Sorry, guys. I have a baby at the house, so my writing is taking the back-burner for a while. Here's a lil tid-bit to hold yall while I work on the Drarry scene. Nothing mature yet, it's just gonna be all connecting.

HARRY'S POV:

Classes today were a pain. Hagrid may have gotten permission for us to miss class, but it did nothing when it came to our work. It didn't help that Hermione was staring at me the entire day. As a hippogriff, I had no control over myself. My instincts took over and I couldn't think of nothing but impressing him. That first night was both amazing and a huge wreck. It felt so good to fly with him, but then he passed out...from fear, for Merlin's sake! Then I saw that damn Dark Mark on his arm! He done it. He really done it. I expected disgust, maybe even horror at seeing the black disgrace on his skin, but all I could do was feel sorry for him. How deep has his family fallen to make him do that? I could see in his eyes that he was as disgusted with it as anybody. The day blurred past until the stables jumped out in front of me.

"Harry!" Hermoine spat. "You have to give Crabbe his mice. You don't want him to lash out at you again."

I rolled my eyes. "He'll keep doing that whether I feed him or not." The mice squirmed and squealed as I threw them into the stable. My heart dropped into the pit of my stomach when he came forward. It's hard to believe that he became uglier than before being an Acromantula. Because of his tall form as a human, he was barely small enough to fit in the stable. His body, including his legs, was about four feet wide. He stood at three and a half feet tall. The stable was pitch black, regardless of the sunny day outside. Hermoine said she was grateful Ron wasn't here to see him. He had just stopped having nightmares of the synchronized swimming spiders.

Neville squealed before falling on his arse. Malfoy was chained to the stable struggling, screeching fiercely.

"Harry!" Neville yelled. "Harry, get over here!" I rushed over to him and helped him up, then turned to the frantic pheonix. Malfoy's silver eyes blazed with fury. "He won't let me feed him. Every time I try to give him this food, he freaks out." He handed me the strip of meat. I then saw what the problem was.

"This is just some cheap scrap meat. Knowing Malfoy, he would prefer something a little more extravagant." The screeching eased and Malfoy moved back to his perch, shifting from one foot to the other. "Don't worry about him, Neville. I'll come back after dinner. You still need to finish that essay for Snape, right?" His eyes widened and his face paled.

"Yeah," he mumbled.

The class dismissed for the day and the day passed as slowly as possible. Hermoine gave up trying to keep my attention and everyone else didn't bother knowing I wasn't really there. All I could think of was that Malfoy's feathers looked sickly. On his left wing, there was a huge black mark on his feathers, almost as if they were burned. The decay soon spread to both wings and his feathers were molting. I remember Hagrid saying that the feathers weren't even good enough for a wand. If I had looked up faster, I bet I would have saw Malfoy cringe. I felt bad for the guy. I also feel something else. Something weird. As a hippogriff, the emotion was as plain as day, but now, it felt like complete nonsense. I still couldn't shake the elation of flying with him on my back, or the terror when I thought I somehow scared him to death. I cared for him. I felt completely disgusted with myself at the idea of hurting him. Now he was all alone down in the stables. The seconds feel like years stuck in that small room, hearing nothing but screeching, moaning, and howling. Nothing came into focus until finally I was working on the last few bites of my dinner.

"Hippogriffs allow humans to fly with them only if a connection exists between animal and man." Hermoine recited. I looked up and saw her staring hard at me. "Hippogriffs feel even stronger for their owner if they allow the human to feed them by hand. Harry, it may not go both ways, but I know you feel connected to him somehow. If this is another rescue mission, Harry, listen to me now. Forget him. He will only drag you down into his twisted, miserable world. If Ron was here, he would say You-Know-Who sent Malfoy to seduce you or something."

I cringed at the thought. "Please, for Merlin's sake, don't bring Ron into this. I will never get a moment's peace with him." With a sigh, I pushed my food around the plate. "Okay, let's say that I may have a hunch about Malfoy-"

"You want to save him, Harry."

"But, he's Malfoy. It's not like I'm diving too deep into the ring of Death Eaters. He's miles away from Voldemort," Hermoine sucked in a gasp, "and, it's Hogwarts. If it's no use, I'll drop it." Students filed out of the great hall until Hermoine and I were the only ones at the Gryffindor table. She rolled her eyes and stood.

What she said next was quick, but harsh. "You won't drop it, Harry. You will keep at it and keep at it until you succeed or until it gets one of you killed. Remember that he's not someone who got sucked in the wrong crowd. He was bred to serve You-Know-Who. You will be challenging generations of darkness that they have forced into him. The two of you will fight each other until it nearly destroys you both. And if it gets one of you killed, I'm sorry, Harry, but I would rather it be him than you!" She stormed out of the hall. Well, I thought, that's where we would disagree.