I'm back baby! Woo!

So I'm uploading this while fighting severe stomach inflammation, so bear with me if the editing is worst than usual (note: the chapter was not written during this stomach problem, but before it started. I'm only suffering through the editing and uploading part). Trying to stick to my schedule, but my chronic stomach problems don't like to schedule themselves for times when I'm not busy.

Once again, thanks for all the reviews. You guys are awesome.

Stomach trouble is making a big distraction and ruining my focus, so on with the show.

If Someone Cared Enough

Chapter Fifty: Gentle Giant

Severus looked around the Leaky Cauldron, people watching more or less, as people came and went to Diagon Alley through the back of the inn. Tired parents dragged along young ones for last minute Christmas shopping while spinsters and old crones watched them pass, tutting in disapproval. Haggard bums took advantage of the innkeeper's charitable refuge from the cold and huddled in corners, holding warm cups of tea—a free courtesy of one of the servers—to take the chill off their frigid fingers.

Lonely men smoked and commiserated on lost youth and lost love. One of the wizard interns from Gringotts took up a table with his many books on bank regulations and codes, muttering to himself as he tried to memorize everything for his demanding employers. A middle-aged woman sat at the far end of the bar recanting her love life to a sympathetic barmaid, sobbing into her hot chocolate.

A few drunks were slumped over the bar, bringing an unpleasant sneer to Severus's lips. Drunk already and it was hardly noon. Pathetic.

"There he is!" Lily exclaimed excitedly, dragging Severus's attention away from the barflies and gutter trash at the bar, "Hagrid, over here."

Large and lumbering as ever, Hagrid's smile was impossibly wide as his eyes landed on the two students. Coated in a fresh sprinkling of snow, he shook the flakes off his coat and hair like a dog, accidentally dousing a nearby patron in the winter spray.

'M'sorry," he apologized with chagrin.

With a surprising amount of grace, Hagrid wove his way between the tables in the center of the room and made it to Sev and Lily's table.

"Lily," he boomed, "Good to see you. Pleasant surprise to get your letter, I might add. Dumbledore is usually the only one who writes me over the holidays." He sat down, the chair groaning under his weight, "It's been quite a while since I've seen you, Sev'rus. How have you been, lad?"

"I've been well," Severus replied with genuine friendliness; Hagrid was too well meaning to dislike, "I'm spending the holiday with Lily, actually and we've been having a wonderful time."

"Tha's right," Hagrid recalled, "You live there now, don't ya. Must be nice to staying at a friend's house. Like a big ol' sleepover, ain't it? Not that I know what those are like," he added with a grin, "Most of my friends' houses weren't big enough for the likes of me growing up, I'm afraid."

Severus chuckled, "I imagine you would have needed to make it a camp out instead."

Hagrid laughed, "Indeed! I much prefer the outdoors anyway."

Lily ordered them all some butterbeer while they caught up.

"I have to say, Sev'rus," Hagrid said after a big gulp of his drink, "It's nice to talk with you again. Seems like it's been ages since you last visited my hut with Lily here."

Severus nodded, looking down at his hands, "Yes, that's true. I'm afraid I must apologize for that…I fell in with some rough crowds and I started making some choices that weren't exactly…wise."

Hagrid patted Severus's shoulder, nearly knocking the boy over with his strength, "You're a good lad, Sev'rus. I always knew you'd make the right choice eventually. We're not all what people would make us out to be."

Severus smiled sincerely; this is what he'd always liked about the half giant.

The trio spent a decent amount of time catching up, reminiscing about the past and the various strange animals Hagrid had shown them over the years. He told them stories of when he was a child that made them laugh—the idea of Hagrid being able to pick up his father and put him on the dresser at such a young age was too humorous to imagine.

Hagrid spent a great deal talking about his new puppy, a boarhound named Blue, a female. Apparently the pup's feet were twice the size of her head and she constantly tripped over them when she ran. When she wasn't eating Hagrid's boots, she was chasing his chickens throughout his garden and uprooting all the vegetables. For one so destructive, Hagrid spoke of her with much fondness.

"An' she took my umbrella once," Hagrid added, "Had to chase her round the hut to get it back. And the whole time, the bloody thing is firing off little bits of magic everywhere; turned my favorite chair into a giant turnip!"

"She sounds adorable!" Lily commented with a laugh, "I'm sure you'll have many years of fun with her."

Hagrid nodded, "Oh, I hope to. When she's older, I plan on finding her a nice fella to breed with, get her some puppies. Maybe some of the students will want one, you know?"

"I'm sure people would be happy to have a puppy, Hagrid," Lily agreed.

"Well enough about me," Hagrid concluded, "I could blather on the whole night if you let me. What about you two? What have you been doing to keep yourselves busy?"

"Preparing for Christmas mostly," Severus said, "Lily's sister has had us on cookie baking detail for the past two days."

"We brought you some," Lily said happily, pushing a neatly wrapped parcel across the table to the giant, "They're gingerbread."

"A favorite of mine," Hagrid admitted, genuinely touched by the gift; it left Severus wondered if the poor man didn't get much in the way of presents.

Hagrid opened the parcel and let out a laugh.

"Bless ya, it's one of me," he noted with joy, holding up a gingerbread man larger than the others with a big brown beard of frosting on it, "I almost don't want to it eat, it's so nice."

Lily smiled, "Sev made the body, I decorated it."

Hagrid wiped a tear from the corner of his eye, "Oh, you two are right sweet, you are. I only wish I had something to give you in return."

"There's really no need, Hagrid," Lily assured him.

Severus nodded, "Yes, we didn't do this expecting something in return. This visit is gift enough."

Lily nodded enthusiastically next to him.

Hagrid gave them a watery smile, "So sweet of you," he sniffed. He cleared his throat a few times, dabbing at his eyes with a napkin from the table, "Anyway, what else you been up to? I imagine you don't spend all your time baking."

"True, we make a break for it whenever Petunia isn't looking," Severus said, side eying Lily.

Lily giggled, muffling it with her hand.

"We've been reading a lot," Severus continued, "Enjoying a good book, taking in the sights around town. I'll admit, before this year I never really stopped to appreciate how scenic Cokeworth is. Things were never so quiet at my house; I didn't have much time to sit back and just take in the sight of snow falling."

Hagrid smiled sadly, "You've been through so much, Sev'rus," he looked at Lily in turn, "Both of you. How you've pulled through it all is amazing. You're both stronger than you look, you know," he added sternly, "don't let anyone ever tell you otherwise."

"Thank you, Hagrid," Lily said graciously, "Really I don't know where I'd be without Severus," she placed her hand over Severus's, squeezing slightly.

Severus gave her hand a gentle squeeze back, "Likewise."

Hagrid looked at the two students admiringly, "A Gryffindor and a Slytherin; truly your friendship is something special."

A server came over and placed a large, mincemeat pie on the table.

"Your usual, Hagrid," the server said.

Hagrid waved the man off with a quick thanks.

"Thought we could all do with some lunch," he told Lily and Severus, giving them each a plate left by the server.

As the pair all tucked into their meal, Severus mulled over how to broach the true reason for their get together. Hagrid certainly seemed relaxed enough, merrily digging into his food and talking with Lily. It seemed like the perfect time to slip Tom Riddle into the conversation now that Hagrid was happy and had his guard down. He'd probably just think it teenage curiosity on their part and be glad to reminisce on his school days.

"So Hagrid…" Severus began nonchalantly, "Do you know our friend Nesme?"

"Nesme Pumperickle?" Hagrid nodded, "Lovely girl. Bit silly, that one, but she means well. I've seen her around the castle helping other's find things they've misplaced. Seems she has a knack for it."

"Yes she does seem to always be discovery something interesting," Severus agreed, "You know, she found something very interesting recently, before we went home for the holidays."

"Did she now?" Hagrid asked, contentedly eating his pie.

"You see, with all the attention I've received since the beginning of last summer, it seems the reason it has so many people perplexed is that I'm a Slytherin. House biased has a lot of students doubting my capability to do the right thing for good hearted reasons, I'm afraid."

"Load of hogwash," Hagrid said dismissively, "The house you're sorted into has nothing to do with your character. There's good folk in all of them. Your mother was a nice enough girl."

"Yes, well," Severus said hesitantly, wishing to not dwell on his mother or apparently happier times for her before he existed, "Anyway, Nesme recently came across a trophy at school that she was very keen in telling me about. Apparently, I am not the only student from Slytherin who ever tried to do the right thing. She said a prefect named Tom Riddle was rewarded for his actions back when you were in school."

Hagrid froze, his fork halfway to his lips. A clouded look came over his face; not stormy, but like the gloomy haze that falls over the land before the rain.

"Hagrid?" Lily prodded gently, "Are you okay?"

Hagrid coughed, clearing his throat.

"Of course," he said evasively, "Just lost in thought."

Severus leaned forward a bit, eying Hagrid carefully, "Hagrid…do you…know Tom Riddle?"

Hagrid looked at Severus with unsureness, clearly uncomfortable.

"What you need to understand about that," he started, "Is that it was all a big misunderstanding. I never hurt nobody, nowhere. I never should have gotten expelled."

Severus blinked, "…what?" This was not what he expected to hear.

Lily gasped, "Hagrid, you're the student they expelled?"

"I shouldn't have told you that," Hagrid scolded himself.

"But Hagrid, you're the gentlest person there ever was," Severus pointed out in befuddlement, "You wouldn't harm a fly; Filch even has to killed the rodents you feed the Thestrals. Why would anyone accuse you of killing that student?"

"So you know about all that," Hagrid observed grimly, "The attacks, the murder. No, I had nothing to do with them. But Tom thought I did, and there was no convincing the ministry after that."

Lily shook her head disbelievingly, "But why would he think it was you, Hagrid? It makes no sense."

"It wasn't me he thought did it," Hagrid stated, "But he blamed me for how it happened." Hagrid shook his head, "I'm sure he meant well—a prefect looking out for the school, he was—but he had it all wrong. Aragog never hurt anyone; he never even left his box."

Hagrid paused at that moment, realizing what he just said, "I definitely should not have told you that…"

"Who's Aragog?" Lily questioned.

Hagrid looked away, muttering a good scolding to himself under his breath. Clearly they would need to switch tactics.

"Hagrid, if you say you and this…Aragog are innocent, then we believe you," Severus said.

Hagrid turned to Severus, worry and sadness in his eyes.

"You've never been untruthful in all the time I've known you," Severus continued, "That's why Dumbledore thinks so highly of you, isn't it."

Hagrid smiled in reminiscence, "Albus is a good man. He was the only one who vouched for me when Tom accused me. Gave me a job at Hogwarts, he did; made sure I had some place to go."

"And he did all that because he knows you are a good person who didn't do anything wrong," Severus said carefully, "We believe you, Hagrid, but we would really like to know your side of the story. So much of what happened was unexplained. Can't you tell us what happened, in your words?"

Hagrid remained silent, mulling the request over with severity.

Severus decided to offer the half giant a little leeway. He waved his wand, his silencing spell falling over there table, "No one can hear us now, so let's start off small. Who is Aragog?"

"That might not be the small part of this story," Hagrid muttered, "In lots of ways."

"Okay, smaller still," Severus bargained, "You were not there when the student was murdered, correct?"

Hagrid nodded, "That's right. I was serving detention around the time she was found— accidentally knocked over the defense professor's favorite vase."

"That was when she was found, not actually when she was killed," Severus pointed out, "You weren't near her at all that day?"

"No," Hagrid said, "I barely knew the poor girl; a year above me, she was. I didn't know how long my detention would be—Professor was right sore with me—so I had been in the dungeons most of the morning taking care of…of Aragog…" he stilled seemed a little hesitant to bring this Aragog person up."

"Taking care of?" Lily repeated, "Was he a pet, then?"

Hagrid shrugged, "In a way…he was really more of a friend, really. I just raised him since he was a baby. After my father died, Aragog was like family to me; the only family I had left."

"But what was he?" Severus pressed.

Hagrid swallowed thickly, closing his eyes for a brief moment, "He's an Acromantula…"

It was a terrible time for Severus to have chosen to take a sip of his drink.

Sputtering and coughing, Severus mopped at his face with a napkin while Lily thumped him on the back helpfully.

"An Acromantula?" Severus echoed, in open mouthed horror, "A giant talking spider, that's your idea of a pet?!"

"He's a gentle creature," Hagrid insisted, "Never caused me any harm."

"Please tell me he's not still hidden in the school," Severus begged.

"Of course not," Hagrid said, "I released him into the forest when I was expelled. He was safer there."

"How did you even come across something like that?" Lily asked in awestruck shock.

"A fellow down in Hogsmeade gave him to me as an egg," Hagrid answered, "He didn't seem to know what was inside it, but about a week later out popped Aragog. I raised him in a cupboard in the dungeons."

"And you are certain he wasn't the one responsible for killing that girl?" Severus asked skeptically, "There's no chance he ever got out while you weren't around?"

Hagrid shook his head, "I had that cupboard locked up tighter than Azkaban. Even if he had hands, there's no way Aragog could have opened it from the inside."

"You're certain?" Severus repeated.

"One hundred percent," Hagrid replied solemnly, "Besides, Aragog had no reason to be attacking the students. He was the size of a small dog at the time and they only attack for food unless threatened. Students wouldn't have been on the menu for him with their size; Acromantulas don't go after things bigger than them unless in packs."

"And typically they cocoon and eat their prey after attacking," Severus stated, recalling excerpts from his text books, "Very doubtful it would just bite somebody and then take off."

Hagrid nodded in agreement, "And their bite doesn't do what was happening to the students," he leaned in closer, "They were petrified."

"Petrified?" Lily breathed.

Hagrid nodded again, "Frozen like statues. Acromantula venon doesn't do that. It can paralyze, but that just means you go limp. You're still aware of everything around you; it's what makes a death by an Acromantula so awful. But those students, they were rigid like they'd been turned to stone."

"Did you try explaining this to the authorities," Severus inquired.

Hagrid looked mournfully down at the table, "I tried, but people were so desperate for answers, for a culprit so they could put the matter to rest and reopen the school. Since Aragog was a creature considered dangerous as can be, they felt he was the only logical explanation for the attacks. It didn't seem to matter to them that the facts didn't add up. All that matter was someone was going around claiming to be the Heir of Slytherin and that the Chamber of Secrets was supposedly opened…not sure I should have told you that…"

Severus gaped, "The chamber rumored to have built by Salazar Slytherin himself? That's what caused all this?"

Hagrid nodded mutely.

"Merlin's toe socks…" Severus breathed in amazement.

"So the girl that died was petrified too?" Lily asked, keeping Severus from going off track.

"No," Hagrid said, "They found her crumpled on the floor like a ragdoll. No poisons or hexes were even identified as the cause; it was just as if the life had simply fallen out of her."

Severus was at a loss, "And there's no way Aragog could have done that?"

Hagrid adamantly shook his head, "There would have been a bite on her; they found nothing. Besides, Aragog couldn't have been near her at the time; poor thing had been terrified to leave his cupboard for weeks."

"Why's that?" Lily asked.

"No clue," Hagrid replied honestly, "He refused to come out of the cupboard when I visited him. Something spooked him, but he'd never tell me what. He said he dared not speak it's name."

Severus and Lily shared a look, knowing this could mean only one thing; there had been something else in the school when the murder happened. Something worse.

"All I know is that it wasn't Aragog who killed that girl," Hagrid finished confidently.

"This is terrible," Lily declared, "You're innocent and it is an outrage that you took the fall for whoever is responsible," she seemed to puff up in anger, "Hagrid, what happened to you was downright wrong. It was unfair, it was terrible…they had no right to blame you when they didn't even have all the facts yet."

"I can't say I blame them," Hagrid said, "What with all that was going on, people were pretty scared. I imagine they wanted answers as soon as possible so that everyone could feel safe again. These were mere children we're talking about; of course people would be up in arms about them getting hurt or worse."

"That doesn't mean they needed to throw you under the bus!" Lily insisted hotly, hands slammed on the table, "Hagrid it was one's student's word against yours. I don't care how respected he was in school, there should have been more investigation into Tom's accusations before they blamed anyone."

"To be fair, they found him with a dangerous animal," Severus pointed out, "It makes sense that they'd jump to the wrong conclusion."

"It doesn't matter," Lily snapped, cowing Severus with a withering glare. She stood up and crossed the table in two quick strides.

"Hagrid," she said, taking the half giant's hand, "You're a sweet, kind man who just wants to see the best in everyone, man or beast. I'm so sorry people didn't believe you."

Hagrid gave her a watery smile, "You're too kind, Lily," he said, choked up with emotion, "If only more people were like you." He enveloped the girl into a crushing hug. From the shaking of his shoulders, it was evident he was crying.

Pulling away finally, he tugged a worn out hanky out of his pocket, blowing his nose.

"Well," he said, "A good cry always works up an appetite," he looked at the two of them, "Who's up for dessert?"

{page break}

"Sev, are you awake?" came Lily's voice late that night.

Groggily, Severus rolled over so he was facing the door. Squinting his eyes, he managed to make out Lily's face peeking through the crack in the doorframe.

"Can I come in?" Lily asked.

"Sure," Severus said, struggling to sit up. He watched as Lily slipped inside the room, closing the door quietly behind her.

"Scoot over," Lily told Severus, climbing into the bed with him.

Severus acquiesced, "Did you a nightmare?"

Lily shook her head, "No. I haven't really had too many of them since November. I think I'm getting better at coping with things."

"That's good," Severus said, "My nightmares are lessening too; the ones I still have I feel like I have a little better control over."

"Me too," Lily confessed, "It's like I can fight back now, or remind myself it isn't real. Still upsetting, but I wake up feeling less helpless and more…confident, I guess."

Severus nodded, "So what brings you in here then?"

Lily shrugged, "Nothing really, I guess I just miss our little sleepovers. It was weird sleeping at Hogwarts without you."

Severus smiled, "I missed it too. This room feels like our own little sanctuary now, where we can just relax. It's so much better than being stuck in the dorms with all those prying eyes."

"Tell me about it," Lily griped, squirming in the blankets to get closer, "Some of the girls in my year can be so gossipy. Getting any time to myself is impossible; they're always there, gabbing about who wore a dress better, which guy has the cutest smile."

"And you never got caught up in those discussions," Severus teased.

Lily rolled her eyes, snuggling into her pillow, "As if. I have better things to do than coo over some guy."

"Oh?" Severus asked nonchalantly, "So there isn't anyone who's caught your eye?"

Lily yawned, "Maybe I do, maybe I don't."

"And you didn't think to tell your best friend," Severus asked in mock hurt. Inside, butterflies were waging war in his stomach.

"Why? Are you jealous?" Lily asked playfully.

"I don't know what you mean," Severus denied, refusing to look at her. His face went beat red as Lily snuggled up against him, her head tucking under his chin, "I am merely curious…it's a best friend's prerogative to—"

"Hey Sev?" Lily interrupted.

"Yes?"

The clock on the nightstand hit midnight, letting out twelve soft chimes.

Reaching up to tilted Severus's head down to hers, Lily place a soft, gentle kiss on Severus's lips.

"Merry Christmas Eve," she whispered.

Bwahahaha!

Was it evil to leave it there? I feel like it was a teeny bit evil.

If you want to know something you're not supposed to know, just ask Hagrid. He'll let it slip.

Hope this chapter was to your liking. I've got to go curl in the fetal position around my toilet until this illness passes. Worry not, I'm scheduled to see a specialist in May...I just have to get the guy off the "maybe you're pregnant" idea like every other doctor wants to assume when I complain of bloating and vomiting. Serious, my funhouse has been closed for ages by choice and no bun is in that oven!

Wish me luck!

Read and review.