36

Talons and the Tantalizing Hufflepuff

The next morning when Emily and Draco entered the Great Hall it was to find it mostly empty. Emily had a fitful sleep, her dream had involved her parents along with Sirius Black and Remus Lupin. Like the other dreams she had been having since her talk with Lucius and Severus, the two men went by the names Padfoot and Moony. They had just put her and Harry on the floor when her dream was interrupted by a flashing green light and a cold high pitched laugh. She had woken up only to fall back asleep having all her subsequent dreams end in the same manner.

"Someone really needs her coffee," Marcus Flint said taking in Emily's tired appearance as she sat down across from him.

"I may be tired but I can guarantee you the aim of my hex will still hit its target," Emily snapped.

Throwing his hands up in surrender Marcus slowly reached for the pot of coffee passing it to her, "Here take the whole pot."

Emily rolled her eyes sending a stinging hex at Marcus as she poured her coffee.

"Oi, what was that for?" Marcus said shooting a glare at Draco, who was trying and failing to contain his laughter.

"Your cheek."

"Aren't you a ray of sunshine this morning," Marcus replied taking a bite of his toast.

Emily shrugged, "I try."

Draco could no longer keep his amusement quiet and burst out laughing. Emily smirked at her best friend as he attempted to calm himself.

"You spend way too much time with Uncle Sev," Draco remarked as he collected himself.

"Is that so Mr. Malfoy?"

It was Emily's turn to hide her amusement as Draco froze, the blonde turned around to see his Head of House standing behind him.

"I think it's safer not to comment," Draco replied.

Severus inclined his head slightly indicating he thought that was a wise choice though Emily noticed a hint of amusement in his eyes before it quickly vanished. "Very well, I have your schedules. You both know what is expected of you," Severus said as he handed them each a piece of parchment with their timetables on them before continuing down the table.

Just then the rest of the third year Slytherins came in surrounding Theo who kept glancing at the Gryffindor table and pretending to faint. When Pansy started calling out to Emily's brother about Dementors coming Emily nudged Draco to leave with her. Standing she secured the lid on her mug of coffee and began walking towards the doors of the Great Hall.

"Let's go grab our books and head off to Arithmancy," Emily said. "I don't have the patience to listen to Theo this morning."

"Hufflepuff approaching, should I leave you two alone?" Draco teased as he angled his head in the direction of Cedric who was indeed moving towards them. Emily rolled her eyes at her best friend before turning to smile at the handsome brunette as he stopped in front of her drawing her into a hug.

"Hey Em, already done with breakfast?" Cedric asked leaving one of his arms around her as she pulled out of the hug.

"Yeah, we are just heading to grab our books."

"What's your first class?"

"Arithmancy."

"Ouch, I'm not good with numbers this early in the morning."

"It shouldn't be too bad," Emily shrugged.

"Says the girl who studies for fun," Cedric teased.

"Says the girl who has caffeine," Emily replied holding up her coffee mug.

"Well that's always helpful. So… I was wondering, if you are free this afternoon, that maybe we could go flying together…"

"Flying sounds fun. I'd like that a lot," Emily replied turning to look at Draco briefly. "We should probably head back down though and pick up our books for our morning lessons, but I will meet you on the pitch after classes are done."

"Sounds good," Cedric said squeezing her side with his arm. "I will see you later, have a fun day back."

As Cedric made his way to the Hufflepuff table, Emily took Draco's arm and began dragging him towards the dungeons. The handsome sixth year had her very confused. Was Draco right, did Cedric want to be more than friends? Maybe she was making too big a deal out of his actions... He was just being friendly and wanted someone to go flying with, there was no need to read further into it.

Draco on the other hand kept shooting her knowing looks which she pretended not to notice as they gathered their books and headed off to their morning lessons.

Arithmancy had been easier than Emily expected. She had been studying basic Arithmancy since her first year but it had always been less interesting to her than Runes. The magic of divination through numbers while more appealing than taking Divination since she herself was not a seer just didn't hold the same appeal as Ancient Runes in her future goals.

So already understanding the principles, Emily spent most of the period working on her essay that would be due next week. The assignment was on 'Your Name and Numerology'. The assignment itself was easy. The corresponding numbers to her name 'Emily' added up to 28 which was then broken down to 10 and then 1. One was the Primal Force number and highlighted her attributes as being a leader, independent, strong willed, driven and ambitious. It was not hard for Emily to see how these attributes fit into her personality and write her paper on the topic.

Arithmancy had been followed by a 'Welcome to Herbology 3' lecture and finally lunch.

At lunch Emily found that her brother was the main source of discussion. Apparently his first elective Divination had everyone gossiping.

"… Then Trelawny announced that she could see the Grim in his tea leaves," Daphne Greengrass gushed. "You should have seen Potter's face!"

"Honestly that woman couldn't tell you what day it is, let alone predict someone's future," Blaise scoffed. "You could smell the wine on her and it was the first class of the day."

"The Gryffindors sure looked like they believed her," Daphne laughed as she reached for her pumpkin juice.

"She declares she sees death omens around one student every year," Marcus spoke up. "Most people who have no idea what a huge fraud she is, believe her for the first few weeks until nothing happens. Penelope Clearwater was the victim my year, she is still alive and well sitting at the Ravenclaw table."

"Please tell me you didn't take Divination," Emily said looking over at the burly Quidditch captain.

"I did, but I dropped it after my OWLs. You couldn't pay me to keep taking that class."

"I just can't see the appeal in taking the course unless you are a true seer," Emily stated as she stole one of Draco's chips from his plate.

"It's for the easy grade," Marcus informed her. "All you have to do is make up fake predictions, which is way less time consuming than taking Ancient Runes or Arithmancy."

Emily shook her head as finished her orange juice before getting up from the table with Draco to drop off their morning books and pick up the only book they would need for the afternoon.

"Just one class left today, then you get to go flying with Cedric," Draco teased as the two third years walked down the lawn towards Hagrid's hut.

"Oh shut up," Emily said shooting a glare at her best friend. "We are friends, it means nothing."

"Sure…"

As they approached the hut Emily noticed that Hagrid was waiting for everyone looking rather excited. Emily on the other hand was hesitant, she knew that the kind of creatures Hagrid found harmless, others found deadly. She just hoped he had been given a list of approved creatures, she had enough of life threatening ones last year.

"C'mon, I have a great lesson for yeh today!" Hagrid called as the last few students made their way towards the hut. Emily noticed one of the stranglers was her brother and his friends.

"Is that everyone? Good, follow me!" Hagrid led them along the edge of the forest towards a paddock. The paddock was empty leaving Emily's mind to wonder at what Hagrid would be showing the class. "Everyone stand 'round the fence but don't enter," Hagrid instructed them. "Can you all see? Right, now yeh need ter open yer books…"

"And how do we do that?" Theo drawled looking disbelievingly at Hagrid.

When Hagrid looked at him confused Draco spoke up, "He means how are we supposed to open the book." People began taking out their copies of the text, which all seemed to be restrained in various ways, the most popular methods being ropes and belts. Some people seemed to have crammed the book into tight bags and a few muggleborns attempted to use binder clips to keep it shut.

"Yeh don' know how ter open yer books?" Hagrid asked looking around disappointed. As many students shook their heads in the negative, Hagrid demonstrated stroking the spine of the book along the soft spikes. "Yeh just got ter stroke the spines and they fall open."

"And exactly how were we supposed to know that?" Theo asked sounding annoyed as his book fell open from his strokes.

"It seemed fun to me…" Hagrid said looking uncertainly at the students as they busied themselves removing the restraints from their books and opening them.

"Yes it's a joy to have a book that could easily chew off our hands," Theo drawled looking less than amused.

Hagrid looked saddened that the students didn't appear to like the books. Emily noticed that Harry and his friends were glaring at Theo for his comments to Hagrid but Emily couldn't help but agree with her housemate. The books were not fun and they had no place around students, they had to be kept in a cage like an animal at the book store for Merlin's sake!

"Well since yeh got yer books sorted… um, yeh'll need the Magical Creature. So… yeah I'll get 'em just… uh, stay by the fence here," Hagrid said nervously motioning to the wooden fencing in front of them before walking into the forest.

"My father will be hearing about this," Theo scoffed. "We don't stand a chance of learning anything worthwhile with that oaf teaching classes."

"Would you shut up Nott," Harry snapped.

"I'd be careful Potter… look out! D…d…dementor!" Theo pretended to shake before breaking out into laughter when Harry and his friends turned to look behind themselves.

"Em look," Draco said nudging her and drawing her attention away from her brother and Theo. As Emily looked to where Draco was indicating the witch watched as a dozen amazing creatures made their way towards the paddock. The front half of the being was fashioned after an impossibly large eagle while the back seemed to be more of a horse. Each creature wore a leather collar around its neck which was attached to a chain that Hagrid held the other end of as he led them into the paddock.

Students seemed to subconsciously back away from the fence slowly. Emily reached out forcing Draco to stay in his place knowing that for the time being Hagrid had control of the creatures and they were in no danger.

"These beau'iful creatures are Hippogriffs!" Hagrid exclaimed looking much happier than he had when he went off to collect the creatures a few minutes before. "C'mon, come closer," Hagrid called out. Emily noticed that Harry and his friends were slowly approaching the fence while the rest of the class remained where they were. Realizing that the majority of the class had no intention of coming closer Hagrid began to inform the class about the creatures.

"Firs' thing yeh should know is that Hippogriffs are proud creatures," Hagrid started. "Yeh don' want ter insult a Hippogriff, they are easily offended an' may attack yeh if yeh do."

Theo seemed to be whispering to Crabbe and Goyle instead of paying attention to what Hagrid was saying. Emily didn't like the feeling she was starting to get, hopefully they weren't planning on doing something that would endanger the other students.

"Yeh wan' ter be polite when approachin' a Hippogriff," Hagrid continued. "Firs' yeh have ter bow an' wait ter see if he bows back. If he does, yeh're allowed ter touch him. If he doesn' bow back, move away fast, them talons are sharp and yeh don' wan' ter get hurt by them. Okay, who's first?"

The class seemed to collectively take a step further away from the fence to put even more distance between them and the Hippogriffs. Emily wavered slightly, apprehensive after her various run ins with creatures Hagrid deemed 'safe'. Hagrid looked pleadingly towards the students and Emily watched as her brother took a step forward.

"I'll do it Hagrid," he said.

Instantly Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil began calling out to Harry, "Don't do it! Remember your tea leaves? You had the Grim!"

Emily rolled her eyes, if there was anything that should make her brother hesitate it had nothing to do with what a crazy woman saw in a tea cup. Her brother seemed to feel the same way as he ignored the girls' warning and climbed over the fence into the paddock.

"Great Harry!" Hagrid beamed. "Let's use Buckbeak an' see how yeh do." Hagrid released one of the chains as he led the grey Hippogriff towards the center of the paddock. He removed the collar and everyone seemed to be unable to breathe waiting for something to go wrong. "Once yeh have eye contact try not ter blink, they don' like it if you blink much…" Hagrid instructed Harry. "Tha's it just keep eye contact… now bow slowly…" Harry did as he was told and bowed. After a few seconds he lifted his head to look at the Hippogriff which continued to stare at him arrogantly. "Uh… slowly back up," Hagrid instructed his voice holding a tone of worry. Emily was shocked when as Harry continued to take slow steps backwards the Hippogriff bent its front knees and bowed back in return. A huge smile broke across Hagrid's face. "Well done Harry! Yeh can come closer now and pat his beak! C'mon it's okay!" Emily held her breath as her brother moved forward and began to rub circles on the Hippogriffs beak. Emily relaxed as Buckbeak seemed to enjoy it and lazily closed his eyes at Harry's ministrations. The class applauded Harry's efforts as Hagrid moved towards Harry. "I think he'll let yeh ride him now!" Hagrid exclaimed.

Emily watched as Hagrid hoisted Harry onto the Hippogriff's back and started giving him instructions. Harry looked terrified as he tried to memorize what Hagrid was telling him. All of a sudden Hagrid slapped the Hippogriff on the backside automatically it spread out its twelve foot wings and began to flap them as it took off into the air. Buckbeak flew Harry in a small circle around the paddock before landing and moving back towards Hagrid. Emily had to hold in her laughter at her brother's expression, he looked a mix of excited and petrified all at once as he held tightly to the Hippogriff.

Hagrid swiftly helped Harry down and turned to the rest of the class. "Okay who's next?"

The entire class seemingly satisfied that the Hippogriffs weren't going to attack them began to climb over the fence and enter the paddock. Emily, Draco, Theo and Blaise were surrounding Buckbeak as Harry had joined his friends by a chestnut colored Hippogriff. Buckbeak bowed to Draco who was currently patting his beak. Emily noticed Theo looked annoyed and kept shooting a look at Harry before looking back towards the Hippogriff.

"It has to be easy if Potter can do it," Theo drawled loudly. "You aren't dangerous at all, you're just a great ugly brute."

He quickly started advancing on Buckbeak who Draco was still patting. The Hippogriff not liking the quick advances of Theo reared up and slashed his talons down. Hagrid ran forward to restrain Buckbeak as Emily knelt down next to Draco who was lying on the ground bleeding having been the victim of Theo's actions.

"Look what it's done!" Theo said pointing to Draco. "He's dying!"

"Hagrid I have to take him to Madam Pomfrey," Emily said ignoring everyone as she transfigured a large stone into a stretcher and levitated Draco onto it before directing it to float in front of her as she headed off towards the castle. Emily was working hard to stay calm. The gash on Draco arm ran from his shoulder to his elbow and the blood that was quickly staining his clothes made her worried for her best friend. Emily could hear people yelling behind her as she entered the castle but she blocked them out as she focused on safely levitating Draco.

When Emily entered the Hospital Wing Madam Pomfrey motioned her to put him on one of the beds. Emily stood back giving Madam Pomfrey the room to work as she stopped Draco's bleeding and ran diagnostics to check for other injuries. Finally she turned to Emily as she handed Draco a potion Emily recognized as a pain reliever.

"What's wrong with him?" Emily asked as she moved to sit on the edge of Draco's bed to hold her best friend's hand.

"His arm is broken just below the shoulder. I have healed the laceration on his arm and stopped the bleeding. He will need a blood replenisher and I can fix the break but due to the location of it he will be sore for a few days while everything heals," she informed them. "Now exactly how did you come by these injuries Mr. Malfoy?"

"We were in Care of Magical Creatures and Hagrid was showing us Hippogriffs…"

"He what?" Madam Pomfrey exclaimed cutting Draco off. "What was he thinking, isn't it enough we have those vile creatures searching for Black, we don't need more dangerous beings introduced to the students."

A few hours later Emily was reading a book while she sat by the bed Draco was sleeping in. Severus had come as soon as he was informed and gave Emily permission to spend the evening with Draco knowing she would invade his private quarters if he didn't. Madam Pomfrey had sent off a report to Lucius. They hadn't heard from him yet but Emily had little doubt there would be a long letter and an early care package from Narcissa coming in the morning. As for Draco, he had been adamant that he was well enough to leave, that is until Blaise had visited and offered to help Draco around while he recovered.

Emily looked up as the door to the Hospital Wing opened and Cedric entered. He smiled at her as he made his way towards where she was sitting.

"I heard what happened and figured that since flying was probably off, you could use some company up here," he said pulling up one of the other chairs in the wing to sit by her.

"I would love some. As you can see the potions finally made Draco fall asleep so I'm just reading," Emily replied setting down her book.

"Well it looks like you had an exciting first day back. Word around the school is that Draco was mauled and is dying up here. But seeing as his body seems to be intact, you do not look as if you've been crying and as his parents are not here I can only guess that he is not in fact dying."

Emily laughed, "No he's not dying, thank Merlin. He just had a huge gash that went down his arm. The scarring should disappear within the week though and he has already had a blood replenisher. The worst was a bad break just below his shoulder which will leave him wearing a sling for a few days so that it stays healed."

"I'm sure he's thrilled about that."

"I doubt it will bother him too much if a certain Italian wizard keeps doting on him."

Cedric laughed as he looked over at the blonde sleeping in the bed, "I didn't realize he liked Zabini. Well can't begrudge him milking it then, I'd do the same if it was you."

Emily turned her head to look at the Hufflepuff shocked at his admission, "You would?"

"Of course I would. Anything to keep you close to me," he replied standing up and putting his chair back. "Now I have to get to dinner and start on my DADA essay. I will see you tomorrow." With that Cedric leaned down softly pressing his lips to Emily's before standing up and exiting the wing leaving a shocked Emily behind.

"I told you," came the amused voice of Draco from his bed.

"You're awake," Emily stated as she tried to process what had just happened.

"Yes and I was right," Draco said as he pushed himself to sit up with his uninjured arm. "Sure didn't take him long to make a move and by that smile on your face you are pretty happy about this turn…"

Draco was cut off as Emily hit his head with a pillow she had grabbed from the empty bed behind her. "Shut up."