'Forever.'

4

I walked down to a little hut by the forest with Malfoy, neither of us talking much. It was so quiet that I could hear the sound of Crabbe's heavy footsteps and Goyle cracking his knuckles. When we finally reached the area of the class, I moved away from them and propped myself on a tree.

Soon, lots of people began to arrive and I saw Malfoy approaching Harry. A crowd was starting to form around them, everyone eager to see if they would fight. I edged a bit closer and got a good view just in time to see Malfoy's face form into a terrified whimper.

"Dementor, dementor!" he yelled, pointing behind Harry.

I turned along with a lot of other people, but heard laughs from behind me and rolled my eyes. Malfoy put on the hood of his robes and wiggled his fingers mockingly. My lips formed a grudgingly amused smile as I realised it really was quite funny. I couldn't help but want to cheek him, just to see what he would say.

"Is this meant to be some kind of statement? Because we all knew you can't tell the difference between a Dementor and a tree, Malfoy ," I joked.

The ginger boy next to Harry let out a loud snort and did not bother to hide it. I smiled sheepishly as Malfoy looked at me.

"I'm tired and couldn't see well ," he answered, "You know, because a certain someone followed me down a whole floor and all the way to the common room. Took a while to shake them off. Isn't that right, Diggory?"

I shrugged nonchalantly as I felt myself cringe. It sounded so much worse when he put it like that, but that was what he was aiming for, I suppose.

Finally, the professor came and drew the attention away from me. He was really tall and quite intimidating at first. However, as he continued teaching, I noticed he seemed quite nervous and glanced at a couple students for support. I had heard it was his first lesson and I suppose that's why he was a bit nervous.

"C'mere then, you lot!" Hagrid said as he began to walk in the direction of the forest.

"He's not... making us go in?" I heard Malfoy say behind me, "Wait 'til my father hears about this!"

Everyone else seemed quite worried as well, the forest had always been rumoured to have lots of dangerous things. After all, it was forbidden for a reason. We all hung back awkwardly, wondering where Hagrid was heading. To our relief, Hagrid only went up to a tree and seemed to be trying to bring something to us.

"Gather 'round, gather 'round!" Hagrid said, "Beautiful, aren't 'ey?"

I looked at the creature in front of me and blinked. It was very odd to look at but I understood why Hagrid saw them as beautiful. The creature had horse-like features but with a head of an eagle and wings covered with amazing white and grey feathers.

Hagrid began to explain how to introduce yourself to a hippogriff and the safety procedures, before splitting us up into pairs so we could try for ourselves. Somehow, I ended up with Malfoy, who had been snickering and messing around throughout the entire talk Hagrid gave us on what to do. We ended up with Buckbeak, the hippogriff that had been out at first.

"You try first, I'll stand here to step in if it doesn't work ," I said.

Malfoy stood in front of Buckbeak and bowed. He stood there unblinking, looking almost bored as Buckbeak watched him carefully. At last, Buckbeak sank into a bow and Malfoy moved to stroke him.

"Yes, you're not dangerous at all, are you, you great ugly brute!" he laughed.

"Malfoy don't-" I warned.

Without warning, Buckbeak threw himself up to his hind legs and slashed at Malfoy with him talons. Screaming, Malfoy attempted to shield himself with his arm and fell down in pain.

"Buckbeak! Whoa!" Hagrid said, trying to push past the small crowd of students watching in horror.

Quickly, I stepped in front of Buckbeak, remembering Hagrid had said they wouldn't harm people who had not harmed them. Without blinking, I quickly sank into a bow, hoping that this would work. Buckbeak stood there for a few dreadful seconds, before finally bowing down as well. I sighed in relief as I turned to look at Malfoy.

"It's killed me, it's killed me!" he yelled, rolling on the floor in agony.

Hagrid finally managed to get through and quickly picked Malfoy up, his face pale with shock. He looked at him with concern, his eyes widening as he saw the cut.

"Y-Yeh'll be fine... let's get yeh to the hospital wing ," Hagrid said, "Everyone else, stay 'ere, alright? Yes, you too, Crabbe! Y-Y/N, yeh'd better come too, jus' to check yer fine."

I nodded faintly and followed them up to the castle. I grimaced as I heard Malfoy continuing to groan with pain. 

When we arrived at the hospital wing, Madam Pomfrey, the nurse there, began to start healing Malfoy. Pale and weak, Hagrid muttered something about checking up on the other students and left, leaving me with Malfoy and Madam Pomfrey. It seemed stupid to tell her that Hagrid had told me to be checked on when Malfoy had been attacked with talons.

"You tell me if his arm gets worse, dear ," Madam Pomfrey said briskly.

I watched her leave to another room in silence, before looking at Malfoy awkardly.

"Your arm alright?" I asked.

"What do you think, Diggory, I just got attacked by a hippogriff!" he said angrily, "Wouldn't have happened if you had just 'been there to step in' like you said you would!"

I had been pretty sympathetic throughout the entire journey to the hospital wing, only laughing once when Malfoy had howled dramatically about how his arm would have to be amputated. But as he said that, my sympathy was replaced with frustration and I quickly showed it.

"Me?" I said, "You're the one who was stupid enough to insult a hippogriff! And I said I would step in, Malfoy, which I did, not risk my life by attacking Buckbeak away from you!"

"Bet you thought you were heroic, didn't you, Diggory?" he snorted, "Stepping in to bow at the hippogriff. Gonna brag about that forever."

"Last time you insulted someone it didn't end up very well for you, Malfoy, so I would shut up if I were you ," I muttered, "You would think being attacked by something you called 'not dangerous' would be humbling enough."

Malfoy rolled his eyes but did not say anything. He shifted onto his uninjured arm slightly to look at me properly.

"Why are you still here?" he asked.

I was surprised to hear that his tone sounded confused and genuine, not the usual annoyance or teasing.

"Hagrid told me to, didn't he?" I said.

"Worried about me, Diggory?" he said, his usual mockful air coming back again. His smile widened playfully and he tilted his head to the side.

"Yeah, Malfoy. That'll happen."