"Beautiful aren't they?" Hagrid asked.
They were certainly something. With the hindquarters of horses and front parts of giant eagles, the dozen hippogriffs were strange and unusual to say the least.
"If yeh want ter get a little closer..." Hagrid said.
No one seemed enthusiastic about the prospect. The creatures giant beaks looked like they could rip a human in half with a single bite. Their glowing orange eyes looked malevolent.
Steven was already by the fence, but of course he would be. He was like Hagrid, with less to fear than a normal person.
Harry forced himself to step forward. Beside him Hermione and Ron followed suit.
"Firs thing yeh want ter know about hippogriffs is that they're proud." Hagrid said, "Easily offended...don't never offend a hippogriff, cause it might be the last thing ye do."
Draco wasn't paying attention. He was muttering to Crabbe and Goyle. Steven gave him a sharp look.
Hagrid showed them how to deal with the hippogriffs...bow, then wait for them to bow back. He warned them...if the hippogriff didn't bow back off.
Steven demonstrated, bowing to the hippogriff and waiting for its response before walking up to pet the creature.
He'd done this before; it was obvious. Living and working with Hagrid for the summer, he'd probably seen all the creatures Hagrid had to offer. Harry wondered if he would get extra credit for working as Hagrid's assistant.
From what he'd seen, Steven had a way with animals. They seemed to respond to him. Hedwig never nipped at him, and Crookshanks adored him. Even Mrs. Norris didn't seem to dislike him as much as she did the rest of the student body.
"Who's next?"
Steven had made it look easy, but everyone knew he wasn't normal. Reluctantly Harry stepped forward..
He tried to copy what he's seen Steven do. Being told not to blink made his eyes itch, and he felt sweat beading on his neck. For a moment it looked as though the hippogriff wasn't going to bow back, but in the end it did.
He patted its beak several times, cautiously. Even after seeing Steven do it, it seemed foolish to put his hand next to the mouth of a creature that could swallow his entire arm as an appetizer. The creature seemed to enjoy it, though, and after a bit Harry felt himself relaxing.
"I reckon he might let ye ride him," Hagrid said.
The feeling in Harry's gut returned, redoubled. He glanced at Malfoy, who looked like he'd just gotten a surprise birthday present. If Harry backed out, he'd have even more fodder to taunt him with for the rest of the school year. If he fell off the creature, Malfoy would be even more happy.
At the look on Harry's face, Steven said "I've done it lots of times; it's great!"
Harry cursed to himself. Sometimes having a semi-indestructible friend was more trouble than it was worth. Despite his misgivings, Harry let himself be coaxed into climbing on top of the creature's back between its wings.
It wasn't anything like a broom; it was weird and uncomfortable, and Harry was glad when the short flight was over.
The rest of the class cautiously entered the paddock, and Hagrid untied the hippogriffs one by one. Soon people were bowing nervously to hippogriffs all over the corral.
Steven was standing near Malfoy; he was watching him closely. However, Draco had managed to get the hippogriff to bow to him and was now patting his beak.
Steven visibly started to relax just as Draco said, "This is easy...it had to be if Potter could do it. I bet you aren't dangerous at all, are you?"
The hippogriff lashed out, but there was already a pink bubble surrounding Draco and Steven. Steven grabbed Draco by the scruff of the neck and they backed away from the angry creature as Hagrid hurried to restrain it.
The bubble dropped and Steven dropped Draco to the ground.
The other hippogriffs were unsettled and the rest of the class moved cautiously away.
"That's why you always respect a hippogriff," Steven said, standing over Draco. "It's really not a bad idea with any animal, really."
Draco stared up at him, speechless from his close call.
"Most Muggle animals can't understand you, and they might hurt you if they get scared or hungry, Some Wizarding animals CAN understand you..."
Steven shook his head. "It doesn't hurt to be nice, and not being nice might really hurt."
Hagrid seemed flushed at the near disaster, but with Steven's help he got the rest of the lesson back on track.
The rest of the class seemed much more cautious in dealing with the creatures.
That Draco would complain to his father was a given, but as no harm had come to him, it didn't seem like anything would come of it.
The whole incident had left Draco in a sour mood and he'd redoubled his attempts to taunt Harry. He'd managed to ignore him, which only led to Draco making cryptic remarks that Harry didn't understand.
Their first class with Professor Lupin was instructive, although Harry was happy that he hadn't faced the boggart. He didn't particularly want everyone to see his greatest fear, whatever it might be. Professor Lupin obviously thought it would be Voldemort, but Harry suspected it might be a dementor. Worse, it might be Uncle Vernon with a fist raised, which would tell his classmates far more than he wanted them to know.
Steven had Lupin's class the day after theirs; the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws had class together. As it occurred during a free period, Harry and Hermione decided to wait on Steven to get out of class so they could go to lunch.
Harry and Hermione froze as a hideous crashing sound came from the room the Hufflepuff class was being held in. It sounded like something was slamming into the walls; the paintings shook and Harry could hear them complaining loudly at the mistreatment.
He pulled his wand, and Hermione followed his lead.
As they cautiously approached the classroom, the door exploded, with Steven flying out of it to slam into the wall on the other side.
A huge orange woman spilled out of the hallway after him. She was almost as tall as Hagrid, but seemed much more dangerous. She moved almost like a humanoid tiger, except that her expression was filled with an insane sort of hate.
"You!" she screamed.
Steven stared up at her, dazed. His face looked oddly swollen, as though he'd been struck several times.
"Hey!" Harry yelled. He cast a stinging hex against the woman, but it didn't seem to do anything.
Hermione beside him cast a curse that he didn't recognize, but it didn't have any more effect. It reminded Harry of Flitwick fighting the basilisk, with most of his spells bouncing off its spell resistant hide.
The woman began to shift and grow, quickly outstripping Hagrid, growing to more than twice Steven's height. She changed from orange to yellow, and now her features became thin and angular. The hatred in the eyes remained the same, however.
"Abomination!" Her voice was different now; more strident. "You won't have a chance to poison this world. We'll drink it dry..."
Lupin's voice came from the classroom. "Riddikulus..."
His voice sounded rather hoarse and shocked.
A moment later the woman changed shape again. Where she'd been was four gemstones lying on the ground, shattered.
It came to Harry in a flash. It was the Boggart!
"Riddikulus!" he shouted.
Hermione realized it the moment she did. She cast the spell as well.
The boggart had been confused in the classroom with the Gryffindors; it hadn't known whose fear to manifest. Now, though it seemed focused on Steven with an unerring precision.
It changed form again. Now it was Harry and Hermione and Hagrid lying on the floor, dead, along with a sunburned heavyset man with a beard and a thin Indian girl.
A look of anger flashed across Steven's face, and he stood up. He shook his head and pulled out his wand. "Riddikulus!"
Now their bodies were in sleeping bags with prancing ponies and their faces had been painted like clowns.
The thing finally switched to a white orb as the professor staggered out of the room. He drove it back into the wardrobe.
Harry glanced cautiously into the room. The students inside, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw alike were on the floor, their hands covering their heads.
The walls were cracked. It looked like a bomb had gone off in the room, although the students looked relatively unhurt. They looked shocked, though.
"I don't understand why it focused on him like that," Professor Lupin was saying. "I've never seen a boggart respond that way. It was as though none of the rest of us even existed."
"Young Steven is the survivor of a rather serious war," Dumbledore said. "I would imagine that his fears were rather more vivid and intense than the imagined schoolroom fears of a group of youngsters."
"It was so fast...so powerful," Lupin said. "Boggarts are supposed to be pale imitations of the things they copy. Where did it get that kind of power?"
"That was a pale imitation," Steven said somberly, staring at his hands. "Why do you think we had to poison our entire world to beat them?"
Snape stood at the back of the room and he directed a significant look toward the Headmaster, who nodded slightly.
He'd always maintained that the gems were dangerous. The gems that had already manifested were the weakest of the gems, from Steven's report. He couldn't imagine how powerful the greatest of Steven's "aunts" was going to be.
Worse, what if he was right and there were counterparts to the gems native to their own dimension? They could be facing an invasion that neither Muggle nor Wizardkind had any ability to fight.
A single gem could take down a castle the size of Hogwarts. What could an army of them do?
"I think it might be advisable to be cautious in assigning Steven for any demonstrations, at least in the near future," Dumbledore said firmly.
No one disagreed.