Her Single Rose (Remus Lupin)

Seventy

The two arrived at Hagrid's Hut, knocking on his door while Fang walked up beside Aries. She pet his head softly, smiling slightly at the small gruff sounds of satisfaction.

Hagrid opened his door with an expression of confusion until he glanced down and saw Aries, "Ah, Aries! It's been quite some time! And Regulus too, come in!" He grinned eagerly, opening up the door wider for the two to come in.

Fangs traveled inside quickly, wanting to escape the heated sun and began rolling around in a small corner.

"So what can I do for you two today? Some tea? Food?" Hagrid said happily, excited to have visitors.

"Both sound lovely Hagrid." Aries smiled, nudging her brother to say something.

"Tea please." Regulus spoke, still looking around Hagrid's Hut and making note of the many creatures inside.

"So Hagrid, I was rather curious. Last time we spoke you talked about a dragon egg, how is that?" Aries asked as Hagrid poured tea into three different mugs.

"Dragon egg? I don't rem- Oh! I found out it wasn't actually a dragon egg!" Hagrid spoke excitedly as he walked over to a small covered cage from under a table and flipped up the front.

A small creature with wings was laying peacefully on the bottom of the cage with its front two limbs crossed and its head resting on them.

It was a rather odd looking creature, with the front half of the body looking like an eagle or bird of some sort and the back looking like a horse maybe.

"What is it?" Regulus asked, his interest peaking.

"She's a hippogriff, half eagle, half horse. Quite exciting really. She just hatched the other day. You're very lucky you came today!" Hagrid spoke cheerfully.

"Aren't they supposed to be bigger?" Regulus asked as he looked at the small baby.

"Well of course she'll get bigger. But since she's a baby, it'll take some time. Maybe a few days for her to grow fully." Hagrid explained, "though I still haven't found a name for her yet." He added.

"A name? I didn't know you could even have such creatures on Hogwarts school grounds, much less breeding an animal and keeping it here long enough to give it a name." Regulus shook his head.

"Don't worry about that, Regulus. Tomorrow I'm speaking to Dumbledore about keeping her here." Hagrid waved a hand towards the two.

While Hagrid and Regulus spoke about the Hippogriffs well-being there at school, Aries was thinking about a name for the girl.

She watched the hippogriff for a few moments, gathering the small twitches in her wings and the way she was curled up. She looked so safe.

"What would you like to be named?" Aries muttered to herself. She had never tried her legilimency on an animal before. Dumbledore had only helped her perfect Occlumency and trained her on how to get simple memories or facts from others.

In fact, Dumbledore looked surprised when Aries had told him once that she had gone through a persons memories like a book, like all their thoughts, their past, their emotions, all coming at her at light speed.

As Aries tried to look into the animals mind, it somehow knew what she was trying to do and looked up at her.

She cocked her head to the side before standing up and walking towards the small gated side where she could see Aries in full view.

Aries smiled when she was let into the mind of the creature and grinned when she got a name.

"Hagrid?" Aries asked, pulling the two out of their conversation. "How about Witherwing." She asked curiously.