Harry, who still had no idea what the "little cuties" Ezio and Hagrid were talking about were, was quite excited. Fang, on the other hand, knew exactly what was coming. He planted himself firmly beside his food bowl, ready to defend his right to chomp down on Rock Cakes with all his might.
Sad tears rolled from the corners of Fang's eyes. He'd much rather face off against a Rock Cake than go see those "little cuties." Any one of those things that nobody in their right mind would call cute could grab him and eat him as a snack. Fang had suffered terribly as a puppy, when he'd gone on patrol in the woods with Hagrid. The creatures in there were terrifying to dogs.
They followed Hagrid out of the hut. Hagrid, armed with nothing but his bare hands, headed into the Forbidden Forest alone, telling Ezio and Harry to wait outside.
Hagrid had been gone for about ten minutes when a loud, clear cry rang out in the sky.
They looked up and saw Neil dive down from high above. He spread his wings to slow himself, then released his claws as he passed in front of them, dropping a furry bundle.
With an agile turn, he slowed again and landed on Ezio's outstretched arm.
"Neil, have you gotten used to Hogwarts?"
Neil tilted his head and preened his feathers, as if his eyes were saying, "Couldn't be better."
"What's that?"
Harry's attention was fixed on the furry little ball Neil had dropped. He asked curiously.
"Probably a Pygmy Puff."
Looking at the ball of fluff, about the size of a football, Ezio crouched down to inspect it. "Looks like you've already upgraded your meals, Neil. No more catching poor owls and rabbits on the run."
Neil flapped his wings and raised his head proudly.
Come to think of it, Neil was just an ordinary falcon, with no magic of his own. Honestly, Ezio had been a little worried about how Neil would find food at first. After all, almost everything living in the Hogwarts forest was a Magical Creature. There were ordinary animals, of course, like sheep, rabbits, and wild boars, but they were all at the bottom of the food chain. Their fate was to be eaten.
But Neil was clearly no ordinary falcon. After making a contract with Ezio, he had also gained a share of Ezio's magic. Compared to an ordinary falcon, Neil was smarter and stronger.
Like wizards' owls, these birds all had magic in them, the result of generations of breeding and domestication. Unlike ordinary owls, which slept by day and hunted mice at night, magical owls used as messengers were almost all active during the day. Magic had changed them.
"All right, I know you're very impressive." Ezio stroked Neil's little head as it kept nudging against him, then set him down on the ground.
With his chest puffed out, Neil hopped over to the Pygmy Puff. He pinned it down with his claws, tore open his prey with his sharp beak, and began to feast.
Neither Ezio nor Harry reacted to the rather bloody scene. To them, it was just a simple matter of feeding. Hedwig caught mice too, and Harry had seen it with his own eyes.
The Pygmy Puff looked pretty big, but it was all fluffy fur. Once that was removed, it looked a little like a bare hedgehog, no bigger than a palm. Given Neil's appetite, he'd need to catch at least one more.
Just as Neil was messily finishing his dinner, Hagrid's huge figure appeared at the edge of the Forbidden Forest.
"Come and take a look! I'm going to introduce you to Buckbeak... Oh, poor little puffball." Hagrid spotted the Pygmy Puff Neil had eaten clean, then grinned. "But that can't fill you up, can it, lad?"
As he spoke, Hagrid tossed over a freshly killed otter. Neil startled at the movement, but soon bounced over to it, delighted. The otter was about twice the size of a cat, enough to feed him for two meals.
"There's plenty more where that came from."
As Hagrid tossed the otter to Neil, the large creature behind him let out an indignant cry. It sounded a lot like an eagle's cry, but lower and much louder.
Neil grabbed the otter, beat his wings, and flew up to the shed behind Ezio.
"A Hippogriff?"
Ezio caught sight of the huge creature, most of whose body was hidden behind Hagrid. Buckbeak's head was like an eagle's, and his wingspan had to be over five meters.
"That's right, a Hippogriff. A beautiful little fellow, isn't he?"
Hagrid led Buckbeak to a spot three or four steps in front of them and stopped. He took several otters out of his enormous pockets and handed them to Ezio and Harry. "Hold on to these. In a minute, you can feed Buckbeak yourselves."
"He's really beautiful!" Harry struggled to lift the four plump otters Hagrid had handed him. Eyes wide, he looked at the "little cutie," whose white body was flecked with gray feathers. When Buckbeak raised his head and stood straight, his shoulder height was at least 1.8 meters. He was about the same size as a Shire horse.
"Buckbeak's the Hippogriff who's closest to me, and he's also the only white one. Most of these little fellows are brown, grayish brown, or black. White ones are rare."
"Come on, come on. Greet him first, or he might come over and snatch the otters out of your hands. They're one of their favorite foods."
"So what do we do?"
"Hippogriffs are proud creatures. If you want to be friends with one, you have to show it respect."
Hagrid knew these little cuties well. He'd only studied at Hogwarts for three years, but in his fifty years as a gamekeeper, he'd learned a great deal about Magical Creatures. Because of his position, Hagrid got along well with all the Care of Magical Creatures professors at Hogwarts, and they were happy to help him out when the occasion arose.
"Look them in the eyes, then bow. If they return the gesture, you're all set."
It sounded simple, and it really wasn't hard. Maybe because he was hungry, Buckbeak returned their bows at once, then happily devoured an otter in a single bite. He narrowed his eyes, enjoying the pleasure of having his feathers brushed.
Before long, Ezio and Harry had become fast friends with Buckbeak.
"Hagrid, how high can a Hippogriff fly?"
Ezio asked from the side. As things stood, the only way he could reach an altitude of ten thousand meters was with the help of a Magical Creature. He could sneak out and steal a plane or something, but the problem was that he couldn't fly one. Learning to fly a fighter jet would be far too much trouble. He was an assassin, not a guy who flew around dropping little boys from the sky... Though, come to think of it, dropping one of those things sounded pretty fun. His targets definitely wouldn't get away.
"How high can they fly?" Hagrid was stumped by the question. "Probably not very high."
He scratched his head and thought it over for a while. "Hippogriffs can fly, but they're a little clumsy compared to other flying creatures. Like Winged Horses, they have eagle-like bodies, but they're not good at hunting in the air."
"Could they fly to ten thousand meters?"
"What do you want to go that high for?" Hagrid asked in surprise.
"Just to see the world, I suppose. I'm not afraid of falling, either. I'm a wizard—I have magic."
"All right, but I still wouldn't recommend trying anything like that. Ten thousand meters... Just hearing it sounds frightening." Hagrid wasn't fond of flying high, even though he wasn't afraid of heights.
"But if there's anything that can fly to ten thousand meters, I'd say it's the Thunderbird. Hogwarts doesn't have one right now, though. Twelve years ago, there was one that flew here from America, but I couldn't find it a mate, so I had to watch it leave."
There was a trace of regret in Hagrid's voice. He'd rather liked that big bird that crackled with electricity. It felt all tingly when you touched it—great fun.
"Thestrals should be able to fly to ten thousand meters. They're extremely good flyers, with enough stamina to circle the world without landing. They're fast, too, and a great help to wizards traveling long distances. Professor Dumbledore sometimes rides one when he doesn't want to Apparate somewhere. They're much faster than a Flying Broomstick, and very steady."
"I keep a lot of them in the forest, but usually they just help pull Hogwarts' carriages and things. Thirty years ago, there were only a dozen or so of these little fellows. Now there are nearly two hundred. But most people can't see Thestrals."
"You have to witness death, right?" Ezio knew about Thestrals, of course.
"That's right." Hagrid sighed softly. "That's why those foolish wizards have such a bad impression of them. They say Thestrals symbolize death, that they're ominous, unlucky, evil creatures. But in reality, these little fellows are very gentle, extremely obedient, and very clever. You only have to tell them where you want to go. No matter where in the world you name, they'll find it. That's the magic of Thestrals."
Hearing this, Ezio's heart stirred. At that moment, more than anything, he wished a Thestral could take him to the place called "Twelve Moons."
If only it were that simple. Ezio sighed inwardly and reined in his thoughts, but he still planned to give it a try.
"All right, I think that's enough for today. It's getting dark, and it's time for dinner."
Hagrid clapped his hands to draw their attention. "Maybe next time you can try having Buckbeak take you for a flight. But it's late now, so you'd better get back to the castle and have dinner."
"Oh..." Harry said, disappointed. He gave Buckbeak's neck one last stroke, then rubbed against his big head. "I guess we'll have to see you next time, Buckbeak."
Buckbeak nudged Harry in the chest with his head. He liked Harry, who was so eager to brush his feathers and feed him.
The two said goodbye to Hagrid, then walked toward the castle with the sunset at their backs, chatting about what it would feel like to fly into the sky on Buckbeak another day.
After a simple dinner in the hall, Ezio vanished again. The others were used to it by now. They'd grown accustomed to watching him greedily devour knowledge, making the most of every minute. He was always in the library or on his way to practice.
Even people who couldn't stand him had no choice but to accept what he'd done in Slytherin. If they couldn't even keep up with him, what right did they have to open their mouths? They'd only humiliate themselves. Nobody wanted to be swept aside by someone's trash-disdainful glance, then kicked into a garbage pile for getting in the way.
But today, Ezio didn't go to the library or the Charms practice room. He slipped quietly out of the castle and crouched atop a tower, where the night wind swept over him.
Neil, now full from his meal, landed on his shoulder. Man and falcon watched the darkening sky and the Forbidden Forest, now sunk in darkness.
"Go on, Neil. Be my eyes. Find out where they are."
Neil beat his wings and vanished into the darkness ahead in an instant.
He didn't fly too low. Neil had seen what sorts of horrors were hidden in this seemingly ordinary forest. On his first day at Hogwarts, he'd nearly met with disaster: a spider bigger than a cow had shot webbing at him from the trees. If he hadn't reacted in time, he'd have ended up as spider poop.
Fortunately, his sharp eyesight let him keep a safe distance.
Neil glided over the treetops of the Forbidden Forest, about a hundred and fifty meters above them. His excellent low-light vision allowed him to see every detail even at night. The Thestrals Hagrid had trained also pulled Hogwarts' carriages, so they didn't live deep in the Forbidden Forest. Neil searched along several paths leading from behind Hagrid's Hut, and soon found what he was looking for.
About two hundred meters into the Forbidden Forest was a dry, flat patch of grass. A simple wooden fence enclosed a large area, and thick straw covered several places inside the pen, bearing the dents of something that had lain on it.
Only those who had seen death could see Thestrals, and that restriction applied not just to humans, but to Neil as well. But death wasn't limited to the deaths of humans. Fortunately, Neil was a loyal carnivore, a falcon who'd never eat grass to fill his belly. He spotted dozens of Thestrals, large and small, resting quietly on the ground. They were only part of the herd. When they weren't needed for work, they liked to wander through the Forbidden Forest. Few Magical Creatures could harm them. Thestrals had dragon blood in them and were astonishingly strong, capable of pulling several tons of weight through the sky. They were carnivores, too, with dragon-like teeth that could easily crush bones and tongues covered in backward-facing barbs.
Besides, Thestrals ate a lot without putting on weight, leaving them with skinny, skeletal bodies. The other predators in the Forbidden Forest weren't interested in such bony prey, and they had Hagrid to protect them. They'd never been bullied in the forest.
Neil found the Thestrals, but didn't leave immediately. Instead, he circled nearby for a while, finding a gift for Ezio to bring when he went to visit them.
After ending the shared vision, Ezio drew a beautiful broom from his belt pouch: his Nimbus 2000. Having already mastered the art of broomstick flying, he swung himself onto it and slipped lightly into the night.
When he reached the destination, he dismounted in midair and put the broom away as he fell. At the same time, a Broken Spear appeared in his hand.
The fall stirred a faint rush of air. A little deer resting in a hidden hollow awoke, instantly alert. Wild animals had sharper senses than humans, but just as it scanned its surroundings, preparing to flee, a shadow plummeted from the sky—the little deer was adorable, but now, it was adorably dead.
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