Hunted AIAOY 3

Chapter 4

"Stroke the spine?  That's ridiculous!"

Harry and Rebecca rolled their eyes at the sound of Draco's voice rising over the clamour of Care for Magical Creatures ahead of them.  If any student were to give Hagrid trouble, they knew it would be Malfoy.  They hurried along, reaching the class quickly.  If Malfoy was being difficult, Hagrid needed as many friendly faces as he could get.

"Ah, hello there you two!"  Hagrid took their note and motioned for them to step back, joining the class.  Hagrid was relieved, with two more familiar faces, he would be his best.  "Come along!  Now that you're books are all taught-to-open and all, we're moving on."

Rebecca and Harry weren't near Ron and Hermione, but as they followed Hagrid away from in front of his hut to wherever they were going next, they maneuvered their way through the crowd to get next to the twins.

"I didn't mean it like that."  Hermione spoke first.  "I just didn't want you to give it anything more than it was: A stupid ploy to scare us."

Rebecca offered a truce, not liking fighting with Hermione even if it was only this short while and they had hardly fought.  "McGonagall says she does this every year."

Hermione, who was thrilled to know that she had been right, did not say anything on it.  "Are we okay?"

"We are."  Harry answered before Rebecca could, leaning forward so that he could see Hermione clearly.  "I think it would be best if we just put that whole hour behind us."  Harry was worried about the Grim and the prophecy had exacerbated that entirely, but he could see how it was going to be best if his friends were alright.  That was most important at the moment.

"So..."  Ron cleared his throat, looking at them all expectantly.  "We're good for lunch then, right?  I sort of planned on eating with all of us and I can't do that without all of us."

Rebecca laughed with the others a moment, but then she caught sight of what Hagrid was leading out of the forest.  

"This is going to be a bit different than class with Professor Grubblyplank.  I wanted to start with a bang!"  Rebecca weaved her way through the students, ending up near the front so she could see without anything blocking her way as Hagrid spoke on.  "This is Buckbeak.  Isn't he beautiful?"

Rebecca nodded, the only one to do so.  Ron gulped beside Hermione, both of which were behind Harry as he inched closer to Rebecca.  She had moved to the front so quickly, she'd left them all behind.

But it was obvious that she hadn't done so to be cruel.  Buckbeak simply had caught her attention entirely.

Hagrid took a ferret off his belt and threw it up, letting Buckbeak snap it out of the air with a crunch.

"H-Hagrid, exactly what is that?"  Ron asked, the first to voice what they were all thinking.

"That, Ron, is a hippogriff."  Hagrid smiled, clearly doing well on his first class with how awed they all were.  "First thing you want to know about hippogriffs is that they're very proud creatures."

Rebecca grinned and glanced away from Buckbeak as Harry laid a hand on her shoulder, he having made it to her side.  

"They're very easily offended--You do not want to insult a hippogriff."  Hagrid waved over to Buckbeak again.  Buckbeak had extended a wing and was rearranging a poking feather regally.  "If you do...it may well be the last thing you ever do."  With this said, Hagrid clapped his hands and smiled.  "Now, who'd like to come say hello?"

Rebecca stepped forward slightly, wanting to badly.  Harry could see this though he wished he didn't.  Harry did not particularly want to meet the hippogriff, not when Hagrid had just warned about how dangerous insulting it could be.