When You Have a Hammer

Professor Lupin was sick and had taken leave. The news hit Harry like a bolt from the blue, leaving him utterly at a loss. He had been spending so much time with the professor lately that suddenly losing Professor Lupin caught him completely off guard.

Though he'd been warned in advance, he still found it hard to adjust when the news actually came true.

He wanted to visit Professor Lupin in his bedroom, but was told that he'd gone to Hogsmeade.

While Professor Lupin was away, they saw someone in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom whom they never wanted to see teaching them: their Potions professor, Severus Snape.

Snape stood at the front of the classroom in his usual robes. He looked over the students and gestured for them to take out their books, then said with a sneer, "Good. No need to look any further. Your Professor Lupin is sick, so I'll be teaching you for the next week or so.

"Let's see how far you've gotten.

"Oh, Giants.

"Look at what Lupin has been teaching you. How disappointing. His lessons are full of holes and utterly inadequate. I'm ashamed to teach at Hogwarts alongside a colleague like him."

He spoke spitefully.

Harry flushed. He knew Snape was mean, but he hadn't thought Snape could be this cruel.

"Professor Lupin's a great teacher! Much better than you."

Harry couldn't help retorting. He couldn't stand the contemptuous look on Snape's face, especially when it was directed at Professor Lupin.

Snape heard Harry's shout.

He stared straight at Harry, who stared right back without fear.

Snape gave a smile devoid of warmth, his lips curling as he pointed at Harry.

"Speaking without being asked. Ten points from Gryffindor!"

He shouted, then told the class to turn to the back of their books. "Today, we'll be studying Werewolves."

He said it with malice.

"And, Potter, if you speak to me like that again, you'll be in detention."

He threatened Harry.

Harry shook with anger.

Snape paid no attention to it.

His gaze passed over Harry, and he began the lesson.

"We've already learned this. The very first lesson Professor Lupin taught us was how to defend ourselves against werewolves," Ron muttered.

Snape heard him, but didn't react.

"Then we'll continue with this lesson! Just look at what Professor Lupin taught you. It was terrible. He left out a great deal of information."

Snape spoke. Under the desk, Hermione twisted her hands together anxiously, gripping them tightly.

She thought she understood what Snape was hinting at.

The Gryffindors had never thought a lesson could feel so long.

At last, the class ended.

Every student breathed a sigh of relief.

But Snape had no intention of letting them go. Seeing the young wizards relax, he raised his voice.

"Today's homework," Snape said cruelly, "is a two-thousand-word essay on werewolves: how they come about, their development, and how to kill them!

"I want to see your work before our next lesson."

With that, he strode away!

The poor students groaned all over the classroom.

Only Hermione looked thoughtful. She thought she understood why Snape had done this, and she was worried the other students might discover the secret too.

Professor Lupin was a good man.

As a Muggle-born witch, Hermione didn't share the deep-rooted hatred of werewolves that Pure-blood wizards had grown up with.

She wanted to keep this secret.

Hermione walked along, lost in thought and weighed down by worry, and heard Ron talking to Harry.

That state of affairs lasted until they went to Hagrid's Care of Magical Creatures lesson.

Thank goodness for Lupin. He'd repeatedly told Hagrid to take things one step at a time. "Don't let the children encounter Fantastic Beasts they aren't ready for, Rubeus. You know some people aren't happy with you teaching.

"Don't give them a reason to criticize you."

Hagrid had taken his advice to heart. For the past few days, Harry and the others had been learning how to feed Flobberworms.

But today, Hagrid still couldn't resist.

"Today, I'm going to show you something really special,"

he said mysteriously, completely ignoring the Slytherins' hisses.

"Shut up, Malfoy!"

Harry snapped at Malfoy. Malfoy sneered at him, unfazed.

Hagrid led the way, taking the students toward the Forbidden Forest. There were plenty of both boys and girls in the class. He brought them to the edge of the forest, where they met a Buckbeak—one of those fateful encounters, wasn't it?

Ahem. Buckbeak, a Hippogriff.

A bird of prey.

If it even counted as a bird.

It was obvious that the children shouldn't be around a Hippogriff. It was a dangerous beast, though Hagrid thought it was very gentle. From Hagrid's perspective, Aragog was adorable, baby Dragons were fascinating, and Hippogriffs naturally didn't count as dangerous creatures.

Compared to a Fire-Dragon, a Hippogriff was nothing.

"Oh!"

At the sight of the Fantastic Beast, not only the Slytherins but even Ron and Harry gasped in surprise.

The Hippogriff looked terribly threatening, with its huge eagle's head and sharp claws. "If that thing gets me once, I'm dead," Ron said.

Harry didn't know whether a swipe from the Fantastic Beast would kill someone, but he did know that they'd probably have to face the monster in class today.

The thought made his stomach churn too.

"Don't worry," Hagrid said with a foolish smile, watching the students retreat in fear. "Buckbeak's very gentle."

As it turned out, warnings couldn't prevent things from going wrong. Hagrid's personality, Malfoy's personality, and the nature of Fantastic Beasts all combined to produce a terrible outcome.

Hagrid had the students take turns approaching Buckbeak. Everyone did well, including some of the Slytherins.

Until it was Malfoy's turn.

Malfoy got into trouble.

He angered Buckbeak.

Buckbeak slashed at him with one claw, nearly disemboweling him.

It happened so fast that Hagrid couldn't react in time. He hadn't thought of any way to protect the students!

"No, Buckbeak!"

Hagrid rushed forward to calm the Fantastic Beast. The Slytherin girls screamed, and Hagrid went deathly pale, completely at a loss. Hermione ran over, saw Malfoy lying on the ground, and shouted, "Hagrid, quick! We need to get him to Madam Pomfrey!"

Hagrid was trying to calm Buckbeak. He half-forced the Hippogriff onto a tether tied to a wooden post and had no time to answer Hermione.

Malfoy groaned nonstop.

"I'm dying!"

He shouted, groaning again and again. "I'm dying! That beast's going to kill me!"

Ron couldn't hold back. He yelled at Malfoy, "Stop making such a fuss! If you hadn't provoked Buckbeak, it wouldn't have—"

Before Ron could finish, Goyle and Crabbe stood up, glaring at him.

The Slytherins shouted abuse at Hagrid, and some of it was directed at Ron too.

Ron didn't back down.

The scene descended into chaos.

"All right, stop shouting."

Harry was panicking too. He knew this was bad, especially for Hagrid. He knew Hagrid was in trouble—this was a teaching accident, and Malfoy had done it deliberately. Harry had met Malfoy's father, Lucius Malfoy. He seemed to have a lot of influence among the school governors.

This gave Harry an idea. Last year, Draco Malfoy's father and Minister Fudge had tried to send Hagrid to Azkaban.

Perhaps they could use this incident as an excuse to send Hagrid back to Azkaban.

He couldn't let that happen.

Harry thought.

Though Harry still didn't know what sort of crime could get someone sent to Azkaban, he knew how terrifying that prison was.

The disorderly noise around him made his head feel ready to burst.

Hagrid was trying to calm Buckbeak and make it stop thrashing. The screams around them made Buckbeak feel threatened too. The people who only screamed had no intention of helping Malfoy.

The commotion and shrieking around them only made Hagrid more agitated. He was still tying Buckbeak up, people were still screaming, and Hermione was jostled by several girls and stumbled to the ground!

"Enough!"

Harry suddenly shouted. Everyone around him jumped.

Even Hagrid looked over at him.

"Malfoy, stop shouting. I'm taking you to Madam Pomfrey!

"You'll be fine. You're not going to die. It was an accident."

As he spoke, he meant to wave his wand and move Malfoy the way he'd moved the wardrobe, but someone stepped in front of him and blocked his way.

She wasn't particularly pretty—a Slytherin. Sorry, Harry was just that shallow; he divided people into good-looking and not good-looking. She was Pansy Parkinson, a sharp-tongued girl who was often with Malfoy.

She spread her arms and blocked Harry, saying, "I can't let you take Draco. Everyone knows you and Draco—"

She kept babbling. Behind her, the Slytherins were blaming Hagrid, while Andy was defending him—"It's all Malfoy's fault." The whole scene was a mess, and Harry was in a terrible mood. He forced himself to stay patient and explained, "I said I'm taking him to Madam Pomfrey. She can heal Malfoy in no time."

He waved his wand, and Malfoy floated into the air. Hermione and Ron stared in amazement. Pansy screamed and drew her wand, apparently intending to threaten Harry into stopping.

"Stop! I don't trust you."

What happened next was so fast that even Harry himself didn't have time to react.

Dewey's training had worked. He thought that since Harry wasn't particularly smart, he could just do without thinking. He was good at tailoring his teaching to the person. For Harry, who didn't have much of a brain, that meant using his muscles.

If someone hit him, he hit them back. If someone pointed a wand at him, he disarmed them first. If it turned out to be a mistake, he could apologize afterward.

"Besides, you can't cast Unforgivable Curses, and you won't hurt them. Just remember to apologize. Only the living can apologize to people, Harry."

"Professor Lupin" said.

Seeing Pansy Parkinson draw her wand showed that all those days of tense training had paid off.

Before Harry could even react, Malfoy dropped to the ground, hurting him even more.

Harry had already acted.

"Expelliarmus!"

"Protego!"

"Stupefy!"

"Full Body-Bind Curse!"

His movements were simple and effective. Like water flowing, he knocked down three Slytherins. Pansy's wand flew high into the air and landed in Harry's hand. Goyle was hit by Stupefy and fell to the ground without a sound, his life unknown.

Crabbe, the biggest of them, was the unluckiest. He'd seemed the most threatening to Harry, so Harry had hit him with the Full Body-Bind Curse.

Harry had acted too quickly.

The other students hadn't had time to stop him. They barely had time to draw their wands.

Malfoy, who'd been groaning, saw what happened. His already pale face grew even paler.

"Are you going to kill me, Harry Potter?"

Malfoy asked in a trembling voice.

Harry looked around. Everyone was frightened, and no one dared meet his eyes.

"I'm just taking you to Madam Pomfrey. You're not going to die, so shut up."

Harry repeated himself to Malfoy, levitated Draco Malfoy again, and hurried toward the castle.

This time, no one dared to stop Harry Potter.

Only then did Hagrid react. He crouched to check on them. Pansy, who'd been disarmed, screamed and tried to shove Hagrid away, but he pushed her back. She got up and rushed after Harry.

Ron and Hermione came to their senses too and drew their wands.

"Stay away from Harry."

Ron shouted at Pansy, while Hagrid held back the students who were about to lose control.

Care of Magical Creatures was starting to look a lot like dueling practice.