A Young Wizard's Journey - Prisoner of Azkaban

The Teacher's Assistant

The evening meal was a very subdued affair for the quartet. They rushed down the moment they could in the hopes of seeing Hagrid, but there was no sign of him up at the staff table.

'They wouldn't fire him, would they?' asked Hermione as she looked nervously at Hagrid's empty seat.

'They best hadn't,' growled Y/N. 'I'll be visiting the Malfoys personally if they do.'

Once they'd finished, they returned to the common room in an attempt to start early on their Transfiguration homework, but they all kept losing focus and glancing down towards Hagrid's hut.

'There's a light on in Hagrid's window,' said Harry suddenly. All three of them looked up and Ron checked his watch.

'If we hurried we could still go and see him, it's still early,' said Ron.

'I don't know...' said Hermione, immediately looking at Harry.

'I'm allowed to walk through the grounds! Black hasn't made it past the Dementors yet, has he?' asked Harry hotly.

'Let's just go,' said Y/N. 'We can hardly leave Harry here. Quicker we go, quicker we can get back.'

The four of them packed up their stuff and headed down towards the large oak front doors that lead to the Hogwarts grounds. They crossed the grounds quickly towards Hagrid's hut, hopeful to not get caught, and knocked on his door.

'C'min,' came a quiet voice from inside.

Hagrid was sitting at his wooden table, Fang had his head in Hagrid's lap. It didn't take more than a look and slight intake of breath to see that Hagrid had been drinking. He swayed slightly as he looked at them.

''Spect it's a record,' he said. 'Don' reckon they've ever had a teacher who lasted on'y a day before.'

'You haven't been fired?' asked Hermione, looking shocked.

'Not yet,' said Hagrid miserably as he took another swig of that extremely strong-smelling alcohol, 'But 's only a matter o' time I'n't it, after Malfoy.'

'Buckbeak could have done much worse to him. One slash was him getting off easy,' said Y/N hotly.

'He's still sayin he's in agony,' said Hagrid. 'Madam Pomfrey's fixed 'im, but he's still covered in bandages and moanin'.'

'He's faking it,' said Harry, mirroring Y/N's anger. 'Madam Pomfrey can mend anything.'

'School gov'nors have bin told o' course. They reckon I started too big. Shoulda left hippogriffs fer later, done flobberworms or summat. Jus' thought it'd make a good firs' lesson.'

'It did!' cried Y/N. 'That was probably one of my top lessons from my entire time here and that's saying something. I loved every moment of that, Hagrid.'

'We could all see how Buckbeak behaved with Y/N,' said Hermione. 'There's clearly nothing wrong with Buckbeak, we can tell them what really happened.'

Hagrid beamed at them and grabbed both Hermione and Y/N pulling them into a tight hug. They both smiled bemusedly at each other as he did so.

'Come on Hagrid,' said Hermione as she pried herself out of his grip. 'Y/N, tip his drink away would you? I think he's had quite enough.'

Y/N took Hagrid's tankard and moved out into his front garden. He turned the tankard upside down and emptied the contents onto the floor. A moment later and he heard a splash behind him. He turned to see Hagrid with his face shoved into the water barrel he kept for his plants.

'What's he done?' asked Harry as Y/N walked back in.

'Shoved his head in the water barrel,' said Y/N as he moved over to Hagrid's sink and began rinsing out the tankard.