Chapter Forty-Four: Flight of The Hippogriff
As Harry exited the restroom once again, he could not find Hermione. "If she doesn't hurry up she's going to miss care of magical creatures." Ron pointed out.
"I'm right behind you Ronald." Hermione replied with a groan causing Ron to let out a horrified shriek (once again) and Harry stifled a laugh.
"Would you stop doing that!?" He hollered at her and even Draco Malfoy began to chuckle while Harry turned his head to watch his little sister kicking off of the ground on her broomstick in the distance. "Oh, hey Malfoy." He began. "I don't think we've seen you yet. Brianna made Slytherin too didn't she?" He questioned.
"Yes she did. She's been laughing with all of her friends about how Snape fainted on the train. I told her to shut it or I would tell everybody that she still needs a nightlight to go to sleep." He explained as Ron snickered. Before anybody could say anything else they all appeared at Hagrid's hut.
"Alright, now open your books to page forty-nine." He told them while clapping his hands together rather loudly referring to their Monster Books of Monsters that they all had.
"How exactly do we do that?" Draco wondered.
"Ya just stroke the spine of course" Hagrid replied which all of them managed to do except for Neville whose book started violently attacking him. He reassured them all that he was alright then Hagrid held out his hands and arms and made a triumphant trumpet noise while a creature that was half horse (body) and half eagle (head) started walking out into the clearing in front of them.
"Say hullo to Buckbeak." He said as several gasps broke throughout the crowd.
"Hagrid, what exactly is that thing?" Ron wondered.
"That Ron is a hippogriff." Hagrid replied while Buckbeak decided to defecate. "Now the first thing you need to know about hippogriffs is that they're very proud creatures. You never want to insult a hippogriff. It might be the last thing that you'll ever do. Now, who would like to come up and say hullo?" He wondered as several more gasps broke out and students started backing away from him rapidly except for Harry who was taken off guard.
"Well done, Harry, well done." Hagrid told him as Harry suddenly felt his heart pounding up against his chest and turned his head back around to see that all his so-called friends had deserted him. "Alright Harry, the thing to keep in mind is to let him make the first move. It's polite see. Now I want you to walk up to him and bow. If he bows back, that means that you can go and touch him. If not,.. well,.. we'll just worry about that if we come to it." Hagrid explained while Harry slowly started walking over to him, but when he had stepped on a twig it had frightened Buckbeak and he let out a screech.
"Back off Harry back off!" Hagrid whispered while waving his hand back at him as Hermione suddenly let out a gasp and didn't realize that she had been clutching Draco's hand until they both locked eyes and then dropped hands and looked off in separate directions. Once Hagrid had managed to steady Buckbeak Harry slowly bowed his head.
Buckbeak blinked his eye at him and a few moments later he bowed back at him, and Harry grinned as he was able to gently stroke his cheek and the class started applauding for him. "Well done Harry! Well done!" Hagrid exclaimed while clapping along with them before throwing Buckbeak a dead ferret. "I reckon that he'll probably let you ride him now." He told him.
"What!?" Harry cried out in protest as Hagrid picked him up and then sat him on top of Buckbeak's back.
"Don't pull out any of his feathers because he won't thank you for that!" Hagrid cried out before giving Buckbeak's hindquarters a slap and Harry tightly wrapped his arms around Buckbeak's neck so he wouldn't fall off. It wasn't anything like riding a broomstick or a dragon as it was rather rough and bumpy. Before he knew it Buckbeak spread his wings and took off into the air and Harry closed his eyes tightly.
However, once they were in the air the ride became much smoother and as Harry opened his eyes, he saw Sarah flying right beside him upon her school broomstick. Harry smiled and held out his arms and grinned starting to cry out with delight while the flew over the lake and started heading towards the castle.
A few minutes later Hagrid let out a sharp whistle and called Buckbeak back to the group. He landed with a gallop through the dirt. "Well done Harry, and well done Buckbeak!" Hagrid cried out while he applauded with the rest of the group. Buckbeak sunk to his knees to allow Harry to dismount before Hagrid threw Harry another dead ferret.
"You aren't dangerous at all are you?" Draco began with a rather wide grin as he started heading towards the hippogriff who was once again standing up on all fours. "You great ugly brute!" He exclaimed and before Hagrid even had the chance to stop him, Buckbeak reared up with a gigantic angry screech and knocked him over scratching his arm with one of his talons much to Hermione's complete and utter horror.
"Hagrid, he needs to be taken to the hospital wing!" She cried out while Hagrid nodded back at her and started walking over to Draco.
"I'm the teacher I'll do it." He told her while hoisting him up inside his arms.
"Just wait until my father hears about this, for you and that bloody chicken are going to regret this!" Draco shrieked.
Once care of magical creatures class had been over it was time for their very first defense against the dark arts class. Harry was rather surprised of how little homework he had received so far on his first day back to school. Not that he had been complaining of course.
