After dinner was finished, I was called to Professor McGonagall’s office.

To my surprise, Hermione Granger was there too. “What d’you think we’re here for?” I asked her.

She shrugged. “No idea.”

McGonagall led us into the office and we both sat down opposite her.

“Okay,” she began, when we were seated, “this is about your subject selections.”

Hermione and I glanced at each other. “What did you choose?” I asked her.

“Everything,” she replied calmly. “You?”

“The same,” I told her, nodding.

We turned back to Professor McGonagall.

“Now, you are taking too many subjects for us to fit into your timetable without them overlapping.”

I frowned. I had no idea what subjects I would drop. Then what she had said computed.

“‘Without them overlapping’? So…our subjects will overlap?” I enquired.

“In a way, Miss Evans.” She drew two silver hourglasses from her desk and held them up. “Time-Turners. You use them to turn back time. Turn it once for one hour.” She handed us our timetables. They were exactly the same. “So, at the end of one class, you turn the Time-Turner. Then you go to your next class at the same time. And so on. You must not be seen, especially not by yourself. Otherwise things will get a little messy. You should always wear this around your neck, so you don’t forget it. And, one last thing, you must tell no-one about these, not even your closest friends. Understood?”

We both nodded and she handed us the Time-Turners.

When we were out of the classroom, Hermione turned to me.

“I wonder how these work?” she asked with interest.

I shrugged, not really caring. “I have no idea. I think it would be very complicated.”

We examined our Time-Turners, then Hermione asked, “Well? Do you want to use it now?”

I grinned. “Sure. But only turn it once, mind.”

She nodded and we both turned them once.

I suddenly had the strange sensation that I was being dragged backwards, although when I glanced around, I was in the same place. People around me moved by quickly, clearly not seeing me.

At one point, someone stood in me, and let me tell you, it was uncomfortable.

Finally, I was finished travelling backwards.

Hermione was standing a few feet away from me.

I glanced at my watch. “Okay, I think everyone will be in the Great Hall at the moment. So as long as we keep track of the time, we’ll be okay.”

She nodded. “Well…what do you want to do now?”

“Hmm…” I said thoughtfully, then laughed. “This was your idea, you know.”

She giggled. “I know. How about we go to Hagrid’s?”

I shrugged. “Okay.”

I hadn’t really talked to Hagrid since he’d taken me to Diagon Alley. I supposed I would be seeing him more this year since he would be my Care of Magical Creatures teacher.

Hermione must visit him a lot, I thought to myself.

She knocked at his door and he opened it, frowning.

“Hello, Hermione. And…Jade?” he asked in confusion, glancing at my Slytherin robes and frowning. “Where’s Ron and Harry?”

Hermione winced. “Oh. They’re…um…well, they wanted to go to bed. They’re tired.”

“Right,” Hagrid replied suspiciously. “And Jade…what’re yeh doing here?”

“I just brought her here to…to visit,” Hermione explained quickly.

Hagrid raised his eyebrows. “Ah. Well, yeh’d better come in.”

We entered and sat down. I glanced at Hermione with a ‘what are we meant to do now’ expression.

She frowned and shrugged minutely.

Right. So we just had to hope that Hagrid believed us.

Hagrid sat down. “So, I’ll be yer Care of Magical Creatures teacher this year. I’ve got some great creatures lined up for yeh to learn about.”

Hermione looked worried. I knew Hagrid sometimes raised dangerous animals.

“What sort of animals?” she asked instead.

Hagrid led us outside. “This is what yeh’ll be learning about in yer first lesson.”

A strange creature was sitting in the pumpkin patch. It looked sort of like a cross between an eagle and a horse. It was the size of a horse and had hooves, but also had wings and a beak.

So like a slightly more birdlike version of Pegasus.

“Um, Hagrid, what is that?” I questioned nervously.

He glanced at me. “This is Buckbeak. He’s a hippogriff.”

Wow, what a name for an animal.

It sounded more like a cross between a hippopotamus and a griffin than a cross between a horse and an eagle.

I almost burst out laughing as I imagined a hippopotamus with wings attempting to fly.

Hermione gave me an odd look.

“Oh,” I said, trying to keep a straight face. “And what are hippogriffs like?”

Hagrid looked pleased. “Oh, hippogriffs are very proud creatures. Yeh have to bow to them. If they bow back, yeh can go and pat ‘em. Then yeh can ride ‘em.”

Suddenly, I glanced at my watch. We only had 10 minutes left. “Hermione, it’s getting late. We should go. Sorry, Hagrid.”

He half-smiled. “Oh, that’s alrigh’.”

Hermione and I ran back to the castle. When we got to McGonagall’s office, I turned to Hermione. “We’ll be coming out of there in just a moment. We had better go.”

She nodded, so we headed off down the corridor together. When we got to a corner, we turned around, just in time to see ourselves disappear.

Hermione turned to me, grinning. “We’re going to have a lot of fun with our classes this year, aren’t we?”

I nodded and grinned back. “Definitely.”