ALL NOVEL Chapter 20: Ch:20
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Most of the class seemed to agree with Ron and were treating Harry like he was a dead man walking. Luckily Professor McGonagall dispelled most of that when she revealed during their next class that Tralawney predicted the deaths of at least one new student every year and so far none of them had died. Harry guessed that McGonagall and Trelawney didn't get along well with each other.
Harry's next new class was care of magical creatures with his old friend Hagrid. Hagrid was the first person that had ever treated Harry with any kindness or respect. Harry loved him for that and would always stand by his side.
Harry drew quite a few eyes with his monster book perched on his shoulder, occasionally affectionately nuzzling at him. Most everyone else had their books chained, or strapped closed. Harry had told Ron and Hermione about how to open their books by tickling their spines, though Ron hadn't believed him.
"Come on, come on." Hagrid urged everyone on to a pen set out behind his hut near the edge of the forest. "Got a special lesson to start ya all off with. These creatures are a bit advanced so pay close attention and be careful. Now open yer books-"
"How?" Draco Malfoy interrupted with a sneer. Harry and Draco had never gotten along well with each other. Harry had rejected Draco's friendship when he realized the man was a stuck up overinflated git who looked down on people just because of who their parents were. So far this year Draco had spent the last few days implying that Harry had fainted just because a dementor had come close to him. Which was partially true. But Draco was such a coward he couldn't stand to spend more than a few minutes in the forbidden forest and ran at the first sign of trouble.
"Couldn't you even figure that much out Malfoy?" Harry shot back, "Just stroke the book like you would any pet. Honestly if you can't even handle a book I don't know what you're trying to do training magical beasts."
"Don't be that mean Harry." Hagrid tried to calm Harry down, but Harry really wasn't having it. He never had much patience for Draco's nonsense and even less so these days. "But there are quite a few tricks to figure out about those books. It looks like Harry's already figured out a few of them. Fur instance you can get the book to open by tickling their spines. Once the book likes you it can actually find topics fur ya just by asking it."
"I encourage all of ya to try and get to know those books and their secrets." Hagrid encouraged them as people began stroking their books to open them up. "Them books got tricks to em, just like any magical creature out there. Tricks that if ya learn can make even the most nasty and dangerous seeming beasty into a lifelong companion. I been working with dangerous beasts for longer than most folks been alive and I'm still alright cause I treated em all with respect, learned their tricks and kept em in my mind while dealing with em. Treat them books with respect and care and ya might just get a faithful and useful companion out of it."
"This all would be so much easier with a normal book I could just read without having to worry about my fingers." Draco complained. "What possible use for a book could there be besides reading it?"
Harry clicked his tongue to get his own monster book's attention, shook his head in Draco's direction and said, "Sic em."
The monster book leapt from Harry's shoulder where it was perched and cleared a good ten feet by flapping its cover to stay airborne before it hit the ground. With a second bound it was on Draco before the blond boy could even get his wand out. With a snap it closed on his robes, latched in place and swung Draco around with its momentum dragging him to the ground while Draco gave a quite unmanly cry of fright and put his hands around his face to shield himself.
Hagrid gave a loud whistle which made all the monster books freeze and turn their attention towards him. The giant man gave another signal with two quick claps of his hand, one quite high pitched the other very low. At the signal all the books snapped shut and went still, though Harry's made its way back to his side before it did so. Esharry noted that Hagrid had some tricks of his own for the books which even Harry hadn't worked out yet.
"Bad form Harry." Hagrid scolded, though Harry thought he might be one step short of laughing. "I think I'll have to take a few points from Gryffindor over that. No attacking other students with yer school supplies."
"Sorry Hagrid." Harry apologized.
"Right that settles that then." Hagrid nodded in acceptance. "Where was I? Ya got yer books, now ya need the magical creatures to go with 'em. I'll go get 'em."
Hagrid vanished for a moment but soon returned bringing a number of strange horse-like creatures with him. They had the back ends of horses, with fur, tails and hooves, but their front ends were like those of some great bird. With great wings, claws on their forelimbs, beaks on their faces and feathers on their chests. Hagrid chained most of them up to posts in his paddock, but he led one of them over to the group.
"Hippogriffs." Hagrid declared. "If ya look in yer books you'll see they are rated as a five on the danger scale, just one below a manticore, same as a proper griffin. And they deserve it too. Their claws can do a real number on ya and they can be quite fierce. But as I said there's a trick to em, and if ya know it they'll never be a threat to ya."
"There's this thing called the laws of hospitality." Hagrid went on. "Means being polite, respectful, complementary and a good guest. And as long as someone is that way ya have to take care of em, so long as they stay with ya. Lots of fey, most elves and quite a lot of creatures abide by them rules, so ya should learn em when ya got the chance. Hippogriffs follow something like em."
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