Let's Ride Buckbeak Together

In their third year, Hagrid became the Care of Magical Creatures teacher.

Early autumn sunlight filtered through the treetops at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, scattering dappled golden light across the grass.

Buckbeak held his proud eagle head high, his amber eyes sparkling in the sunlight and his steel-blue feathers rising and falling gently with each breath. Hagrid stroked his neck feathers with a great, rough hand, his face glowing with pride.

"Who'd like to try riding this gentleman?" Hagrid's booming voice echoed through the crowd.

Harry stepped forward by reflex.

The Gryffindor students around her expressed their admiration for her courage.

Harry's mouth twitched.

In her previous life, that disloyal bunch had stepped straight back after Hagrid called for volunteers, leaving him standing there to be pressed into service. Fortunately, the experience afterward hadn't been bad; she had never forgotten what it felt like to soar on Buckbeak's back. She still remembered it clearly: the exhilaration of wind sweeping through her hair and the breathtaking sight of clouds spreading out beneath her feet.

"Ha! Knew you'd step up!" Hagrid laughed so hard his beard shook. "Come and have a look at this little beauty. Isn't he gorgeous?"

She was just about to move forward when a platinum-haired figure suddenly blocked her path. Draco Malfoy held his chin high, but his pale face and trembling fingers betrayed how he really felt.

"I-I'll go first." His voice was eight octaves higher than usual. "Potter's a girl. She can't possibly be as brave as a boy."

Harry raised an eyebrow.

She had remembered for years how terrified Malfoy had been after Buckbeak attacked him in her previous life. How had she never noticed back then that he had it in him to play the hero?

Didn't the Malfoy family put their own safety first, with everything else coming second?

"Move," Harry said bluntly, casting a disdainful glance downward. "Your legs are shaking."

The tips of Draco's ears immediately turned red, but he stubbornly stood his ground. "My father said a gentleman should protect girls."

Hagrid stroked his beard and looked at the two of them facing off, then suddenly grinned. "How about this? You two can go together! Buckbeak can carry two young wizards with room to spare!"

He's such a straight man, a hopeless straight man! No wonder he's still single!

Hermione shouted inwardly, without realizing that she had just insulted most of the professors at Hogwarts.

Before Harry could object, Draco's face had already turned as red as an apple.

He stole a quick glance at Harry, then pretended to cough twice. "S-Since the professor says so... we might as well go together, Potter."

His outstretched hand stopped in midair, his fingertips trembling slightly. It was impossible to tell whether he was afraid of the Hippogriff or afraid that Harry would refuse.

Harry didn't take his hand. She looked at Draco for a long moment, then sighed.

Buckbeak stamped a claw impatiently.

"All right." Harry finally sighed and grabbed Draco by the wrist. "But if you move around, I'll throw you off."

Draco looked as though he had been hit with a pie and choked on it at the same time, his gray-blue eyes wide and round. After Harry and Buckbeak bowed to each other and she swung deftly onto his back, Draco scrambled up after her, nearly stepping on his wing.

"Hold tight around my waist," Harry said without looking back. Though she didn't much like Draco, she didn't want the young master falling off Buckbeak either.

Draco's indignant voice came from behind her. "I certainly won't!"

Buckbeak had already spread his enormous wings and soared into the air amid a chorus of gasps from the students.

Draco's arms shot around Harry's waist, his warm chest pressed tightly against her back.

Sunlight pierced the clouds, casting the shadows of the two riders and the creature onto the outer wall of Hogwarts Castle.

On the ground, Pansy Parkinson was stamping her feet in anger, while Ron and Hermione gazed upward. Ron's expression was hard to make out, but Hermione's face was full of worry.

Hagrid's first lesson went very smoothly, but the moment the bell rang, Pansy Parkinson and two Slytherin girls blocked Harry's path.

Her fingers, painted with dark purple nail polish, twirled a lock of black hair, and her lips were pressed into a spiteful curve.

Hermione immediately stepped in front of Harry, her bag strap still dangling from her elbow.

"Move, Mudblood." Pansy gave Hermione a look of disgust, as though she were looking at rubbish. "I'm talking to Potter. It's not your place to interrupt."

At the insult to Hermione, both Ron and Harry's expressions darkened. Ron pulled out his wand, pointed it at Pansy, and warned, "Say that word again and see what happens-"

Pansy covered her mouth in an exaggerated gesture. "Oh, the Weasley brat's here to defend his master too?"

She tilted her head toward Harry, who was standing behind the other two. "Those two dogs Potter keeps are certainly loyal."

Harry's wand had already slid into her palm, its tip pressed against Pansy's silver-and-green tie at her collarbone. "Apologize."

"Why should I?"

Pansy suddenly let out a shrill laugh. "Who do you think you are? The Girl Who Lived?" Her voice rose sharply, drawing passing students to a halt. "You're just a lucky, scheming bitch! All that happened was your Mudblood mother died in your place-"

A sharp slap cracked through the corridor.

Hermione's hand was still suspended in the air, and bright red finger marks quickly appeared on Pansy's face. The surroundings fell so silent that a coin dropping to the floor could have been heard.

"Lily and James Potter were heroes." Hermione's voice was colder than Arctic ice, the tip of her wand pressed against Pansy's throat. "And you, Pansy Parkinson, are a pathetic wretch who only thinks she's noble."

She spoke faster and faster. "If You-Know-Who came back and saw what you're like, he'd probably wipe out your stupid Parkinson family while he was at it, because you're so stupid you don't even deserve to be called human!"

Ron's mouth fell wide open.

Harry wasn't quite as exaggerated as Ron, but she wasn't far behind. She drew her neck in and didn't dare say a word.

"As for your parents," Hermione added, delivering the final blow, "if they'd known they were going to have a daughter like you, they wouldn't have needed to wait for the Death Eaters to act. They'd have stuffed you back into the womb themselves."

Pansy's face went from red to white, then green.

She staggered back two steps, her lips trembling, but she couldn't speak. Finally, she fled amid the snickers of the watching students.

The entertainment had run away on its own, so the students who had gathered to watch went back to their own business.

When Hermione turned around, she found Harry and Ron staring at her as though she were a monster. Ron even took half a step back without realizing it.

"What?" Hermione tucked a stray curl behind her ear, her tone suddenly returning to its usual gentleness. "We'll be late for our next class."

She strode toward the Marble Staircase. Harry and Ron exchanged a glance and followed without a word, maintaining a subtle safety distance between them, wide enough to fit another Hermione.

At the corner, Draco Malfoy poked his head out from behind a suit of armor, the shock in his gray-blue eyes lingering for a long time.

He watched the three of them walk away and silently swallowed.

Thank goodness, thank goodness he had never insulted Granger in his efforts to win Potter over. With that fighting prowess, she wasn't much less formidable than his own mother in a rage.