The Tragic Tale of the Boy Who Lived and the Boy Who Wanted to Die [ON HIATUS]

“Shut up, Malfoy.” It came out harsher than he had intended, but it worked nonetheless. He really wanted Hagrid’s first class to be a success. He tried not to look at the hurt look on Malfoy’s face. He was probably just trying to make Harry feel bad, right? But something in the back of Harry’s mind disagreed.

“Right- who wants ter go first?” Hagrid asked. Harry realised he should have paid better attention. He got most of it- bow to the hippogriff, and be polite.

“I’ll do it.” Harry said, when he saw nobody else volunteer. He didn’t know what possessed him to say it, but he did. There were several gasps from behind him, while Lavender and Parvati whispered in sync,

“Oooh, no, Harry, remember your tea leaves!” Harry didn’t give a flying Firebolt about what they thought, he was going to do it anyway. He climbed over the fence and walked towards Buckbeak. He bowed slowly, maintaining eye contact. It seemed for a moment, as if he wouldn’t bow back. But then Buckbeak’s head bent down into what was unmistakably a bow.

“Well done, Harry! Right- yeh can touch him! Pat his beak, go on!” Hagrid looked ecstatic, on how well his first class was going. After Harry pat his beak, Hagrid suggested Harry ride Buckbeak. Why not, thought Harry. It couldn’t hurt, right?

Harry hoisted himself onto the hippogriff’s back, and Hagrid warned him not to pull out any feathers. Unfortunately for Harry, it seemed to be all feathers. Without warning, Buckbeak took to the skies. It was uncomfortable, but also oddly serene. He landed, and people started cheering. That lifted Harry’s spirits, which had been brought down during Divination.

Hagrid divided people off into groups, and Harry watched as a bunch of nervous faces bowed to the hippogriffs. He noticed Malfoy patting Buckbeak, looking as if he would rather be doing anything else. He looked, if possible, a bit scared. This intrigued Harry, as he had never seen him look like that before. Suddenly, Malfoy’s eyes met Harry’s, and they had a brief period of awkward eye contact. Then, Malfoy looked away, seemingly embarrassed. For a second, he was silent, before,

“This is very easy. I knew it must have been. I bet you’re not dangerous at all, are you? You great ugly brute.” Before Harry could even move, there was blood everywhere. Harry looked to the ground, in shock, at Malfoy’s arm. It was sliced open, and there was blood pouring out of the wound.

“It’s killed me, it’s killed me!” He cried, before going limp. Harry was afraid he had died.

“Yer not dyin’! Someone help me- gotta get him outta here-” Hagrid was extremely pale, and he lifted Malfoy off the ground with ease. He ran towards the castle with him, leaving a trail of blood in his wake.

Harry felt as if he wasn’t really there, as if he was watching it all play out from above. He couldn’t help but wonder if he had done something to make Malfoy act like that. He had seemed perfectly fine dealing with Buckbeak before Harry looked over. The Slytherin’s were all yelling about Hagrid.

“They should fire him straight away!” cried Pansy Parkinson tearfully.

“It was Malfoy’s fault!” snapped Dean Thomas, but Harry wasn’t very sure that was true.

He considered asking Ron or Hermione about it, but he could basically hear their responses.
“Bloody hell, Harry, don’t worry. Malfoy’s just being an idiot like always.” or “Honestly, I don’t know what he was thinking! Doesn’t he know it’s dangerous to provoke a hippogriff? You didn’t do anything, Harry.”

The Slytherins all started towards the dungeons, but Harry, Ron, and Hermione headed upstairs towards Gryffindor tower.

“Do you think he’ll be alright?” asked Hermione anxiously.

“Of course he will, Madam Pomfrey can heal cuts in about a second.” said Harry, who had much worse injuries healed by the nurse.

“That was a really bad thing to happen in Hagrid’s first class, though, wasn’t it? Trust Malfoy to mess it up for him.” said Ron. Harry was barely listening.

He wondered if they really would fire Hagrid. He really hoped they didn’t. He just couldn’t stand it if Hagrid got fired because of something he started.