Harry Potter and the Art of Catching a Rat
It was a seemingly normal June day in Britain. As trees finished glowing their beautiful blossoms, and emerald green leaves surrounded their thick branches, kids sat drinking pumpkin juice at the tree bases.
Wait, pumpkin juice?
This no ordinary place at all. Indeed, Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry was highly irregular. After all, few places featured flying wizards playing a cheeky game of Quidditch. And many kids here were rather peculiar as well.
Harry Potter sat at one of many tree stumps, stumped. The past few weeks had been of panicked research, of cases in which evolved animals, but as each day passed, the golden Trio found themselves lost. All their research had amounted to nothing, as even at the trial, poor Buckbeak was found guilty. Today, all of their failures came to be, as Buckbeak had been sentenced to death by axe.
"'Mione, Ron, I'm going to see Hagrid." Harry exclaimed, taking his last sip of pumpkin juice.
"But Harry, we can't! Hagrid is devastated right now, visiting him will make it worse! Oh, and I told you to stop calling me 'Mione!"
"It would make him a little less if we at least paid our respects to Buckbeak. Hagrid knows how hard we tried, and if we can't see Buckbeak in his last moments, we will never see him again!"
"Fine Harry, but we have gotta hurry. Remember, his execution is at 9, it's 8.20."
As they approached Hagrid's hut, they noticed the chilly night air. Seemingly out of nowhere, rain fittingly began to lash at the Golden Trio. Finally, they cautiously stepped over the roots of Hagrid's pumpkins, just beginning to grow- and knocked on the door.
"Don' tell me their already here~" Muttered a somber voice, as their ears filled with the sudden slams of Hagrid's heavy feet, thundering to the door.
"Hello? Who's there?"
Ron spoke up. "It's us, Hagrid."
"Why are you three here? I don' want you concerned. School is nearly ou' anyway."
Hagrid, we almost feel like it's just as much our concern as yours. We want to help, Hagrid, even if t's already lost. Please let us in." Spoke Harry.
Hagrid slammed open the door, as the trio jumped back swiftly.
"Well get on in then. Can't have ye' all standing in this weather."
The trio cautiously stepped into the hut, as Hagrid ignited the flames on the fire. He sat down, and at once burst into tears.
"It's all me' fault! If wasn't such a bad teacher, none of this would have happened! I can't even teach righ', and I get a boy's arm nearly bitten off! Teaching hippogriffs to a 3'rd year class, and I even have to use third years to defend meself! I need to resign, tha's what everyone wants! And I couldn't get past third year!"
"Hagrid, listen" spoke Hermione.
"You were a great teacher Hagrid, and Malfoy being injured wasn't your fault, the death of Buckbeak wasn't your fault. You had explained already that it wasn't a good idea to challenge a hippogriffs pride, and that's what Draco does." Reasoned Hermione.
"As much as I hate it, it seemed the voters already had their mind up, thanks to Malfoy's bribery. And you may be an out of the box teacher, but your lessons are memorable. I still remember your instructions on how to engage a hippogriff- and flying on one was brilliant." Delivered Harry.
And besides, you are a great friend and authority. I don't know any teacher who I could come to and have a chat with, laugh with over tea and cakes. I don't any teacher who is also my friend, who is also a half giant. You're a spectacle Hagrid, a bloody good one at that!" Finished Ron.
"Thank ye all, I jus', everyone, all these people act like I'm some stupid giant, who loves murderous animals- and I'm scared I am!"
"Hagrid, why don't we help you? Your lessons are inappropriate for our age, but we can fix that. We can start by tuning down the animals for now. In the end of Fifth, and Sixth and Seventh years, we can do the big stuff, like dragons, unicorns, hippogriffs, all off that. Before then, switch to some less advanced ones, like nifflers and such." Again, reasoned Hermione.
"Yeah, and we can help you research how to do lessons properly. No offence, but a lot of the time you didn't seem like you knew what you were doing. That is understandable as Dumbledore did sort of throw you in, and your passion of magizoolgy may have left you too excited." Spoke Harry.
At that moment, voices sounded in the distances. The trio peered out the window to view a large executioner, and MOM Fudge, striding along with Prof. Dumbledore.
"Well, you all best be goin'. They won' like you here." Hagrid mumbled.
The trio had no intentions of leaving, however. They walked through the back door, and swiftly ran to the edge of the woods, if not just to view the horrific event.
A few minutes later, Cornelius and Macnair strode through the backdoor, closely followed by the other two. The trio muffled their gasps, as MacNair drew closer. Hagrid was sobbing violently, as the whip from the axe sounded. Time slowed to a screeching halt.
Tick, Tick, Tick,
The axe got closer.
Tick, Tick, Tick,
Buckbeak screeched.
Tick, Tick, Tick,
The axe met its target.