House: Gryffindor
Position: HoH
Category: Drabble
Prompt: [Speech] "You weren't supposed to see that,"
Word Count (excluding header and AN): 570
Beta: Tigger
AN: Barbaby is a character from Hogwarts Mystery. For this competition, we were not supposed to use HW characters, so I included him only as a background character in this story. Tigger (Gryffindor's wonderful Head Girl) is hooked on Barnaby so this is a nod to her. Also, I realize that Hagrid is Keeper of Keys, but Filch has a massive key ring.
Charlie trudged down the hill to the Care of Magical Creatures paddock at the edge of the Forbidden Forest. He was supposed to meet up with his friend Barnaby, but the Slytherin had ditched him to spend time with his new girlfriend. Charlie couldn't begrudge him too much; she was pretty great.
Professor Kettleburn was at St. Mungo's again dealing with relatively severe Fire Crab burns and had asked his favorite students to feed the pack of Crups. Charlie would just make sure that Barnaby took his turn tomorrow.
He expected the paddock to be vacant, so he was surprised to find Hagrid attempting to climb a massive Wiggentree.
"Hagrid?" Charlie called. "What are you doing?"
"Ooof!" Hagrid said as he slid down the trunk of the tree, hitting the ground hard. "Whatter ye doin' here? You weren't supposed to see that."
"See what?" Charlie asked. "Why were you climbing a tree?"
"Well, ye see," Hagrid said, blushing, "I may have borrowed one of the school Bowtruckles ter get me outta a little jam. And now I can't get him ter rejoin his family." Hagrid pulled apart his bushy beard to reveal a small green creature nested there.
Charlie hurried over and began trying to coax the Bowtruckle from his temporary home. "Why did you borrow a Bowtruckle?"
Hagrid sighed. "I was cleaning up after the most recent Quidditch match and putting the trunk of balls away in the storage room. Ye know the one with the wonky lock? Well, I accidentally locked the door."
"So you borrowed a Bowtruckle to pick the lock?" Charlie followed the train of thought. "Why didn't you just ask Filch for the keys?"
"Um— Well—"
"Hagrid?"
"I wasn't payin' attention when I locked the door. I didn't know until the door was shut and I heard the hissin'."
Charlie drew back from his ministrations on Hagrid's beard. With trepidation, he asked, "You didn't?"
"I locked Mrs. Norris in the storeroom!" Hagrid cried. "I couldn't tell Mr. Filch! He'd hang me from the shackles in his office!"
Charlie seriously doubted that the chains would be strong enough to hold Hagrid's bulk, but had no trouble believing that Filch would viciously punish Hagrid for the silly, harmless mistake. "Did the Bowtruckle get the door unlocked?"
"Yeah, he did. But Mrs. Norris was mad that she'd been shut up in the room and she tried ter eat the poor Bowtruckle. He took refuge in my beard and doesn't want ter leave now."
Charlie chuckled. "Well, I can't get the little guy to budge on my own. Have you tried bribing him? They love fairy eggs and Professor Kettleburn keeps a jar of wood lice so we can study them in class. Short of shaving off your beard, I think it's our only chance."
"Get the wood lice," Hagrid said.
Charlie retrieved the jar and laid a trail of wood lice from Hagrid's beard to the Wiggentree. Slowly, the Bowtruckle crawled out from the nest of hair, picking up lice as he went.
Both Charlie and Hagrid breathed a sigh of relief when the Bowtruckle rejoined his family.
"About what happened here today," Hagrid began. "It'd be best that ye don't mention it ter anyone. I don't want word ter get out that I borrowed one of Professor Kettleburn's creatures. Or that I locked Mrs. Norris in a storeroom."
"I didn't see anything," Charlie said with a wink.