PART III - Fwoopers
Hagrid swung the giant oak doors open. Momentarily blinded by the sudden change of light, Draco saw nothing but a vast darkness that was the Hogwarts grounds. He trotted behind Weasley, not keen on being the first to experience whatever Hagrid had in store. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he saw the wide open sky, glittering with billions of pinpricks of light. A particularly reddish one near the horizon caught his eye…Mars, he noted to himself. What was it that centaur teacher had said about it? The moon was half full –-or half empty, Draco supposed—and it reflected on the lake, rippling with the constant motion of the wind. Draco hugged his fur-lined cloak tight about his arms and stumbled numbly after Hagrid and Weasley, who, both being larger than Draco and Hagrid sufficiently so, were moving much faster than Draco was used to.
As the trio moved silently onward, it became apparent that they were heading towards the mountains. They towered, dark and threatening over Draco as he scrambled over rocks and boulders. The mountains and its foothills were littered with caves; Draco had an uneasy feeling about them in the pit of his stomach. Who knew what sort of thing hung around in dank, old caves and came out to…to hunt at night?
"Well, seein' how we're almost there," said Hagrid turning to face Draco and Weasley, "I might as well start telling you two what you're gonna be doing tonight. You see that funny-shaped hill over there?" He gestured off-handedly. "Well, recently there's been a complaint about three fwoopers flyin 'round Hogsmeade. Escaped from the zoo. O course, the people of Hogsmeade know that listening to the fwooper's song would drive 'em insane – so they stuff their fingers in their ears as soon as they hear the first note. That is, a trill three octaves above middle C sharp…at any rate, the people are getting right sick of having to stuff their fingers in their ears all the time, you can imagine how it would get pretty annoying. They've reported that the buggers fly back up to that there hill for the night. Since fwoopers fortunately do sleep at night, we have a good chance of sneaking up on 'em. There shouldn't be much need for magic, fwoopers are brightly-colored and tend to have difficulties hearin' – so when you spot one, just be quick and quiet and you should be able to grab it from behind. I brought some useful bewitched bags for all of us; whatever you put in, ends up in the zoo's aviary, one of the largest in the world. It saves us the trouble of havin' to transport them ourselves."
Hagrid handed Draco and Weasley each three bags from his sack and some magical ear plugs. They both peered inside to find the tops of trees staring back up at them.
"Thing is, these birds do a lot of sleepwalkin'. S'pose that's why they sleep in caves rather than trees – they'd walk right off a branch. So as soon as we cross over this next ridge, put in yer ear plugs and we'll split up. We meet back here in an hour if we don't run into each other sooner. Right then – let's go."
And with that they slung their bags over their shoulders and marched forward. The group soon split up, Weasley going left, Hagrid going over the top and Draco going right. As the other two disappered aroung the curves of the hill, Draco fumbled with his earplugs. He managed to stuff one in the right ear, but the left one kept popping out. And with a last determined effort he shoved it painfully in, on which it popped right back out with as much energy had been transferred to it. He reached for it, but its projectile directed it straight to an utterly black large hole more or less in the ground.
Draco moaned. Getting down on his hands and knees, he muttered "lumos" and directed the small beam of light from his wand into the hole. Luckily, the earplug hadn't gone far. It was sitting on an oddly symmetrical-looking stone ledge about a meter below the rim. Draco looked around for something to grab onto, spotted a sapling and secured himself by one hand. Putting his wand in his mouth, he leaned over the edge and maneuvered the earplug into place with the tips of his fingers before snatching it with a Quidditch-like swipe. The sudden movement, however, uprooted the sapling under which there was an ant colony in the making that had done away with most of the dirt that would have held it in place. Draco fell, literally head over heels into the inky blackness below, the ants shaking their antennas at him furiously on the edge growing smaller and smaller.