Chapter 1
"Patrick, hurry up!" cried Newt Scamander. "If we're late for class Pokeby'll
have our hides!"
"We still have ten minutes before class
starts, Newt. And you know that Pokeby's hardly ever on time." said Patrick
Murray. His voice was rather stifled as he was lying on his stomach under his
bed searching for his copy of Monstrosities
Galore for the Care of Magical Creatures Class.
"Better safe than sorry," mumbled Newt,
running a hand nervously through his reddish-brown hair.
"Got it!" cried Patrick as he emerged from
under his bed, his usually neat blond hair completely mussed up and his hand
clutching a book which was so tattered it looked like it would have preferred
to stay under the bed.
Without a word, Newt grabbed Patrick's arm,
and ran out of their dorm, through the Gryffindor common room, nearly knocked
down a first-year as he burst through the Portrait Hole ("Watch it!" cried the
Fat Lady) and was soon racing down the corridors.
"Why the rush?" panted Patrick as he
struggled to keep up with his friend.
"Don't you see?" cried Newt excitedly, not
breaking his pace. "Today's the day!"
Realization suddenly dawned in Patrick's
eyes and he grinned at Newt as they burst out into the bright sunlight onto the
Hogwarts grounds.
Today was the day all right. Newt had been
waiting for it ever since his mother had told him over the summer that she might
help out their Care of Magical Creatures Professor by lending the school some
of her prize Hippogriffs for the students to study for a few weeks. Newt was
looking forward to this class. Not only was he going to see the animals he had
grown up with, and missed terribly whenever he was at school, but nobody knew
more about Hippogriffs than he did. For once, he was not going to look like an
idiot in class.
School had never been easy for Newt. He was
keen and enthusiastic, but he never could understand the incredibly formal and
conventional methods most of the Professors used. For his first two years in
Hogwarts the only solace he had was in the Transfiguration classes, where
Professor Dumbledore would delight him with his whimsical idiosyncracies and
the never ending encouragement he always gave Newt, no matter how many times he
accidentally made body parts of the animals he was supposed to be transfiguring
mysteriously vanish.
Academics weren't the only area in which he
had trouble. He was quite unpopular in his house for the loads of points he
lost for it almost weekly. Newt became rebellious when he was frustrated, and
often broke the school rules blatantly, not caring for the consequences. He was
wild, rash and adventurous, never comprehending why anyone would want to be
cooped up in a stuffy old classroom when they could be out exploring the
Forbidden Forest. The only friend he had was Patrick, and Newt treasured him.
Patrick was the calm, sensible one, sticking up for Newt and often getting him
out of trouble. He was one of the smartest students in their year, and all the
teachers loved him. The mere fact that Patrick was Newt's best friend gave him
the credibility he couldn't earn on his own.
But Newt had been very much looking forward
to his third year, which he was determined to enjoy, because of the new class
he had chosen- Care of Magical Creatures.
For the first time, for as long as he could
remember, he actually felt excited
about something. The summer before he returned to school, he spent most his
time devouring the various textbooks his mother had lent him. He spent hours in
the woody marshland near his house, observing Horklumps and playing with his
pet Crups. However, a sore disappointment was in store for Newt.
Professor Pokeby was undoubtedly the last
person Newt would have ever wanted to be in charge of his favourite class.
Humourless, strict and at times horribly unfair, she looked upon Newt's passion
for the subject with suspicion, and felt rather threatened whenever he
displayed his precocious knowledge of Magical Beasts. She felt that he usurped
her authority, and the best student in her class quickly became the one she
least liked.
That was what Newt concluded anyway, but
instead focused on enjoying the one class where he was allowed to be outdoors
and sometimes within close vicinity of the Forbidden Forest. Now in his fourth
year, Newt was being extra careful not to displease his professors. He would be
taking his O.W.Ls in a year, and he was treading on thin ice already. He was looking
forward to this class- maybe Pokeby might even relent when she saw how
proficient he was in his knowledge of Hippogriffs.
As Newt and Patrick hurried across the
grounds, they noticed the group of Ravenclaws they took the class with huddled
together near the edge of the Forbidden Forest. They were avidly staring at the
group of Hippogriffs tied to the trees. The Hippogriffs seemed to be rather
nervous at being inspected like this; some of them were nervously pawing the
ground or rearing their heads. Every time one of them let out a grunt, a short
Ravenclaw girl shrieked. Professor Pokeby was nowhere in sight.
Newt hurried up to the Hippogriffs and
began to stroke them without bothering to bow. After all, he had grown up with
these animals. The only one who knew them better than he did would have to be
his mother. The Ravenclaws, impressed, gathered around Newt.
"Wow!"
"So these are your mother's Hippogriff's,
eh Newt?"
"Are they dangerous?"
"What are their names?"
"Yuck! That one just ate a worm!"
Newt grinned, enjoying being the centre of
attention in a positive way for once. He was usually the boy who stood out for
the hundreds of points he lost for Gryffindor, or the one who sneaked out into
the Forbidden Forest every other night, or the one who got detention for
releasing dozens of Cornish Pixies into the school grounds on Halloween. The
only way in which people usually recognised him was 'The Son of the Famous
Hippogriff Breeder Elizabeth Scamander' or 'The Best Friend of that Brilliant-Popular-Perfect-In-Every-Way
Patrick Murray'.
Care of Magical Creatures was the one class
he was good at, although he barely got recognition for it. Professor Pokeby
seemed to be determined to taper down his marks to the lowest degree possible,
which luckily, still came to be quite a lot.
Newt started introducing all the
Hippogriffs to the Ravenclaws as some of the other Gryffindors lazily sauntered
towards the gathering. "That one there is Diamond, and this one's called
Rockhoof, better not get behind her. That's Brandybuck, Chubb and next to them
is Eliza. She's named after my mother. Those two over there are called Goldy
and Bronzy. They had a baby a few months ago, and she's called-"
"Let me guess… Silvery?" snickered the
short Ravenclaw girl.
"Actually she's named Irony, because my
mother always thought that her parents couldn't stand each other."
The Ravenclaws and even a few of the
Gryffindors laughed at this. Newt scanned the group of Hippogriffs until he
found the one he was looking for. "And this," he said, his voice becoming
uncharacteristically gentle as he stroked a Hippogriff with silvery-grey
plumage, "this is Eddy. He's the first one of his kind in the entire world to
be completely tamed."
Eddy was the reason Elizabeth Scamander had
attained worldwide repute, and had had her face splashed on nearly every
Magizoology magazine in Europe. When Elizabeth had started out on her
experiments, Hippogriffs were still classified as dangerous, untameable beasts
that no sane wizard would try to domesticate.
However, after over 10 years of research,
experimentation and many cuts and scratches, Elizabeth had finally realised how
to earn a Hippogriff's trust and respect, and somehow had turned Eddy, the
first Hippogriff she had ever captured, into a completely docile animal.
Elizabeth hadn't wanted to send Eddy to
Hogwarts; he was getting on in years and she was worried on how he might adapt
to the new conditions. But Newt had insisted. Newt was closer to Eddy than he
had ever been to anyone else in his entire life. He had helped his mother raise
him; he'd played with him, flown him and fed him. Newt was fascinated by all
sorts of Magical Beasts, including the ones he found and experimented on in the
woody marshes near his house, but somehow he and Eddy shared a bond that was
hard to explain. Eddy was Newt's best friend. He was the only friend Newt had
ever had before coming to Hogwarts.
Newt continued to stroke Eddy as his
classmates gathered around to get a look at the famous Hippogriff. Some of them
looked rather disappointed. Eddy was beautiful all right, at least to Newt,
with his pure white, almost silvery plumage, but he was very old- Almost thirty
years of age. Eddy looked around at the students around him with bleary,
half-open eyes and his neck had a definite droop to it.
"Looks rather sick, doesn't he?" muttered
Vincent Thomas, a Gryffindor.
"Like he might drop dead any second," said his friend Molly Took.
"He's very old!" cried Newt, defending
Eddy. "But he's incredibly strong! I've flown him dozens of times!"
"You mean you can fly him?" asked Flora Sandydowns incredulously.
"Of course you can fly him! You can fly on
any Hippogriff!"
The crowd looked at him in disbelief. The
short Ravenclaw girl shrieked again as Diamond suddenly took a step forward.
"Oh, you shouldn't startle them. You have
to bow to them first and…" Newt's voice trailed off as he heard Professor
Pokeby's icy voice from behind him.
"I believe I am in charge of this class Mr. Scamander. All of you, get away
from the beasts, now!" she barked.
The class scattered away quickly as Newt blushed furiously and kept his eyes
fixed on the ground.
"Although I see you lot were quite
entertained by Mr. Scamander's tall tales, I have to register my absolute shock
that you could even think of being in
the close vicinity of dangerous beasts without proper supervision! Hippogriffs
are brutal, and they will attack with the least bit of provocation-"
"But Professor-"
"Quiet Scamander. 10 points from Gryffindor
for talking out of turn."
Newt's housemates muttered darkly and he
barely noticed the sympathetic glance Patrick sent his way. He resolved to keep
his mouth shut for the rest of the class. Professor Pokeby went on with her
lecture, which Newt tried to block out, as it was so glaringly erroneous it was
all he could do to keep himself from shouting out the correct information. He
focused on a relatively conspicuous Bowtruckle on the branch of a tree when he suddenly heard his name being
called.
"Since Mr. Scamander obviously has so much expertise
on the subject that he feels that it's not necessary to pay attention in class,
perhaps he would honour us lesser mortals by demonstrating how to handle a
Hippogriff?" Professor Pokeby drawled, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
But Newt barely noticed. He struggled hard
not to let himself grin like an idiot, and instead walked stonily straight
towards Eddy. Newt bowed stiffly, although it wasn't necessary, but after all
he was supposed to be demonstrating
the proper method of approach. Eddy blinked in surprise, and then immediately
bowed back. Newt grinned at his old friend, swinged his legs up onto Eddy's
rather bony, but comfortable back, and nudged his sides with his heels.
Eddy walked forward a few steps and then
spread his wings and took off. Newt could hear Patrick's admiring whoops and
the astonished exclamations of the Ravenclaws as he soared into the air. It had
been over four months since he had last flown Eddy during Christmas vacation,
and he was determined to enjoy the ride.
For a few moments, he let the wind wash
over him, and forgot himself. This is
where I belong, he thought. The familiar feel of the Hippogriff's feathers
seemed to put everything in perspective. It reminded him of home, where he and
his mother would roam the marshes with Eddy, using his natural ability to sniff
out danger as a warning signal, in case anything really dangerous was out there. Newt often roamed the forests
himself with Eddy by his side, and the Hippogriff had saved his life more times
than he could count.
Newt continued to relax and enjoy the ride
when suddenly, instinctively, he realised that something was wrong. Eddy was
squirming a bit under his legs, and Newt's eyes shot open. And he gasped.
Eddy was heading straight for the Forbidden
Forest.
It was the fact that Eddy was heading anywhere it's direction that got Newt
terribly worried. Something was wrong. Although some Hippogriffs might be
naturally curious when they sniffed out something interesting, Eddy was
extremely shy. The merest whiff of any harmful environment would send him
galloping in the other direction. But now he was flying into the Forbidden
Forest?
Newt might have snuck into the Forest many
times, but he had always stayed within the outskirts. He was no fool. The
Forest contained creatures that fascinated him, but he knew his limits. If Eddy
didn't change direction that very instant, they would be within the very heart
of the Forest, and God knew what would happen then.
"Eddy, Eddy boy, come on now, let's go the
other way… Eddy, the other way… Eddy no!" Newt cried out in frustration as his
pet continued to fly blearily towards the trees. Eddy's eyes were unfocused,
and his wings were flapping slowly. He almost looked like he was going to fall
asleep in mid-flight.
"Turn around!" Newt shouted and dug his
heels hard into Eddy's sides. Eddy's eyes suddenly flew open, and he jerked
from side to side. "Whoa!" cried Newt, desperately clinging on to the
Hippogriff's neck. He could hear shouts, but they seemed unreal, as if from miles
away.
"Eddy! Stop it!" cried Newt. But this only
seemed to frighten the animal more, and with one violent jerk, he threw Newt
off his back.
Newt desperately clutched at the
Hippogriff's feathers, but it was too late.
He was falling.
To Be Continued…
