Chapter 55 - Time Turner (1/2)
After the practice game with Ireland team's reserve players are over and they returned to London, Kylan somehow found out their address and personally visited their home along with Steve.
After apologizing again, he said, ”Neal's ability is no doubt the main player quality but we also can't change the rules and let him participate in games. Instead, we can put him on the reserve players list for now and let him practice with the team until he's 14. How about it?”.
As Neal and the rest agreed to it, he and Steve returned to the ȧssociation. Later, they called the Daily Prophet for an interview to publish the news of recruiting the youngest chaser in their history.
Seeing the news made Ron certainly unhappy and as for Harry, he didn't care about it as he was already unhappy on Hermoine who told Prof. McGonagall about him getting a Firebolt. She confiscated the broomstick to check if there are any jinxes.
After the vacation is over, Hagrid requested Neal just like Hermoine asked him to do. After hearing everything, Neal thought for a while and said, ”no, it won't work, Hagrid because Draco's father hates Dumbledore more than he loves his son.
Since Dumbledore protected you from going to Azkaban, even though it's only for a week or two at most, he'll at least make sure to kill Buckbeak to satisfy his ego. But I can't let an innocent magical creature die too.
Hmm, say, how about this. I shall take Buckbeak with me. Inform them that it ran away. Since the hearing about it hasn't been concluded, they'll think that you helped it escape and will try to punish by firing you. But I think, I can write a letter to Mr. Lucius and request him to reduce your punishment a little bit”.
Hagrid grabbed his hands, ”thank you, Neal. As long as I don't end up in Azkaban, I will accept any kind of punishment”. Neal replied, ”relax, they won't fire a teacher in the middle of a term and also I'm not doing it for free.
I want twice the amount of monthly supplies as a fee and every month you should also add food supplies for Buckbeak with the usual I buy. You should know how I should also feed Buckbeak from now onwards”.
Hagrid nodded, ”sure, as long as Buckbeak stays alive”. The next day, both of them walked towards the place where Buckbeak is being guarded by two guards who seemed very muscular like trolls. Although comparing to Hagrid, they are still cute to look at. While Hagrid distracted them by telling things like Buckbeak's food habits, Neal slowly flew and landed behind it with his flying shoes. He stroked its beak, ”I'm here to free you, buddy”.
Soon, as the matter reached the Ministry in a couple of hours, Hagrid thanked Neal for rescuing Buckbeak. Neal then said, ”I'll write a letter to Lucius Malfoy about it today. Don't worry, if worst happens, I can just bring back Buckbeak at any time”.
As he returned to his hut, Hagrid saw the trio began waiting for him. When they saw him in high spirits, they asked, ”what happened, Hagrid?”. He replied, ”I followed your advice, Hermoine. I asked Neal about it. He accepted my request.
He just sent Buckbeak to a safe place and promised me that he would write a letter to Malfoy. As they felt suspicious about it, Ron asked, ”where did Neal send it?”. Hagrid replied, ”I'm not sure exactly but I'm certain that it is a safe place”.
Then, Harry questioned him, ”but how do you know whether Buckbeak will be safe there?”.
Hagrid then slipped his tongue, ”of course he will be. There ain't a no better place to hide it than Neal's magical suitcase. Oops. I shouldn't have said that”. ”A what?”. When the trio asked him, Hagrid shook his head, ”nothing. Don't ask about it. You should return now. I have work to do”.
As the trio returning, Ron asked, ”did he say something about some magical suitcase?”. Hermoine nodded, ”yes. He implied that Buckbeak is hiding inside Neal's magical suitcase”. Harry then stopped, ”wait a second”.