The class took a fearful step back when the Hippogriff was free of its restraint.

"This one 'ere is Buckbeak. No need to be alarmed, he don't bite. Now, firs' thing yeh gotta know abou' Hippogriffs is they're proud," Hagrid explained. "Easily offended, Hippogriffs are. Don't never insult one, 'cause it might be the last thing yeh do."

The class looked down seriously.

Hagrid continued. "Yeh always wait fer the Hippogriff ter make the firs' move. It's polite, see? Yeh walk towards him, and bow, an' yeh wait. If he bows back, yeh're allowed ter touch him. If he doesn't bow, then get away from him sharpish, 'cause those talons hurt. Right — who wants ter go first?"

Most of the class took more steps backwards. Hagrid glanced around desperately. Katie felt bad for not volunteering, she felt as though she was disappointing Hagrid, but as beautiful as Buckbeak was, there were few things that would convince her to stand within five feet of him.

"No one?" Hagrid pleaded.

"I'll do it." Harry said bravely. Hagrid's spirits were suddenly lifted and he beamed at Harry. Both Draco and Pansy growled in disgust.

"Good man, Harry!" Hagrid roared. "Now, step up, give him a nice bow."

Hesitantly, Harry stepped forward and the entire class held their breath as he bowed. Buckbeak blinked and his eyes surveyed Harry intensely.

Suddenly, Buckbeak began to frantically flap his wings and he let out a great squak. Pansy snorted to herself.

"Back off, Harry! Back off!" Hagrid warmed. Harry done as Hagrid said, only he stepped on a stick, and it made a rather loud snap, startling Buckbeak. Harry froze, the class held their breath again, and instinctively, Katie grabbed onto Draco's hand. She heard his breath hitch in surprise and, upon realising what she had done, Katie tensed up. Her heart hammered against her ribcage and she couldn't find the strength to move at all, which meant that she also couldn't bring herself to let go of Draco's hand.

From the corner of her eye, Katie could see that Draco was watching her. His eyes flashed from the side of her terrified face to their intertwined hands, yet to her amazement, he didn't let go.

In fact, it was only after Harry had gained Buckbeak's trust, rode him through the clouds and landed safely on the ground that their hands left each other's. Honestly, they had forgotten that their hands were even entwined after a couple of minutes, and they just stayed like that without either of them acknowledging it. Pansy, however, definitely acknowledged it. She glared evilly and their hands the entire time that they were holding onto each other.

Draco was clearly jealous that Harry was getting more attention than him, so he dropped Katie's hand, pushed through his classmates, and strode towards the Hippogriff.

"Yeah, I bet you're not dangerous at all are you, you great ugly brute?"

It all happened in a flash of steely tallons. Draco let out a cry of pain and keeled over on the ground. Katie clapped a hand over her mouth and the class gasped in horror. Hagrid hastily wrestled Buckbeak back into his leash before rushing to Malfoy's side.

Katie froze up, her feet glued to the ground, every muscle in her body tensed. Blood was pooling from a deep gash in Draco's arm and matting both his robes and the dry paddock ground.

"I'm dying!" Draco yelled, creating quite the panic among the crowd. "I'm dying, look at me! It's killed me!"

"Yer not dyin'!" Hagrid said, swooping Draco up in his arms. "Someone help me — gotta get him outta here—"

Suddenly finding the strength to move, Katie darted towards the paddock gate and heaved it open. With a quick glance at a terrified Hermione, she trailed after Hagrid, whom she had to jog beside to keep up with.

"What do yeh think yer doin'?" Hagrid barked at her.

"I'm coming with you." Katie stated firmly.

"No yer not," Hagrid demanded. "Don't want yeh seeing nothin' like this. No, I won't allow it."

"Hagrid—"

"No!"

Draco passed out in Hagrid's arms and this was the final straw for Katie.

"Hagrid!" she bellowed. Her shout echoed around the open air of the Hogwarts grounds, and was clearly heard by the Care of Magical Creatures class because their panicked chatter came to a quick halt when she yelled. Like the class, Hagrid also fell silent.

"I'm coming with you." she told him. With a sigh and a disapproving glance, Hagrid reluctantly agreed.

"Oh, alrigh'..."