DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything to do with Harry Potter
I can't stress enough how much I would totally LOVE reviews from you guys! Really! It would make me very happy! So please, won't you review? Oh and unfortunately I don't have the movie available to me at the moment but I didn't want you guys to have to wait for these chapters so I'm going off a script of the third movie I found. Of course, I don't claim to own any of it, dialogue or otherwise.
The campus of Hogwarts was littered with students in their white uniform shirts, wandering around the green lawns and enjoying the warmth of the sun. The sky was virtually cloudless, the only obstructions to the sun's rays being small flocks of birds that sang joyful tunes as they glided around the castle's towers. Although the majority of the students stayed close to the stone gardens of the school, a handful could be seen making their way down the hill toward the Forbidden Forest.
At the edge of the forest through a few spaced out trees stood a cluster of 3rd year students. Hagrid towered over them, beckoning with a giant hand for a few straggling students behind the group to join them.
"Gather 'round now everyone. Find yerself a spot. That's it. Got a real treat for yeh. Great lesson comin' up. Now, firs' thing yeh'll want ter do is open yer books an' –"
"How exactly do we do that?" Draco interrupted, giving Hagrid a look.
"Blimey, all yeh've got ter do is stroke th' spine!" he answered with a laugh like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Draco just shook his head and looked down at the oversized book he held. "Book" was hardly the word he would use to describe it. It had light brown fur on all sides and it seemed to have eyes. He couldn't hold it up to see if it did because it would launch itself at his face. If it weren't for the thick leather strap that kept the book close, he was pretty sure it would attach itself to his head. It wouldn't have been surprising if it had fangs. The book shook violently in his hands. With a glance behind him, Crabbe hesitantly dragged his pudgy fingers down the spine of his book. It shivered then quieted. Draco took this as a good sign, so he gripped his own book with one hand and ran two slender fingers down the book's spine. The book shivered spastically in his hand before going still. Draco raised an eyebrow at it as he carefully unbound the book from its leather holding. He could have sworn he heard it purr as it sat calmly in his hand.
"Righ', well, I better get the eh, yeh know, visual…lesson…I'll be righ' back" Hagrid mumbled mostly to himself, striding off quickly out of sight.
With his crew in tow, Draco found a spot under the shade of a large tree, separated from the rest of the group. He watched in amusement as the rest of the students tried their luck at taming the wild textbooks. Up ahead he saw Potter, Weasley and Granger, together as usual. With a sly grin he decided to take the opportunity to strike one of Potter's sensitive nerves.
"God, this place is going to the dogs." He said just loud enough for everyone to hear. "Wait until my father hears Dumbledore's got this oaf teaching classes."
The group of Slytherins snickered and Draco saw Harry slowly turn towards him, his face fuming.
"Shut up, Malfoy" he threatened.
"Oh-ho! What a comeback!" Draco jeered.
He shrugged off his shoulder bag and handed it to Crabbe. With a taunting smirk he sauntered over to where Harry stood clenching his fists. He had planned to confront him with a few low-key insults just to get him flustered, but another idea came to him that was too perfect to pass up. With wide, terrified eyes Draco looked up past Harry and suddenly pointed up toward the air.
"D – Dementor! Dementor!"
The Slytherins burst out laughing as Potter wheeled around in horror, almost losing his balance as he frantically searched the sky. Draco nudged Crabbe and Goyle and the three of them flipped their robe hoods over their heads making exaggerated ghost sounds. Harry's face went pink in embarrassment as Hermione pulled him away. The platinum blonde felt oddly content as he watched Harry's two best friends usher him to the other side of the group.
A large rustling noise brought the group's attention to the wide clearing in front of them. Hagrid appeared with a wide grin on his face. Behind him, strutting out from behind a tree entered a giant creature, half eagle and half horse.
"Ta-da!" a proud Hagrid said with arms wide. The group of students simultaneously took a weary step backwards.
"Hagrid," Ron spoke looking at the beast fearfully, "what exactly is that thing?"
Draco knew what it was, but he had only seen one once before and it was a wild, angry creature.
He can't be serious…
"That, Ron, is a Hippogriff!" Hagrid answered excitedly. " 'is name is Buckbeak. Now, one very important thing ter remember about Hippogriffs is that they're very proud creatures. Don't want ter go upsettin' 'em. They can be a most deadly ah creatures when insulted."
Draco swallowed hard, shifting his eyes to see the reactions of the rest of the group. Everyone was stone silent, most of the faces white with fear. Trying to maintain a relaxed composure by breathing slowly through his nose, Draco watched with the rest of the students as the beast spread its giant wings as it reached up to catch a dead animal Hagrid had thrown it.
"Now!" Hagrid exclaimed with a clap of his hands, "Who'd like ter say 'ello?"
Immediately the cluster of frightened wizards and witches backed up, not wanting to be picked to confront the animal before them. Harry, too mesmerized with the beast didn't notice the movement behind him. It wasn't until he looked around he realized that he stood alone.
"Good man, 'arry! Come on up 'ere!"
When Draco saw that Harry was going to be the first to confront the Hippogriff, he quickly shoved a few 3rd years aside to get a front row view. He wasn't about to miss the Boy Wonder getting ripped to shreds. Crabbe and Goyle took their places on either side of him, roughly pushing students out of the way.
As Harry tentatively approached the fidgeting and cawing Buckbeak, Draco subconsciously held his breath, flinching along with the rest of the crowd every time the bird snapped his menacing beak in Harry's direction. He cheered it on when the creature took a giant, threatening leap forward. Then he sulked against a tree when everyone clapped for Potter's success in petting the great brute. He glared at the pair as they took off into the sky, hoping Potter would come back with a limb missing or not at all. Not only did Harry return flying back in one piece, but his beaming smile put Draco over the edge. He got up from his seat among the tree roots, shoving past the hooting and hollering students cheering their congratulations.
"Oh please," Draco muttered angrily, rolling his eyes and striding toward the prancing Hippogriff, "that's not so hard!" He stood before the immense animal that had its attention focused on the dead treat Hagrid had thrown him. "You're not dangerous at all, are you, you great ugly brute…"
"Malfoy! No!"
Hearing Hagrid's shouts, Buckbeak lost interest in his food and noticed the small blonde wizard standing in front of him. Outraged, he reared back, screeching his shrill, rusty warning call and clawing the air. Sharp, curved black talons glinted in the sunlight as they were raised high and brought down on Draco's arm that he had held up in protection of his face. He shrieked in pain as one of the claws slashed through his robe sleeves and sliced into his skin. Clutching his arm Draco fell to the ground, rolling in agony.
"Oh god, it's killed me! It's killed me!" he whimpered in a high pitched voice.
Hagrid rushed forward slightly panicked, unsure of what to do. "Yer, yer fine! Jus' a scratch!" he tried to reassure the profusely bleeding boy on the ground.
"Hagrid!" Hermione exclaimed sternly, "He has to be taken to the hospital!"
Scooping up a limp Draco, Hagrid strode as quickly as he could past the murmuring group of students.
"Er, class dismissed!" he shouted back, hastily making his way out of the forest toward the castle.
"You're going to regret this!" Draco cried out, "You and your bloody chicken!"
He moaned and groaned the whole way up the hill, becoming overly boisterous as they entered the crowded halls of Hogwarts. By the time they made it to the hospital wing, about half the student body had their own ideas of what happened to the "dying" Draco Malfoy. When they got to the large, iron metal doors Hagrid raised one of his oversized boots and kicked both doors open.
"MADAME POMFREY!"
"Rubeus! Hush!" a low but firm female voice answered. The school nurse, Madame Pomfrey, came rushing from behind one of the many white curtains that separated the sick beds. She did not look happy. "I will not have you bellowing and carrying on in such a way in my hospital! My patients need peace and quiet just as much as they need tending to!"
Hagrid's face went red in embarrassment.
"Now," she said with a huff, wiping her hands on her white nurses' apron, "what do we have here?"
"Ah, jus'…jus' a minor scratch is all…"
"A scratch?" Draco shouted, "Your bloody pigeon almost took my arm off!"
Madame Pomfrey pointed a stern finger at the blonde. "Silence, Mr. Malfoy. Bring him over here, Rubeus."
Following the older stout woman dressed all in white and light blue, Hagrid half dropped Draco onto one of the beds. Pomfrey swiftly stripped Draco of his outer robes to get to his white shirt, the arm of it soaked blood red.
"I've seen worse" she said simply, removing her wand from her apron pocket. Pointing it at the dyed sleeve she twirled it in a tight circle then drew a line down Draco's arm. The fabric ripped cleanly as it followed the tip of her wand and fell to the floor.
"Rubeus, you may go. I'll take it from here. Oh Mr. Malfoy, stop groaning! Whatever it was didn't even hit the bone!"
There has to be a bone showing for it to constitute being painful? Is she kidding?
Hagrid silently bowed out while Pomfrey busied herself gathering tiny potion-filled flasks, a small wooden bowl and tight bunches of herb-looking plants. Into the bowl she poured a bubbling red potion, a rosy pink potion and a few drops of a thick lime green potion. She stuck a small wooden spoon into the colorful liquid and spun her finger around, causing the spoon to stir on its own. As it spun she ripped apart the thin green leaves with nimble fingers and sprinkled them into the mixture. Draco kept himself immersed in what she was doing to try to take his mind off the pain. He watched as the tiny bits of leaves dissolved into the now purple remedy. From a drawer in the nightstand next to the bed, Madame Pomfrey took out a long white cloth, neatly folded. She replaced the spoon in the bowl with this bandage, turning it slowly over in the potion until it was all soaked up. The cloth remained white.
"Alright dear, hold out your arm."
With shaking hands Draco lifted up his arm and she skillfully wrapped the cold, wet bandage tightly around the wound. Draco gasped and clenched his teeth, the healing potion burning the gash on his arm. She brushed her hand over the end of the dripping fabric and it sealed itself to the wrapping.
"It's going to sting for most of the day. The bandage will unravel on its own when you're fully healed. That should be sometime tonight. In the meantime," she added as she reached for a white cotton sling, "keep your arm in this to minimize the pain. The less you move it, the faster it will heal, alright?"
Draco nodded once, allowing the nurse to tie the sling around his neck and gently place his arm inside it.
"Come see me again if it still isn't healed by morning."
Silently Draco stood up and walked out of the hospital, thoughtfully looking down at his wrapped arm. As pissed as he was about the injury, he knew he could use this to his advantage. Slytherin sympathy was a given, and he could probably get some loving attention from the Hufflepuffs. Maybe even a few Ravenclaws if he played it up enough. More importantly, how could he get this under Potter's skin?
He certainly has a soft spot for that giant pain-in-the-ass Hagrid…
Suddenly a sly grin found its way across Draco's face.
I'm sure my father would love to hear about this. Probably get the great oaf sacked. That would break poor Potter's heart. Perfect.