Chapter Eleven: Respect

Okay, okay, I know I promised this last night… but I got side-tracked, and according to myself this is the last chapter I really have left before I have to start writing again… so this is the last really quick chapter… unless I get off bebo and start writing. Anyway, loves ya all. Oh, and thanks to my gorgeous reviewer, I owe ya one!

Disclaimer: I don't own Potter, and to tell ya the truth, I think everyone kind of knows that already.

"Harry! Hermione! Ron!"

"Hagrid. I hope we find you well?"

"Never better. I've been feeling right lonely without you lot coming down to visit me like you used to."

"Yeah, well, you know how it is." Harry replied stiffly, stepping inside the small cabin, and Ron closed the door behind them. It wasn't that he had a problem with Hagrid, but Harry was still finding any contact with friends of his old headmaster painful. There were one too many memories connected to Hagrid for Harry to ever feel truly comfortable in his company again, and he felt guilty for that! He wanted to like Hagrid, he wanted to be able to count him as a friend, but it just wasn't happening. Not as well as it should have. Sure, he still respected Hagrid, but how could he ever truly feel comfortable with someone who had trusted Snape. How could he feel comfortable with someone who hadn't believed him when he said that Dumbledore was dead? Would anyone in their right minds really joke about something like that! Harry thought not, because his loss was still pounding on his heart, filling his every sense.

"You okay, Harry?" Hagrid asked, directing him to a seat by the table. There was a certain formality about him, which Harry found more un-nerving that anything he had experienced so far.

"I'm fine." He muttered, turning his head away from his old friend and instead staring out of the window, noticing for the first time a mound of earth covered in flowers. Somehow it hit him, though he had forgotten before, that they had buried a spider in the garden with professor Slughorn. He couldn't help smiling at the memory, remembering how happy Slughorn had been because of the venom.

Ron followed Harry's eyes, and then turned to Hagrid, grinning.

"Since when have you been into planting flowers!"

"What?" Hagrid asked, looking up from the kettle. "Oh, yeah. They're not mine. Professor Slughorn, since he was staying on at the school, said he'd do something. Since he was at the funeral as well, he said he would like to give the grave a little touch, to make it look better.

"Good venom then." Harry couldn't help muttering under his breath, but luckily no-one but Hermione seemed to hear, and she knew not to ask questions. Harry had no love for Slughorn, but it was clear that he had a lot more respect for him since he had found out how bad some people really could be. And since he'd stopped being invited to the slug club meetings, but it wasn't like he had ever wanted to go to them.

"How's Krum fitting in then?" Hagrid asked Hermione, settling down at the table and pouring the tea, passing Harry of as a lost case just as much of the world were. "I've hardly had a chance to speak to him since we got back, too much work to do trying to settle the school down after, well, after Dumbledore." He turned his head away to hide the sobs, and Harry felt a bit more pity for him, but not much. Hermione patted his shoulder nervously.

"Hagrid, we know. We're all going through the same thing. You think things are any easier living in the castle? Half the school hasn't come back, and the ones who have are half afraid to walk down the corridors or to get their post in the mornings. It's not only the staff that has felt the difference. Remember, there's students who were close to him as well, there's students here who grew up believing that he was indestructible, there's students here who's parents believed that he was indestructible. Hagrid" she lowered her voice "look at Harry, Dumbledore was like a father to him, however distant a father he was. He's been the only person looking over Harry all his life. Its broken him Hagrid, he's a broken person."

"I know." Hagrid stole a glance at Harry, where he was staring out of the window at the lake, but not really seeing it, lost in his own thoughts. "I've always said Dumbledore was the best thing that ever happened to Harry, the only good thing in a horrible life of pain. Who else does he have really, apart from you and Ron? He doesn't want me to be there for him anymore and to tell you the truth I don't think it would do him much good if he did. I know I'm broken, and I think everyone else can see that too. You know Minirva McGonnigal is only just starting out, but she's an amazing headmistress, and even she told me it wasn't going to do any good me trying to help him."

"I knew she would do good." Ron joined in "Hey, Hagrid. Did you paint the place or something? It looks different."

"You noticed!" He grinned joyously. "Well, after that fire I had to do something to make the place better, we were pretty much burned out. I had to re-build the back wall, but it needed it anyway, the place was falling to pieces."

"It looks good." Harry looked up from where he had been playing with a hole in the tablecloth. "You've done a good job." He got up and went to the door.

"You leaving already?"

"Yes. I have to get back to the school, there's some things I've got to do. Ron? Hermione?" they got up and followed him out the door, and Hagrid followed behind them.

"Hey, you forgot your tea!"

"We'll come back soon." Hermione smiled apologetically then followed a retreating Harry. She knew the visit was going to be awkward for him, but he could have been a bit more polite.