Кассандра Клэр - Draco Sinister

"Itś from Narcissa," said Sirius, when he had finished, and handed the letter over to Lupin. "She wrung some information out of that demon, apparently. Nothing too useful, though."

Lupin, having scanned the letter, was about to reply when a large shadow blotted out what little light the weak sun had been casting on the parchment. He looked up, and saw the circling form of a huge animal circling down towards them — the body of a horse, ornamented by the wings and head of an eagleś and a lionś thrashing tail.

"Buckbeak?" he demanded, turning to Sirius. He recognized the hippogriff, of course, he had seen Sirius ride him before, and remembered him from the time he had lived tethered outside Hagridś hut at Hogwarts. He had never gotten too close to him, though, for very good reasons. "Sirius…"

The hippogriff landed on the grass just ahead of them, and strode over to Sirius. Buckbeak was a beautiful animal, his dark gray coat blending into tawny plumage at the wings, his eyes gleaming and bright. He ducked his head against Siriusśhoulder, and Sirius was about to reach up and stroke his feathered head when he saw that the hippogriff had stiffened and was staring past him, eyes narrowed.

A low rumble rattled in Buckbeackś throat, and he started to back away. "Beaky, what..?" Sirius began, turning to follow the anxious hippogriffś gaze.

He saw Lupin, standing with his arms folded, his robes swirling about him in the stiff wind like black, folding wings. He shook his head a fraction. "Sirius. Itś me."

"Ligatus," said Sirius, holding out his wand. A silver rope sprang from the end of it. One end wound itself around Buckbeakś neck; the other hardened and reshaped itself, becoming a handle in Sirius´ fist. Gripping the hippogriffś leash firmly, he turned back to look at Lupin. "What do you mean itś you?"

"He senses I´m a werewolf," said Lupin, looking tensely at Buckbeack. "Heś afraid of me."

'Afraid of you? No offense, but if it came to hand-to-beak combat, I think he could take you."

"That doesn´t matter. Heś part horse. Horses hate wolves. Itś in their blood."

Sirius stroked a hand down Buckbeakś neck. The hippogriff stood rigid, every inch of his body tensed as he glared at Lupin. "Horses also hate lions, and heś part lion. You´d think he´d be a little more tolerant. I know animals don´t like you, but I thought — a magical creature like Buckbeak — I mean, you can handle grindylows — "

"Those are dark creatures. Buckbeakś a magical animal, created from other animals, his has an animalś instincts. He doesn´t know what to make of me. I don´t look like I´m anything more than human- but I´m not, and he senses that."

Sirius shook his head. "You are human."

"I´m not, you know," Lupin said, patiently.

Sirius looked at him hard.

"Maybe I don´t want to be, either," he added.

"Maybe you don´t." Sirius rested his head briefly on Buckbeakś side, then raised his eyes. "But you still have to get on this hippogriff with me. I don´t see another way for us to get where we´re going. You know the way, but we can´t Apparate. I´m sure there are wards up all around the castle, we´ll get splinched for sure."

Lupin shook his head, and took a step towards Sirius.

Buckbeak reared back, nearly knocking Sirius over. Sirius ducked out of the way, narrowly avoiding behind smacked in the face with one of the hippogriffś wildly beating wings. "Beaky!" he snapped, yanking hard on the rope that tied him to the hippogriff. "Buckbeak!

Settle down!"

Buckbeak didn´t look like he wanted to settle down. He continued to plunge and rear, eyes rolling wildly. Lupin didn´t come any closer, but stood where he was, not moving.

"Buckbeak," said Sirius again, his voice low and soothing, pulling the hippogriff towards him by the chain he had conjured. Lupin watched, feeling apprehension curdling in the pit of his stomach. It was simply a fact that he had grown to accept, that animals loathed him. After he had been bitten, his family had had to get rid of all their pets, their cats and dogs, even the rabbits in the outside hutch would wince and huddle away from him when he passed by.

There had always been werewolf clans in the woods near where he had lived as a child, which was how he came to be bitten in the first place. He remembered one of the elders telling him when he was a child, You are outside the world now, not of it. Animals will shun you, knowing what you are, and silver, the blood of the earth, will reject you. Wherever you go the earth will try to heave you off its face, for you are an unnatural thing and the earth hates that which is outside its nature.

"We could just Summon our broomsticks," he pointed out, speaking very quietly, although he knew it was no use, as it never was any use when Sirius got a bee in his bonnet about something.

"Buckbeak…is…faster," panted Sirius, still holding the hippogriffś leash tightly. He reached out and firmly stroked the plumage at the side of the animalś neck, and chucked Buckbeak under the chin.

Very slowly, after repeated cajoling and stroking, Buckbeak had calmed down enough to rest his head on Siriusśhoulder, although his tail still lashed from side to side.

Sirius turned around, his black hair pasted to his forehead with rain, and held out a hand to Lupin. "Come on, Remus," he said.

Lupin approached slowly, remembering suddenly and not without amusement the bandages Draco had worn on his arm for a ridiculously long time during third year, after Buckbeak had injured him. Well, any animal willing to bite Draco the way he had been back then couldn´t be all bad. He reached out and laid a hand against Buckbeakś flank. The hippogriff flinched, his skin rippling under Lupinś touch, but he did not move away.

Lupin raised his eyes and saw Sirius, looking done in but grinning at him all the same, his eyes sparking. "See?" he said, catching his breath. "Easy."

Lupin didn´t say anything. He let Sirius help him up on Buckbeakś back and sat still while his friends clambered up behind him. He could feel the hippogriffś skin writhing and twitching where he touched it and knew that Buckbeak suffered him as a rider only out of love for Sirius. Which wasn´t the worst reason, he supposed, to suffer anything.

"Harry?"

"Yes?"

"Are you going to wear that Charm, or not? Itś not safe, just holding it like that."

Harry was silent. Hermione gazed at him, full of anxious curiosity.

Still chained to the wall, Harry had managed to wriggle around so that his bound wrists were in front of him, rather than in back. He still looked uncomfortable, but slightly less so. She looked down at her hand where it was wound together with his, resting on his knee.

His other hand held the Epicyclical Charm, the charm gripped in his fist, the gold chain threaded through his fingers. As if he neither wanted to let go of it, nor knew what to do with it.

She glanced over and looked at Ron, who was leaning against the wall near the entrance to the cell, flipping through a book he´d found tucked between the cushions of one of the sofas pressed against the wall. It looked like it was entitled How To Be Evil, by Steve The Third. That can´t be much of a distraction from his anxiety about Ginny, she thought. She would have liked to go over and offer him consolation or company, but she could tell that he wanted to be left alone, and anyway Harry needed her more at the moment.

She fought down her feelings of panicky anger. What was Ginny thinking, she thought in despair. She tried to be charitable. Well, if it had been Harry, she would have gone after him without thinking, wouldn´t she? Of course, Ginny couldn´t possibly love Draco as much as Hermione loved Harry. She barely knew him. She didn´t even know him as well as Hermione did, didn´t love him like…well that was an unproductive line of reasoning. And wouldn´t bring Ginny back, either.