Letters I Can't Send

4

Y/n's POV

Quinn and I are on our way to Care of Magical Creatures right outside the Forbidden Forest. There is a set of stone steps lodged in the side of the hill going down to the forest, and they are quite steep. I feel myself start to slip on one of the steps, but a pair of hands steadies me by my waist.

"You ought to be more careful, Ellis," Malfoy's voice says behind me. His hands—they must be his—slip off my waist as him and his goons pass us on the steps. How did he get to me so fast?

"Don't thank him," Quinn says to me.

"I wasn't planning to," I say and my fingers go instinctively to my waist where his hands had caught me. And they were surprisingly gentle...not exactly what I would expect from him. I shake the feeling off.

We make our way down the rest of the steps without trouble and follow the half-giant professor into a small clearing just outside the forest. Hagrid, is his name, that's what Quinn told me.

Before Hagrid can start the lesson, Malfoy decides to make a rude comment about him, which seems to really get on Harry Potter's nerves...

Suddenly, Malfoy's face turns from his usual smug smirk to something of terror as he points and shouts, "Dementor! Dementor!" the crowd of us—Slytherins and Gryffindors—all turn to look where he was pointing. Trees and empty space. I start to get confused, but then Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle's laughter rang through the forest. We all turn around to find the three of them with the hoods of their robes up and doing an awful impression of a dementor.

I've been lucky enough to not encounter a dementor yet—I know that they are surrounding the castle on the look out for Sirius Black, but they keep their distance. Except when they searched the train on our ride to Hogwarts.

Harry looked furious at the little prank Malfoy pulled, but a girl with bushy brown hair tugs him away and sneers at the blond.

Hagrid arrives soon after this and comes barring an interesting creature that looked like a cross between an eagle, and a horse. It had feathers, talons, a beak and wings, like a bird, but it was as big as a horse and had hind legs and a tail like a horse—it was quite the extraordinary sight.

Hagrid taught us how to approach it, and that we could pet if we wanted. Nobody volunteered.

Eventually, Harry was the one to touch it first. As we all watched, we held our breath and he mounted the beast. Hagrid insisted that he ride it, which I thought was a little unsafe, but he did it anyway.

He flew into the air atop the hippogriff—that's what Hagrid calls it—soaring over the treetops and out of sight.

"So, Quinn," I say, trying to grab her attention away from Harry flying on some mythical creature. "What exactly is the grim?" I think that definitely snaps her out of whatever mesmerized trance she was in.

Her head whips in my direction. "Oh, right. I haven told you." she sighs and sits on a large rock and I take the seat beside her. "It just means a death omen. A black dog."

"Just?! You mean he's going to die?" I say, a little concerned. No one our age should be dying.

Quinn only shrugs. I look at her like she's insane—because she is. "It's Professor Trelawney who predicted that. She's, like, bloody mental or something."

I shake my head as if ridding myself of her words. "Whatever. You're just crazy." I decide to let it go because no one else seems to be too worried—especially not Harry Potter himself or his friends; that bushy haired girl and the redhead boy.

Moments later, Harry comes flying back into the clearing, unharmed and looking very chipper. I guess one would be quite chipper if they flew through the air on the back of some friendly-bird-horse-creature.

Everyone starts cheering and hooting for him as he dismounts the hippogriff—then next thing I know, Malfoy is rolling around on the ground in front of the creature, cradling his arm, yelling, "It's killed me! It's killed me!" Hagrid rushes over to him and picks him up from the ground, carrying him off. "You're gonna regret this!" Malfoy whimpers. "You and your bloody chicken!"

I watch in disbelief, my mouth agape, before Hagrid beckons me over. "Why don't you accomp'ny Mr. Malfoy to the 'ospital wing, Miss..."

"Ellis," I finish for him. I sigh, getting ready to complain, but Hagrid cuts me off.

"Make sure 'e gets ther' a'right an' off to 'is nex' class if 'e can, Miss Ellis." He sets him down at the bottom of the stone steps and rushes back to his class, no wanting to leave them alone with his hippogriff for too long.

I huff in annoyance and turn to face a smirking Malfoy.

"What is wrong with you?!" I hiss and slap his "injured" arm. He actually winces.

"Bloody hell, Ellis. I'm not joking--I am hurt," he says and holds his arm to his chest protectively.

I roll my eyes. "Let me see it," I say and hold my hand out for me to see his arm.

"What are you, a doctor?" he sneers.

"No, but I know I thing or two about broken arms—let me see." I say, my eyes fixated on the rip in his robe where the hippogriff hit him.

Malfoy hesitantly holds out his arm and I take it hastily, I don't want to waste my time if it really is fine. I examine it carefully, poking and prodding, asking if it hurt. He lets out a wince or flinch sometimes—I know he really does need to go to the hospital wing.

"How does it look, doc? Will I live?" He asks with a small laugh.

"Let's go," I say and tug him by the sleeve of his robe up the steps towards the castle once more.

"Don't fall, Ellis, I won't be able to catch you this time," he snickers from behind me, and just shake my head and sigh.

a/n: more coming soon <3

also made hagrid like how he is in the books, yk how he didnt really finish his words or something idk.

also this chapter was kinda vague-- i didn't want to rewrite the whole thing with Harry and Draco and how they almost got into a freaking fist fight, so thats why it sounded like that lol.