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Chapter 7

Hagrid's Advice

Jessica heard the barking sounds of Fang, Hagrid's boarhound, as she neared the hut. She shoved her hands into her pockets and approached them. They were both in the small garden where Hagrid was spraying his pumpkins free of pests. The minute Fang saw her, he bounded for her. Jessica braced herself as Fang leapt onto her, attempting to lick her face.

"All right, Fang," she said, laughing as she struggled to push the massive dog off. "Yes, I missed you, too."

"Down, Fang!" Hagrid came out of the garden carrying Flesh Eating Slug Repellant. "All righ' there, Jessica?"

Jessica finally managed to push Fang off. "Hi, Hagrid. How's your pumpkin patch doing?"

"They'd be doin' much better withou' all the pests," he said as he led her around the back to a large fenced-in area, which held Cinnamon and Buckbeak. Jessica stood back a few feet and bowed low, keeping her eyes firmly on the light brown hippogriff. Cinnamon assessed her for a moment before dipping her large feathered head, her beak almost touching the ground. Jessica approached and lightly patted her neck while Hagrid disappeared to get the bottle.

"How are you doing, girl?" Jessica whispered soothingly before reaching down to give Buckbeak a few pats. The baby Hippogriff seemed to be in a playful mood this evening, for he kept trying to tug on Jessica's robes. Hagrid returned with a large bottle.

"How long until you think he'll be ready to fly?" Jessica asked, rubbing Buckbeaks neck while he suckled from the bottle.

"He's only abou' three to four weeks old. Hippogriffs normally firs' take flight at eight weeks."

Jessica continued feeding Buckbeak until the bottle was empty. "Where's Remus by the way?" Hagrid asked.

"He was feeling rather tired, so he couldn't make it." Jessica handed the bottle back to Hagrid.

"You don' sound too happy abou' it."

It amazed Jessica that Hagrid could be so observant at times. Many students thought him to be a bit slow, but he was actually quite intelligent. He'd always told her that she could talk to him about anything. But she really didn't want to talk about her problems. Instead, she tried to change the subject.

"Hagrid, why were you expelled?"

Hagrid suddenly looked uncomfortable. "Er...let's just say something happened that I was caugh' in the middle of."

Jessica had a small feeling that there was more to the story than Hagrid was letting on. She wished she was more like Dorcas or Sophia, and could nag him until he gave in. After Jessica helped Hagrid clean out the pen, she joined him in his hut.

"How abou' some brandy?" he offered.

Jessica bit the inside of her cheek nervously. "Er...I don't exactly drink. It...does things to me."

"Fine, fine. Then how abou' a spot of tea?"

"That would be fine." She sat down in one of the large chairs near the fireplace. The hut was cozy and warm. There were times when when Jessica preferred its simplicity to the vast complexity of the school with its moving staircases, secret rooms, and doors that led nowhere. She accepted her cup of tea and sipped, wincing as the liquid burned her tongue.

Hagrid offered her a large tray of biscuits, but Jessica politely declined. She didn't want to put her teeth through that kind of pain and torture again. She stared down at the large mug as she let the tea cool. "Hagrid? Do you think I give up too easily?"

Hagrid lowered his large brandy. "What do ya mean?"

"I mean that, whenever I see something as too much of a challenge, I pretty much lose all hope that I'll ever be able to succeed."

"We all feel that way sometimes."

"I just clam up sometimes whenever something seems too hard, or when a conflict rises. Does that make me weak?"

"Well, I can't really be sure what yer talkin' about. I don't exactly know everythin' tha' goes on in the school, despite what you migh' think. But, I can tell you tha' many people have their own strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes, avoiding things like conflict can be the smartes' thin' to do."

"Sometimes I wish I could be more confident, like James and Sirius. Those two aren't afraid of anything. Not to mention, things seem to come so easily to them."

Hagrid chuckled. "I don' think the world could handle a copy o' those two. Seriously though, I think your problem is that you migh' not have found your own strength yet. You can' expect it to pop up overnigh'. Sometimes it may come to yeh, but other times, yeh have to bring it out fer yourself."

Jessica thought about Hagrids words. Her own strength? Was she really a much stronger witch than she let herself believe? Was she letting her insecurities get in the way of her true potential? What could she do to change how people saw her? She didn't want to be seen as the weak little witch who always needed guidance forever.

"Thank you, Hagrid," she said setting her empty mug down on the large wooden coffee table.

"Anytime." Hagrid stood and walked her to the door. It was getting dark outside, so he walked her back to the castle, where Jessica gave him a hug and bid him good night.


The next afternoon, Jessica was in the library again, this time by herself. In front of her was a long roll of parchement with her partially written Potions essay. She had a large book open next to her and was doing her best to copy information from it, in her own words, of course. She almost didn't hear Amos sit next to her, until he spoke.

"Working hard, aren't we?" he asked, peering at her essay. "Do you need some help?"

"No thanks, I'm fine," Jessica said, not looking up.

"If you insist, but you kind of missed a lot of information that you could put into your essay."

Jessica looked up and glared at him. Amos put his hands up in surrender. "I'm just trying to give you some advice. You do want to get a good mark, don't you?"

Of course Jessica did. What kind of question was that? She'd been sitting here for two hours now, working on this essay. She felt like her brain had fried a long time ago, but she was determined to, at least, do this on her own. When Amos didn't leave, she looked up at him. "Is there something you need?"

"I just wanted to ask you something, that's all. But if you're busy, I can come back later."

Jessica sighed and marked her place before closing the book. She could have used a break. "It's all right. What did you need?"

Amos rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "I kind of wanted to ask you if...er...Dorcas has said anything about me lately."

Jessica frowned thoughtfully. "Well, Dorcas talks about what a great Chaser you are."

Amos blushed. "Really? She said that about me?"

Jessica nodded. "Sure, after complaining that the Hufflepuff team was just a huge sausage fest where she was the only girl."

"Don't tell me that's the real reason she wanted you to try out for the team," Amos laughed.

"She didn't exactly say, but she seems to be hinting at it," Jessica said with a smile. "Although, she probably enjoys being around all those guys."

Amos' smile fell. "I see. I guess I don't have a chance."

It took Jessica a minute to process what Amos was trying to say. She couldn't believe that she didn't see it before. Was it possible that he liked Dorcas?

"Hey, you know Slughorn has been hinting at a Halloween Party for his...er...collection. You're part of that, aren't you? Why don't you invite her? It's not much, but you could at least start somewhere."

"I don't know. What if she says no?"

"You never know unless you ask."

Amos was silent for a moment, then he pulled Jessica in for a hug, much to her surprise. Why did people always assume she liked random embraces? Not wanting to be rude, she patted him on the back and drew back. "Just go and talk to her, ask her to the party. You can't expect her to figure out how you feel if you don't say anything."

Amos shocked Jessica by kissing her on the cheek. "Thank you, Jess." He stood up and left the library. Jessica turned back to her essay, but no sooner had she started working on it again, Remus sat down. At this rate, she would never get done.

"What was that all about?" he asked curiously.

"Oh, I just gave Amos some advice, that's all."

"He seemed to really appreciate it," Remus said, but there was something strange in his tone that Jessica couldn't put her finger on.

"Are you upset?" she asked in a concerned tone of voice.

Remus shook his head. "No, I'm fine." He then smiled. "Hey, I did promise to spend some time with you. There's the Room of Requirement. Why don't we go there now?"

Jessica raised an eyebrow, and a smile played at her lips. "Are you actually suggesting that I put off my Potions Essay a little longer to go spend time with you?"

"Er...I guess I am," Remus said with a laugh.

Without having to think twice about it, Jessica closed the book, stuffed the parchment into her bag, and stood up. "Lead the way," she said, grinning from ear to ear.


Remus may have seemed cheerful on the outside, but, on the inside, he was questioning himself. When he had walked in and seen Amos and Jessica laughing together, then Amos kiss her on the cheek, it made him think. Even though Amos was just most likely thanking Jessica for the advice she'd given him, the two of them looked good together. Amos was also around Jessica more, given that they were in the same House, and had a lot of the same classes together. Amos didn't have any crosses to bear. Nor did he ever have to worry about unintentionally hurting Jessica. He was much more outgoing and cheerful, the kind of person Jessica needed.

The Room of Requirement was made to look like the Hufflepuff common room, for Remus had asked Jessica to think of the one place where she would want to be alone with him. He took in the earthy tones, the many plants, and the plush, cheerful yellow furniture as the two of them sat down near the large stone fireplace with two large bottles of butterbeer and two mugs. A thick woven brown blanket was placed near the fireplace for their comfort.

For now, Remus didn't want to ruin their time with the doubts running through his mind. He pushed them back as far as they would go, until they only resembled a minor twinge, similar to the feeling he got when his foot fell asleep.

"I'm sorry that I got upset last night when you couldn't come with me to Hagrid's," Jessica said, pulling Remus away from his thoughts.

"I'm not mad at you. We all have those moments when we're selfish."

Jessica looked up. "Selfish? What do you mean?"

Remus winced. He was beginning to think he should have just kept that thought to himself. "What I mean is...er...there are times when you only seem to care for yourself and what makes you happy."

"But I don't mean to do it!"

"Calm down, Jess, I never said it was intentional. I'm just saying that you didn't seem all that concerned about me, last night. All you cared about was going to Hagrid's with me."

"I asked if you were all right," Jessica protested.

The last thing Remus wanted to do was argue with her, so he spoke as soothingly as possible. "I'm not trying to make you upset. I'm just saying that, sometimes, you can't have things your way."

Jessica seemed to be thinking as she sipped her butterbeer. "I don't want to argue. I can try to be more considerate in the future, but I can't promise that I'll be successful."

"Trying is all I'm asking you to do," Remus said as set his mug down and pulled her close and began to gently run his fingers through her thick curls, as he tried his best to keep his thoughts of Jessica and Amos at bay.