Chapter 2: Hippogriffs
When Lily and her best of friends entered the Great Hall for lunch after their lesson with Professor Lupin, the first thing they saw was Draco Malfoy, who seemed to be entertaining a large group of Slytherins, including Felix, with a very funny story.
As they passed their table, Malfoy, did a ridiculous impression of Pan smirking wickedly at Lily and there was a roar of laughter. "Aww... Is little Lily crying?"
"Ignore him," said Hermione, who was right behind her. "Just ignore him, he's not worth it..."
"Hey, Jones!" shrieked Pansy Parkinson, a Slytherin girl with a face like a pug.
Lily couldn't help but notice Felix give her a glare.
He must have corrected her, because then she shrieked. "Hagrid! You-know-who is coming! Woooooooooo!"
Lily dropped into a seat at the Gryffindor table, next to George Weasley. "New third-year course schedules," said George, passing them, over. "What's up with you, Lily?"
"Malfoy," said Ron, sitting down on George's other side and glaring over at Slytherin table.
George looked up in time to see Malfoy pretending to faint with terror.
"That little git," He said calmly.
Lily was pleased to get out of the castle after lunch.
Their next lesson was with Hagrid, her step-father.
Hagrid was waiting for his class at the door of his hut.
He stood in his moleskin overcoat, with Fang the boar-hound at his heels, looking impatient to start.
"C'mon, now, get a move on!" He called as the class approached him. "Got a real treat for yeh today! Great lesson comin' up! Everyone here? Right, follow me!"
For one nasty moment, Lily thought that he was going to lead them into the forest; Lily had had enough unpleasant experiences in there to last her a lifetime.
As much as she and Felix used to run around in those woods when they were younger, things had completely changed after Pan's visit.
However, Hagrid strolled off around the edge of the trees, and five minutes later, they found themselves outside a kind of paddock.
There was nothing in there, as far as they could see, anyway.
"Everyone gather 'round the fence here!" Hagrid called. "That's it-make sure yeh can see! Now, firs' thing yeh'll want ter do is open yer books-"
"How?" said the cold, drawling voice of Draco Malfoy.
"Eh?" said Hagrid.
"How do we open our books?" Malfoy repeated.
He took out his copy of The Monster Book of Monsters, which he had bound shut with a length of rope.
Other people took theirs out too; some, like Lily, had belted their book shut; others had crammed them inside tight bags or clamped them together with binder clips.
"Hasn'-hasn' anyone bin able ter open their books?" said Hagrid, looking crestfallen.
The class all shook their heads.
"Yeh've got ter stroke 'em!" said Hagrid, as though this was the most obvious thing in the world. "Look -"
He took Hermione's copy and ripped off the tape that bound it.
The book tried to bite him, but Hagrid ran a giant forefinger down its spine, and the book shivered, and then fell open and lay quiet in his hand.
"Oh, how silly we've all been!" Malfoy sneered. "We should have stroked them! why didn't we guess!"
"I - I thought they were funny," Hagrid said uncertainly to Hermione.
"Oh, tremendously funny!" said Malfoy. "Really witty, giving us books that try and rip our hands off!"
"Be quiet, Malfoy," said Lily quietly.
Hagrid was looking downcast and Lily wanted her step-father's first lesson to be a success.
"Righ' then," said Hagrid, who seemed to have lost his thread, "so-so yeh've got yer books an'-an'... Now yeh need the Magical Creatures. Yeah. So I'll go an' get 'em. Hang on... "
He strode away from them into the forest and out of sight.
"God, this place is going to the dogs," said Malfoy loudly. "That oaf teaching classes, my father'll have a fit when I tell him!"
Lily almost hit Felix when he, like the rest of the Slytherins laughed.
"You obviously didn't hear what Lily told you, Malfoy," said Harry.
"Careful, You-know-who's behind you!" Squealed Lavender Brown, pointing toward the opposite side of the paddock. "Oooooooh!
Trotting toward them were a dozen of the most bizarre creatures Lily had ever seen.
They had the bodies, hind legs, and tails of horses, but the front legs, wings, and heads of what seemed to be giant eagles, with cruel, steel-colored beaks and large, brilliantly, orange eyes.
The talons on their front legs were half a foot long and deadly looking.
Each of the beasts had a thick leather collar around its neck, which was attached to a long chain, and the ends of all of these were held in the vast hands of
Hagrid, who came jogging into the paddock behind the creatures.
"Gee up, there!" he roared, shaking the chains and urging the creatures toward the fence where the class stood. Everyone drew back slightly as Hagrid reached them and tethered the creatures to the fence.
"Hippogriffs!" Hagrid roared happily, waving a hand at them. "Beau'iful, aren' they?"
Lily could sort of see what Hagrid meant.
Once you got over the first shock of seeing something that was, half horse, half bird, you started to appreciate the hippogriffs' gleaming coats, changing smoothly from feather to hair, each of them a different colour: stormy gray, bronze, pinkish roan, gleaming chestnut, and inky black.
"So," said Hagrid, rubbing his hands together and beaming around, "if yeh wan' ter come a bit nearer -"
No one seemed to want to. Lily, Harry, Ron and Hermione, however, approached the fence cautiously.
"Now, firs' thing yeh gotta know abou' hippogriffs is, they're proud," said Hagrid. "Easily offended, hippogriffs are. Don't never insult one, 'cause it might be the last thing yeh do."
Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle and Felix weren't listening; they were talking in an undertone and Lily had a nasty feeling they were plotting how best to disrupt the lesson.
"Yeh always wait fer the hippogriff ter make the firs' move," Hagrid continued. "It's polite, see? Yeh walk toward him, and yeh bow, an' yeh wait. If he bows back, yeh're allowed ter touch him. If he doesn' bow, then get away from him sharpish, 'cause those talons hurt.
"Right - who wants ter go first?"
Most of the class backed farther away in answer. Even Lily, Harry, Ron, and Hermione had misgivings. The hippogriffs were tossing their fierce heads and flexing their powerful wings; they didn't seem to like being tethered like this.
"No one?" said Hagrid, with a pleading look.
"I'll do it," said Harry, earning him a warm smile from Lily.
He climbed over the paddock fence.
"Good man, Harry!" roared Hagrid. "Right then - let's see how yeh get on with Buckbeak."
He untied one of the chains, pulled the gray hippogriff away from its fellows, and slipped off its leather collar.
The class on the other side of the paddock seemed to be holding its breath. Malfoy's eyes were narrowed maliciously.
"Easy now, Harry," said Hagrid quietly. "Yeh've got eye contact, now try not ter blink... Hippogriffs don' trust yeh if yeh blink too much..."
Harry's eyes immediately began to water, but he didn't shut thern. Buckbeak had turned his great, sharp head and was staring at Harry with one fierce orange eye.
"Tha's it," said Hagrid. "Tha's it, Harry... now, bow."
Harry didn't feel much like exposing the back of his neck to Buckbeak, but he did as he was told. He gave a short bow and then looked up.
The hippogriff was still staring haughtily at him. It didn't move.
"Ah," said Hagrid, sounding worried. "Right - back away, now, Harry, easy does it
But then, to Harry's enormous surprise, the hippogriff suddenly bent its scaly front knees and sank into what was an unmistakable bow.
"Well done, Harry!" said Hagrid, ecstatic. "Right - yeh can touch him! Pat his beak, go on!"
Feeling that a better reward would have been to back away, Harry moved slowly toward the hippogriff and reached out toward it. He patted the beak several times and the hippogriff closed its eyes lazily, as though enjoying it.
The class broke into applause, all except for Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle and Felix, who were looking deeply disappointed.
"Righ' then, Harry," said Hagrid. "I reckon he might' let yeh ride him!"
This was more than Harry had bargained.
He was used to a broomstick; but he wasn't sure a hippogriff would be quite the same.
"Yeh climb up there, jus' behind the wing joint," said Hagrid, "an' mind yeh don' pull any of his feathers out, he won' like that..."
Harry put his foot on the top of Buckbeaks wing and hoisted himself onto its back.
Buckbeak stood up. Harry wasn't sure where to hold on; everything in front of him was covered with feathers.
"Go on, then'" roared Hagrid, slapping the hippogriffs hindquarters.
Without warning, twelve-foot wings flapped open on either side of Harry, he just had time to seize the hippogriff around the neck before he was soaring upward.
It was nothing like a broomstick, and Harry knew which one he preferred.
The hippogriff's wings beat uncomfortably on either side of him, catching him under his legs and making him feel he was about to be thrown off; the glossy feathers slipped under his fingers and he didn't dare get a stronger grip; instead of the smooth action of his Nimbus Two Thousand, he now felt himself rocking backward and forward as the hindquarters of the hippogriff rose and fell with its wings.
Buckbeak flew him once around the paddock and then headed back to the ground; this was the bit Harry had been dreading; he leaned back as the smooth neck lowered, feeling he was going to slip off over the beak, then felt a heavy thud as the four ill-assorted feet hit the ground.
He just managed to hold on and push himself straight again.
"Good work, Harry!" roared Hagrid as everyone except Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle and Felix cheered. "Okay, who else wants a go?"
Emboldened by Harry's success, the rest of the class climbed cautiously into the paddock.
Hagrid untied the hippogriffs one by one, and soon people were bowing nervously, all over the paddock. Neville ran repeatedly backward from his, which didn't seem to want to bend its knees. Lily, Ron and Hermione practised on the chestnut, while Harry watched.
Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle and Felix had taken over Buckbeak. He had bowed to Malfoy, who was now patting his beak, looking disdainful.
"This is very easy," Malfoy drawled, loud enough for Harry to, hear him. "I knew it must have been, if Potter could do it... I bet you're not dangerous at all, are you?" he said to the hippogriff. "Are you, you great ugly brute?"
It happened in a flash of steely talons; Malfoy let out a highpitched scream and next moment, Hagrid was wrestling Buckbeak back into his collar as he strained to get at Malfoy, who lay curled in the grass, blood blossoming over his robes.
"I'm dying!" Malfoy yelled as the class panicked. "I'm dying, look at me! It's killed me!"
"Yer not dyin'!" said Hagrid, who had gone very white. "Someone help me - gotta get him outta here -"
Hermione ran to hold open the gate as Hagrid lifted Malfoy easily. As they passed, Lily saw that there was a long, deep gash on Malfoy's arm; blood splattered the grass and Hagrid ran with him, up the slope toward the castle.
Very shaken, the Care of Magical Creatures class followed at a walk. The Slytherins were all shouting about Hagrid.
"They should fire him straight away!" said Pansy Parkinson, who was in tears.
"It was Malfoy's fault!" snapped Dean Thomas. Crabbe, Goyle and Felix flexed their muscles threateningly.
They all climbed the stone steps into the deserted entrance hall.
"I'm going to see if he's okay!" said Pansy, and they all watched her run up the marble staircase. The Slytherins, still muttering about Hagrid, headed away in the direction of their dungeon common room; Lily, Harry, Ron, and Hermione proceeded upstairs to Gryffindor Tower.
"You think he'll be all right?" said Lily nervously.
"Course he will. Madam Pomfrey can mend cuts in about a second," said Harry, who had had far worse injuries mended magically by the nurse.
"That was a really bad thing to happen in Hagrid's first class, though, wasn't it?" said Ron, looking worried. "Trust Malfoy to mess things up for him..."
They were among the first to reach the Great Hall at dinnertime, hoping to see Hagrid, but he wasn't there.
Harry, Ron and Hermione were no far behind Lily when they walked in through the door of Gryffindor's common room, that evening.
"It will be okay," Said Hermione to Lily, with confidence in her voice.
Lily smiled and whispered quietly, "Should we tell them about that dog?"
"Tell us what?" Asked Ron.
Both Lily and Hermione turned their gaze towards them.
Hermione took a deep breath before she explained about what had happened earlier that morning.
"What do they think they're doing, keeping a thing like that locked up in a school?" Ron finally exclaimed.
Lily nodded in agreement. "If any dog needs exercise, that one does."
"But didn't you notice what it was standing on?" Hermione asked her.
"The floor?" suggested Harry.
"I wasn't looking at it's feet, I was too busy with it's heads." Said Lily.
Hermione shook her head. "It was standing on a trapdoor! It's obviously guarding something..." She stood up, glaring at them.
She had given Lily something else to think about. The dog was guarding something...
What had Hagrid said to Harry? 'Gringotts, the wizards bank, was the safest place in the world for something you wanted to hide-except perhaps Hogwarts.'
Lily sighed before she spoke, "You...you don't think...That it could be...You know...The stone?"