Chapter 97 — An Ordinary Card

Animagus reading occupied parts of the day I had previously considered available for almost anything else. I made notes before breakfast and followed references between lessons. Once I spent so long on an incomplete reversal that Hermione found me at the same paragraph when she returned from another shelf.

She asked where I had stopped understanding it. I pointed near the top, and she called that honest before sitting down. We worked through the passage together, with me discovering that several of my questions were the same one in different words.

Hermione explained what she could and marked the places where neither of us knew enough. By the time we put the books away, I understood rather more about the gaps in my understanding. It was not the progress I imagined when I raised my hand in McGonagall’s class, but it gave the next session somewhere to begin.

Care of Magical Creatures promised something we could look at without consulting another book first. Ron qualified that hope as we walked down the lawn, depending on what Hagrid had chosen. His Monster Book remained firmly strapped beneath his arm, while Hermione carried hers with more care than affection.

She said Hagrid knew a great deal. Ron considered that the problem: he knew creatures most people preferred never to meet. I remembered Hagrid’s apology about Aragog and believed it, but also remembered the difficulty of explaining why an animal which listened to him might not listen to us.

I suggested asking what we would do before doing it. Ron wanted the question asked before anything chased us, a condition I could not dismiss. We reached Hagrid’s hut to find him in a coat somebody had made a serious effort to brush, glancing between the path and the trees.

He waved when he saw us and checked that we had our books. Students gathered while he waited for the rest, including Malfoy, who carried his volume away from his robes as though proximity alone might soil them. Crabbe and Goyle followed him onto the grass.

Malfoy noticed me looking and said this should be educational. I reminded him that it was the advertised purpose, then turned to Hagrid as Harry came beside me. Hagrid counted heads before asking us to check our books’ fastenings.

He demonstrated the stroke along the spine, opening his own copy across a broad palm. ‘Don’t just undo it and hope. Give it time to settle.’ A boy behind us released his strap too soon and dropped the snapping book with a shout.

Hagrid caught it before it reached anybody’s ankles. He calmed it, handed it back closed and asked the boy to try again while he watched. The second attempt succeeded, and seeing him wait until it did reassured me. I hoped the same principle would apply to whatever else he had prepared.

Before we left, I asked to use the lavatory. Hagrid pointed towards the hut and told me the class would wait in the clearing beyond the first trees, straight along the path. I promised not to wander and caught up after he had gone a short distance further to fetch the animal.

His voice came through the leaves ahead, low and encouraging. The class stood behind rope laid across the grass, and Malfoy was facing Harry when I came within sight. He stared past Harry’s shoulder and told him to look behind him.

Harry turned at once, followed by Ron. Malfoy made a rasping noise and lifted both arms while Crabbe and Goyle pulled their collars round their faces. Scattered laughter brought Harry slowly back towards them.

Malfoy asked whether he was still frightened. Harry told him to stop, and Hermione took his sleeve, reminding him that this was Hagrid’s first lesson. He glanced towards the path where Hagrid had gone instead of moving forwards, while Ron put his bag on the ground. I recognised that preparation well enough to quicken my pace.

Malfoy said they had brought something to help. Goyle produced a banana, which he took and touched with his wand until dark letters appeared along the skin: BANANA-BRAIN POTTER. He held it out so the others could read it, and began the rasping noise again.

In other circumstances I might have laughed at the effort such a stupid idea required. Instead I remembered Harry against the compartment wall, unable to speak, and our wait for his chest to move properly. I came up behind Malfoy and kicked him in the backside.

He stumbled, caught one foot against the other and fell hard on the grass. The banana stayed in his hand, and the laughter stopped while he scrambled up. Red-faced, he informed me that I had kicked him.

I said his powers of observation had survived. Crabbe moved towards me, then stopped when I turned enough to keep him in sight. Goyle looked between us and Malfoy, who told me to try again.

I preferred him to try being quiet. Harry had come closer, and Hermione looked at me with an expression I did not particularly want to examine. I had interrupted Malfoy as intended, but the clearing now watched the argument with more interest than before I arrived.

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Malfoy pointed the banana at me. ‘You think you can do whatever you like because everyone keeps making a fuss about you?’ I told him I thought he had heard Harry ask him to stop. He described me as brave for defending somebody from fruit.

I reached for the ordinary pack of cards in my pocket. His eyes followed my hand, and he began telling me what would happen if I used a spell on him. Hermione said my name sharply while Harry caught my other arm and asked me to leave it.

I turned the card so they could see its face. ‘Ordinary card,’ I said, showing the ace of hearts. Malfoy opened his mouth, and I threw before he spoke, aiming at the soft fruit extending beyond his hand.

The card struck, breaking off the end. A piece fell into the grass and the ace tumbled after it, one corner wet and bent. Nobody spoke while Malfoy examined what he still held; the final word of his message lay beneath him with the broken fruit.

Ron made a small involuntary sound behind me. I had practised throwing cards before I possessed paper which carried a spell, and an ordinary one could hit surprisingly hard. The ruined corner on the grass made it no less ordinary, however pleased part of me wanted to be about the throw.

I had also just sent it close to somebody’s hand because I was angry. Harry let go of my arm and asked whether I was finished, leaving me to hold Malfoy’s gaze for a moment before bending to pick up the ace.

I said yes. Hagrid’s voice came from behind us before anyone else could answer, demanding to know what was happening. He held a lead in one hand, a bag on his shoulder, with something large moving among the trees beyond him.

Malfoy said I had attacked him. Ron began explaining the dementor imitation and Harry’s request to stop, but Hagrid asked for one person at a time and looked towards me. I lifted the damaged card, then lowered it when I realised how little it explained.

I admitted kicking Malfoy and throwing the card at what he held, without a spell. Hagrid asked why, and I told him he had been mocking Harry’s experience on the train. His face tightened before he turned towards the other boys.

‘That stops now, all of it.’ He asked whether Malfoy was hurt, then had to repeat the practical question about standing and walking when Malfoy only said he had been kicked. Malfoy moved a foot and scowled, apparently able to do both.

Hagrid wanted a full account afterwards from everyone involved, and McGonagall would hear about it. He put us on opposite sides of the group. I went without arguing, followed by Ron with the bag he had retrieved from the grass.

Ron wanted to discuss the throw. I told him later, then repeated it when he began asking whether I could teach him. Across the clearing Malfoy shoved the remaining fruit into his bag while Harry glanced once towards me before giving Hagrid his attention.

I put the bent ace in a separate pocket. It had no place among my prepared paper, and I did not want the rest of the lesson occupied by admiring it. Hagrid checked that everyone stood behind the rope before stepping aside.

The creature at the edge of the trees came into view with an eagle’s head and a horse’s body. For a moment the shapes refused to belong together. Then it shifted, talons pressing into the grass beneath feathered forelegs, and folded its wings more closely over the place where one shape became another.

There was nothing awkward in its movement. Hagrid introduced Buckbeak as a hippogriff, and bright orange eyes examined us one by one without apparent interest in reassuring anybody. He took a dead ferret from his bag, which Buckbeak caught and swallowed.

Hermione stepped back. Hagrid asked whether he was beautiful, receiving no disagreement but no volunteers to approach either. I could see the attraction: Buckbeak was extraordinary, and Hagrid rested a hand against his neck with easy confidence.

That confidence was what I wanted him to remember we did not yet share. I asked what we would do, and he said we would watch first. Then anyone who wished could meet Buckbeak properly, with Hagrid beside them.

He demonstrated a slow approach. Buckbeak followed him with one eye as he explained the respect hippogriffs expected: no shouting, sudden rushes or insults. We were to stop when told, and if the animal did not accept an approach we would leave it there.

Ron leaned towards me with a hand on my shoulder while Hagrid showed the bow. He asked whether any card would work, or whether the throw required a particular one. I reminded him we should be watching, and we both looked up to discover that most of the class had moved further from the rope.

Buckbeak’s wings had prompted the retreat while we spoke. Hagrid smiled at the two of us still near the front and asked whether either wanted to try. Ron removed his hand from my shoulder before explaining that I had been asking about it.

I turned towards him slowly. He offered an apologetic smile and stepped back, leaving Malfoy to make an encouraging noise which contained no encouragement. Hagrid said we could watch longer if I preferred, giving me time to look from Buckbeak’s talons to his face.

I agreed to try the bow. Hagrid showed me where to stand, off to one side himself and close enough to reach Buckbeak without blocking the space between us. That space felt considerably larger once I stepped into it.

He told me to let Buckbeak look, then bow slowly. I bent forwards and waited, seeing the feathered forelegs and a patch of bare earth near one talon. Nothing happened for several seconds, and I wanted badly to straighten and inspect his expression.

Then his wings opened. Air caught my sleeves, and my hand went behind my back towards the pouch. I found a prepared strip by touch as Hagrid asked me to ease back one step and stay calm.

I moved as he instructed. Buckbeak made a sharp sound, somebody drew breath behind the rope, and Hagrid raised his free hand for quiet. The talisman lay between my fingers, offering less comfort than expected at that distance, with Hagrid close to the same talons I was watching.

Hagrid softly told me to look. Buckbeak lowered his head, and I waited for the confirming nod before straightening. My shoulders ached from keeping still, but the animal had answered the bow.

Harry began to clap and stopped at Hagrid’s glance towards Buckbeak, settling for a grin. Hermione withdrew her hand from Ron’s, and they looked in different directions as I turned back towards the animal. I slid the unused preparation into its place, keeping the damaged playing card separate.