Disclaimer: I don't own any of the character of Harry Potter, any of the spells, magical devises etc. that are the property of JK Rowling. I am only borrowing them and they will be returned to the owner undamaged and in their original packaging.

Chapter Two: Detention With Hagrid

'What were ye thinkin?' Hagrid muttered to Harry as they waited for Malfoy to turn up. Harry had gone down to Hagrid's hut early to have a cup of tea with him and to complain about Malfoy. 'Ye know what that Malfoy's like, and ye know Dumbledore'd 'ave ter give ye detention too!'

'I know,' Harry said grumpily. He had not expected to get the same lecture off of Hagrid as he had off of Ron and Hermione. He had expected to find a slightly more sympathetic ear, but apparently it was not to be. 'It would have been so worth it if I'd actually hit him,' he ruminated. 'Then I wouldn't have minded the detention so much.'

Hagrid laughed, then scowled. 'An' here he comes,' he said.

Malfoy sauntered up the hut, his hands in the pockets of his robes and looked down his nose at Hagrid, quite a feat considering how far Hagrid towered over him.

'I'm here for my detention,' he said flatly, as if there was anything other reason that he would be at Hagrid's hut.

'Good,' Hagrid said shortly. 'Come on, both o' ye. I got something interetin' for ye ter be gettin' on with.' He motioned for them to follow him towards the forbidding gloom of the Forest. Both boys eyed the dark trees with trepidation.

Hagrid stopped before they got their, to their joint relief, although neither of them said anything. 'Now,' Hagrid said, 'this is the spot, all right.' He beamed at the both in the growing darkness.

'What are we supposed to be doing?' Malfoy demanded, looking bored.

Hagrid frowned at him. 'You going ter be collectin' will o' the wisps,' he said. 'They like marshland usually, but cos of all this rain we been 'avin' we got quite a few of 'em floatin around. They're not dangerous, jus' quick, but I reckon two Seekers should be able ter catch a few of 'em. I got some jars for ye to put em in,' he added, pointing to a neat pile of glass jars on the ground. 'Get as many as ye can.'

'You're leaving us?' Harry said, surprised.

Hagrid looked just as surprised. 'Got me own work ter do, 'Arry,' he said, looking shifty. 'Won't be far, so if ye get into trouble, jus' yell.' He grinned and waved as he ambled away.

'Wonderful,' Malfoy muttered, picking up a jar. 'Where are these stupid wisp things, anyway?'

Harry looked past Malfoy at a small, shimmering light dancing over the wet grass and muddy ground. It was about the same size as a snitch, and moved about as fast.

'There,' he said, walking softly towards it. It danced away from him, but he moved forwards quickly and snatched at it. He caught it. It struggled in his hand, fluttering softly against his palm and fingers, and he stuffed it quickly into a jar and slammed the lid on top. The creature inside, with no definable shape, was simply a blur of silvery light that beaten itself against the glass for a moment and then gave up and sank to the bottom of the jar. Harry admired it for a moment, it was very pretty, and then picked up another jar.

Malfoy had already caught two. He didn't seem very interested in how pretty they were, he just wanted to get the job done and be allowed to go back inside. They worked in silence. It had started raining again, heavily now, and as the ground became even more muddy, a fine mist springing up, more and more will o' the wisps became visible.

They had run out of jars. There were still plenty of the little creatures to be caught, but with no more jars they couldn't do much. Harry wasn't sure whether they could get away with putting more than one in a jar and anyway, it was getting late. He opened his mouth to say to Malfoy that he thought they should find Hagrid and see if he would let them go, when he stopped, frowning.

The wind was picking up, rustling through the trees. Harry pulled out his wand. He raised it and was about to shout, 'Lumos!' when something crashed into him, hurling him to the ground. He rolled, keeping his grip on his wand, feeling something tear through his sleeve and then warm blood trickle down his arm. For a brief moment he wondered if Malfoy had decided to attack him.

'Lumos!' Malfoy yelled and a small beam of light illuminated the area. 'Potter, what the hell did you just do?'

Harry didn't reply, because he was staring over Malfoy's shoulder. The blond boy stared at him and looked behind him. 'What?' he demanded, scowling.

Harry still didn't reply. He just stared at the creature gradually becoming visible behind Malfoy. Slowly, like smoke wreathing above a fire, a shape was becoming visible. It looked rather like a Patronus, if a Patronus was evil. This was a silvery dragon, although smaller than most dragons, with massive wings and pale red eyes. It stared down at Harry, flapping its wings as it gazed. Then it opened its mouth, roared, and dove towards him.

Harry ducked and threw himself to the side.

'What the hell are you doing? Are you crazy?' Malfoy said loudly.

'Are you crazy?!' Harry yelled back. 'There's a bloody great big dragon thing! It's attacking us!'

Malfoy simply looked at him in astonishment. 'Potter, I really think you have finally lost what little mind you had.'

The dragon hovered in the air. Harry got to his feet, his eyes never leaving it. It seemed to be considering its next move. He had the distinct impression that it was simply playing with him at the moment.

'There's a dragon there,' Harry said slowly. 'Malfoy, you should run – '

'What dragon?' Malfoy said, looking honestly baffled.

Harry frowned. 'You mean you don't see it? It's right there – behind you – '

Malfoy looked over his shoulder and turned an expression of what Harry knew was genuine bewilderment. 'Potter, you are crazy,' he said in a flat voice. 'I always knew you were, and now I have the proof.'

'I'm not crazy! It's there!' Harry pointed his wand. The smoky dragon simply eyed him silently, flapping its wings lazily. He wondered why it didn't attack.

Malfoy grabbed his arm, painfully, and said, 'Poor, crazy Potter. It's to St Mungo's for you and it probably where you belong – '

The dragon attacked.

Harry grabbed Malfoy by the front of his robes and hurled them both to the ground. He heard Malfoy yell in surprised and again in pain and then they were both falling, tumbling over and over as they crashed down a slope and landed in a heap at the bottom.

Harry rolled to his knees, lifted his wand, pointed it at the dragon and yelled, 'Incendio!'

There was a brief flash of flame. The dragon twisted in mid-air and avoided it easily. It opened its mouth, breathed in and –

'Where ye got to?' Hagrid's voice shouted from the top of the slope.

The dragon vanished. Harry stared at the spot it had been in a moment ago and, at the sound of Hagrid's approaching footsteps, stuffed his wand quickly into his pocket and looked around for Malfoy.

The other boy was lying on the ground, blood running down the side of his face, turning his blond hair an ugly reddish colour. His face had gone very pale. He had obviously hit his head quite badly when they had landed, because his cheek was bruised and smeared with mud, but he looked fine, other than being a little dazed. There was a tear in the shoulder of his robe and a nasty cut was leaking blood onto his robes. It looked as if it had been made with a knife.

Or a claw, Harry thought to himself.

'What happened to ye?' Hagrid demanded, tramping down the slope and looking at them both with a deep frown. 'Ye been fightin'?'

'No,' Harry said quickly. 'We – didn't see the slope and fell. I think Malfoy hit his head,' he added. He wasn't sure that Hagrid would believe that he had just seen a dragon that appeared to be made of silvery smoke and since Malfoy hadn't seen it, and Hagrid obviously hadn't seen it, he was probably going to sound as if he was insane. Although he knew Malfoy was going to start going on about how Harry had been going crazy and then attacked him, he was pretty certain that Hagrid would take his word over Malfoy's.

Hagrid glanced at Malfoy. 'Ye hit ye head?'

Malfoy nodded. 'Slipped in the mud,' he said slowly, rubbing his head. 'Fell down that bloody slope in the bloody dark.'

Harry was speechless with astonishment. He hadn't actually expected Malfoy to go along with his lame story, he had just hoped that Hagrid would either take his word over Malfoy's, or Malfoy would be too dazed to argue. He eyed Malfoy with instant suspicion.

'All righ',' Hagrid said eventually. 'Better get ye back ter the castle, get that head seen ter. Ye bleedin'.'

'Yeah, whatever,' Malfoy muttered. He shot Harry an unreadable look and staggered to his feet. There was blood on his robes. Hagrid held onto Malfoy's arm to keep him on his feet. Harry followed them slowly, thinking deeply, not really listening to Hagrid continue about what their detention tomorrow would be.

It was only when Malfoy exclaimed, 'You really are crazy,' in a flat, horrified voice that Harry suddenly paid attention.

Hagrid scowled at Malfoy. 'Ye don' think I'm crazy, right Harry?'

'Huh?' Harry said. 'What?'

'This overgrown moron has a new pet,' Malfoy informed him. 'Guess what it is?'

The cold and the damp weather seeped through into the very stones of the castle so that its halls were cold and miserable. Students stayed in their common rooms and dormitories rather than venture into the freezing corridors that evening. The fire in the Gryffindor common room was blazing and had a group of students huddling around it.

Hermione was looking out of one of the windows, a large jumper wrapped around her. She was looking for Harry.

'I don't know why you're so worried, Hermione,' Ron said from where he was sprawled on a large armchair, covered in a thick blanket and reading a magazine on Quidditch. 'Harry will be fine.'

Hermione shot Ron a disgusted look. 'He has detention with Malfoy, Ron. Helping Hagrid. In the rain.'

Ron struggled to sit up. 'He can cope,' he said, grinning. 'He'll be fine.'

She frowned at him.

'Besides,' Ron continued with an astounding lack of sympathy, 'it's his own fault. If he hadn't got caught he wouldn't be in this mess.'

'I can't believe Dumbledore gave him detention,' Hermione muttered. 'I know I wasn't very sympathetic earlier but it is a nasty night and it is Malfoy – '

'Dumbledore didn't have much choice. Malfoy got detention because he provoked Harry, but Dumbledore had to give Harry a detention for being stupid enough to hit back.' He blinked. 'What's happened to me? I sound like you!'

Hermione snorted at this, then forgot it as the door to the common room opened and Harry slouched in, soaking wet and looking slightly dazed.

'Harry! Are you all right?' Hermione asked, staring at him. Half the Gryffindors in there turned and stared at Harry as well. He made his way towards the fire and the students huddled around it moved out of his way.

'What's wrong?' Ron asked, shaking him by the shoulder. 'Harry?'

'He looks like someone punched him,' Ginny said.

'You know,' Harry said in a very thoughtful tone, 'I don't agree with Malfoy on anything but this time, I have admit, I think he's right.'

Ron, Hermione and Ginny all turned and stared at him in astonishment.

'What did you say?' Hermione asked.

Ron was slack-jawed with amazed horror.

'I said I agreed with Malfoy on something,' Harry said. He wasn't smiling.

'Is this a joke?' Ron begged him plaintively.

'No. You'll agree, too.'

'No, the day I agree with Malfoy will be the day that Hell freezes over,' Ron said.

'Hear me out.' Harry collapsed into a chair beside the fire. 'You know my detention with Hagrid tomorrow?'

'Yes,' the others all said.

'He has a new creature he wants us to help him with,' Harry continued. 'He might even show it to our class.'

'Get to the point,' Hermione said impatiently.

'It's a wyvern,' Harry said in a dull, listless voice.

There was a horrified silence.

'Called Wibble,' Harry added. 'And Malfoy said that Hagrid has finally gone stark raving bonkers and half our class is going to die.'

'I take it back,' Ron said in an awed voice. 'I do agree.'

'Told you so.' Harry crouched in front of the fire, shaking with cold.

'Harry, go and dry off,' Hermione told him quickly. 'Go on, or you'll catch something!'

'Okay,' Harry said quietly and shuffled off upstairs, leaving a trail of wet carpet, mud and leaves behind him as he went. It had been a weird night and now he had to worry not only about stopping himself from punching Malfoy and getting even more detentions, he also had to worry about possibly real possibly not real dragons and a very unfortunately real wyvern with the unlikely name of Wibble.

This was not shaping up to be a good week.