Next, we went to Care of Magical Creatures, which Hagrid was supposed to teach.
Ron and Hermione weren't speaking to each other. Harry and I walked on either side of them in silence as we went down the sloping lawns to Hagrid's hut on the edge of the Forbidden Forest.
I noticed the green Slytherin robes and sighed. Malfoy was talking animatedly to Crabbe and Goyle, who were chortling. I was pretty sure I knew what they were talking about. Talk about killing a joke.
Hagrid was waiting for his class at the door of his hut. He stood in his moleskin overcoat, with Fang the boarhound at his heels, looking impatient to start.
"C'mon, now, get a move on!" he called as we approached. "Got a real treat for yeh today! Great lesson comin' up! Everyone here? Right, follow me!"
Hagrid strolled off around the edge of the trees, and five minutes later, we found ourselves outside a kind of paddock. There was nothing in there.
"Everyone gather 'round the fence here!" he called. "That's it — make sure yeh can see — now,firs' thing yeh'll want ter do is open yer books —"
"How?" Draco Malfoy asked.
"What?"
"How do we open our books?"
"Hasn'-- hasn' anyone figured out how to open their books?" Hagrid asked, looking crestfallen.
Everyone 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 Spellotape that bound it. The book tried to bite, 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 exclaimed sarcastically. "We were supposed to stroke them! Why didn't we guess?"
"I... I thought they were funny," Hagrid says.
"Oh, tremendously funny!" said Malfoy. "Really witty, giving us books that try and rip our hands off!"
"Shut up, Malfoy," I said. "I think you're overreacting. The books aren't as bad as you're making them out to be. They're actually pretty cool."
"Well, you're also American," Malfoy muttered. I turned to him, scowling, as everyone gasped.
"Do you have a problem against Americans?" I asked angrily. "Because I'd be happy to solve it for you."
Malfoy and his cronies laughed since I was a head shorter than the blonde jerk.
"Righ' then," said Hagrid, clearly not wanting a fight during his first class, "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.
As I watched him, I felt a shove from behind. I whipped around to face Malfoy, who was smirking, his hands still extended from having pushed me.
"Going to solve some problems, are you?" He sneered.
"Bring it. I've fought things that are uglier than you." I growled.
He advanced toward me and Hermione shrieked, but I held out my leg and tripped Malfoy. Using his momentum, I flipped him over my shoulder and onto the ground. Next, Crabbe barreled toward me, but I tripped him up too, and he landed on top of Malfoy. Then Goyle followed. I swear, they never learn. All I had to do was step out of the way and he tripped over his own feet, landing on top of the other two.
I knelt so Malfoy could see me.
"Problem solved." Then I turned back to my friends. They all looked shocked but they were grinning, so I marched back to them.
"That... was brilliant," Ron chuckled, giving me a high five.
"I am pretty good at art," I admitted. "I call this statue: The Heap of Slytherin Embarrassment." Harry and Ron laughed while Hermione frowned, concerned.
"Ash might get in trouble!" Hermione hissed, but to me whispered, "Nice job." I muffled a snicker as I saw Hagrid return.
"What're yeh lot doin' on the ground?" He asked Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle. "Get up!"
We all laughed as the three Slytherins scrambled up.
"Oooooooh!" squealed Lavender Brown, pointing toward the opposite side of the paddock.
There were a dozen of the most bizarre creatures I 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.
They looked like the pegasi back at Camp Half-Blood, but with eagle heads and front legs. Definitely a creature Zeus created, which meant he would be very proud and it would be a good idea not to insult them.
"Hippogriffs!" Hagrid roared happily, waving a hand at them. "Beau'iful, aren' they?"
I 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 color: 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..."
I eagerly stepped forward, but no one else seemed to want to. 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."
I perked up. My guess had been correct.
Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle weren't listening. They were muttering to each other and I had a nasty feeling they were plotting 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 Harry, Ron, and Hermione seemed to have misgivings. The Hippogriffs were tossing their fierce heads and flexing their powerful wings. They didn't seem to like being tethered like this.
I raised my hand. Harry also volunteered. Hagrid beamed as we climbed over the paddock fence.
"Good!" roared Hagrid. "Right then — let's see how Harry gets on with Buckbeak and Ashling does with Talonhoof."
He untied two of the chains, pulled one gray Hippogriff and one golden Hippogriff away from its fellows, and slipped off both of their leather collars. The class on the other side of the paddock seemed to be holding its breath. Malfoy's eyes were narrowed maliciously.
"Easy now, yeh two," said Hagrid quietly. "Yeh've got eye contact, now try not ter blink... Hippogriffs don' trust yeh if yeh blink too much..."
I'd won a few staring contests before, so I thought of this as another one of those. Talonhoof had turned his great, sharp head and was staring at me with one fierce orange eye.
"Tha's it," said Hagrid. "Tha's it... now, bow."
I bowed. Buckbeak was still staring haughtily at Harry. It didn't move.
"Ah," said Hagrid, sounding worried. "Right — back away, now, Harry, easy does it —"
Then the Hippogriff suddenly bent its scaly front knees and sank into what was an unmistakable bow. Talonhoof followed his example. I breathed a sigh of relief.
"Well done!" said Hagrid, ecstatic. "Right — yeh can touch 'em! Pat his beak, go on!"
I grinned and approached Talonhoof calmly. Harry moved slowly toward his Hippogriff and reached out toward it. He patted the beak several times and Buckbeak closed its eyes lazily, as though enjoying it. Talonhoof nudged me with his head as if expecting me to pet him as well. I obliged, patting his graceful feathery neck.
I laughed. "You like that, don't you?"
The class broke into applause, all except for Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle, who were looking deeply disappointed.
"Righ' then," said Hagrid. "I reckon they migh' let yeh ride 'em!"
"Really?" I asked excitedly. Hagrid nodded.
I figured it would be like mounting a pegasus. I climbed up just behind the wing joint, trying not to pull any of Talonhoof's feathers.
Hagrid looked at me, pleasantly surprised. "Well, look a' that! If I didn' know any better, I woulda thought yeh'd been riding Hippogriffs all yer life!"
I blushed. "I haven't, but I do know how to ride a pegasus. It's very similar."
Harry put his foot on the top of Buckbeak's wing and hoisted himself onto its back. Buckbeak stood up.
"Go on, then!" roared Hagrid, slapping Buckbeak's hindquarters. I nudged Talonhoof's sides with my heels and he started after Buckbeak.
Twelve-foot wings flapped open on either side of me. I sat straight up and held onto either side of my Hippogriff's neck before soaring upward. Talonhoof raced Buckbeak around the paddock, and as I looked over I noticed Harry was gritting his teeth.
"Sit up straight!" I advised. "It's easier to balance that way. You can hold on to his neck to steady yourself!"
Harry decided to take my word for it. We flew once more around the paddock and then headed back to the ground. I leaned back slightly as the smooth neck lowered, then felt a heavy thud as the four ill-assorted feet hit the ground.
"Good work!" roared Hagrid as everyone except Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle cheered. "Okay, who else wants a go?"
Emboldened by our 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. Ron and Hermione practiced on the chestnut, while Harry watched and I played with Talonhoof.
"You know a lot about riding flying creatures," Harry noted. "Thanks for the help."
I smiled. "No problem." I turned to Talonhoof. "You know, you're not so scary. You're a pretty good flier."
Talonhoof raised his head proudly at my praise.
Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle 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 us hear him. "I knew it must have been, if Potter could do it..."
I shook my head. "He's going to get himself hurt." Harry nodded, frowning slightly.
"I bet you're not dangerous at all, are you?" Malfoy said to the Hippogriff. "Are you, you great ugly brute?"
It happened in a flash of steely talons. Malfoy let out a high-pitched 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!"
I rushed over, pulling out some ointment from my bag. "Calm down, you big baby. You are not dying."
I poured the ointment on his wound. I'd made it myself for this very purpose. Malfoy hissed, probably because it stung. The bleeding stopped, but his arm still needed to be bandaged.
"Does it still hurt?" I asked.
"Yes!" Malfoy snapped. "Didn't you see? I got scratched by a bloody chicken!"
"Hippogriff," I corrected. "It's an easy mistake, I know. But we should probably take you to the Hospital Wing so we can get your arm bandaged up."
I helped him up. Hagrid led the way to the Hospital Wing, insisting that I come with them so Madame Pomfrey and I could "compare notes." I wasn't sure what exactly he meant by that, but I went anyway.
"You think he'll be all right?" said Hermione nervously when I joined my friends. We headed downstairs for dinner.
"Of course he will. Madam Pomfrey fixed him up in about a second," I said.
"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..."
We were among the first to reach the Great Hall at dinnertime, hoping to see Hagrid, but he wasn't there.
"They wouldn't fire him, would they?" said Hermione anxiously, not touching her steak-and-kidney pudding, which turned out to be more delicious than it sounded (the kidneys were actually kidney beans. Go figure.).
"They'd better not," said Ron, who wasn't eating either.
Harry was watching the Slytherin table. A large group including Crabbe and Goyle was huddled together, deep in conversation. I was positive they were cooking up their own version of how Malfoy had been injured.
"Well, you can't say it wasn't an interesting first day back," said Ron gloomily.
We went up to the crowded Gryffindor common room after dinner and tried to do the homework Professor McGonagall had given them, but we kept breaking off and glancing out of the tower window.
"There's a light on in Hagrid's window," Harry said suddenly.
Ron looked at his watch. "If we hurried, we could go down and see him. It's still quite early..."
"I don't know," Hermione said slowly, glancing at Harry.
"I'm allowed to walk across the grounds," he said pointedly. "Sirius Black hasn't got past the Dementors yet, has he?"
So we put our things away and headed out of the portrait hole. We met nobody on their way to the front doors, which was fine, since we weren't entirely sure we were supposed to be out.
The grass was still wet and looked almost black in the twilight. When we reached Hagrid's hut, we knocked, and a voice growled, "C'min."
Hagrid was sitting in his shirtsleeves at his scrubbed wooden table. A huge boarhound had his head in Hagrid's lap. One look told us that Hagrid had been drinking a lot. There was a pewter tankard almost as big as a bucket in front of him, and he seemed to be having difficulty getting us into focus.
" 'Spect it's a record," he said thickly, when he recognized us. "Don' reckon they've ever had a teacher who lasted on'y a day before."
"You haven't been fired," Hermione pointed out.
"Not yet," said Hagrid miserably, taking a huge gulp of whatever was in the tankard. "But's only a matter o' time, I'n't, after Malfoy..."
"He's faking it," I said. "Madam Pomfrey healed that cut in five seconds."
"She regrew half my bones last year," Harry said. "Trust Malfoy to milk it for all it's worth."
"School gov'nors have bin told, o' course," said Hagrid miserably. "They reckon I started too big. Shoulda left Hippogriffs fer later... done flobberworms or summat... Jus' thought it'd make a good firs' lesson's all my fault..."
"It's all Malfoy's fault, Hagrid!" said Hermione earnestly.
"We're witnesses," said Harry. "You said Hippogriffs attack if you insult them."
"It's Malfoy's problem that he wasn't listening," I added. "We'll tell Dumbledore what really happened."
"Yeah, don't worry, Hagrid, we'll back you up," Ron agreed.
Tears leaked out of the crinkled corners of Hagrid's beetle-black eyes. He grabbed and pulled Harry, Ron, and I into a bone-breaking hug.
"I think you've had enough to drink, Hagrid," said Hermione firmly. She took the tankard from the table and went outside to empty it.
"Ah, maybe she's right," said Hagrid, letting go of us, and we staggered away, rubbing our ribs. Hagrid heaved himself out of his chair and followed Hermione unsteadily outside. They heard a loud splash.
"What's he done?" said Harry nervously as Hermione came back in with the empty tankard.
"Stuck his head in the water barrel," said Hermione, putting the tankard away.
I dug into my bag and brought out a vial containing a potion I gave to some of the older Dionysus kids when they were drunk or having hangovers. They claimed it tasted like tar, but it worked miracles, so I made them deal with it.
Hagrid came back, his long hair and beard sopping wet, wiping the water out of his eyes. I handed him the vial and told him what was in it. He downed it in two seconds and sighed.
"That's better," he said, shaking his head like a dog and drenching us all. He handed the vial back to me and I corked it and stuck it back in my bag. I would make more of it later, just in case. "Listen, it was good of yeh ter come an' see me, I really —" Hagrid stopped dead, staring at Harry as though he'd only just realized he was there. "WHAT D'YEH THINK YOU'RE DOIN', EH?" he roared, so suddenly that we jumped a foot in the air. "YEH'RE NOT TO GO WANDERIN' AROUND AFTER DARK, HARRY! AN, YOU THREE! LETTIN' HIM!"
Hagrid strode over to Harry, grabbed his arm, and pulled him to the door.
"C'mon!" Hagrid said angrily. "I'm takin' yer all back up ter school an' don' let me catch yeh walkin' down ter see me after dark again. I'm not worth that!"
He ended up just depositing us right outside his cabin. He slammed the door in our faces.
"Huh," I said after five seconds of silence. "That really happened."