That day after lunch, Harry, Ron, and Hermione walked down to Hagrid's hut. When Hagrid opened his door to find them standing on his front porch, he was pleasantly surprised.

"Well, hullo!" Hagrid boomed. "Yer just in time! I've just been bakin' some scones. Come in!"

They filed inside and sat around his table, thankful that they had just eaten a large lunch. Fang the boarhound jumped on them all in turn, but greeted Harry with particular enthusiasm. "No thanks, Hagrid," Harry declined, pushing Fang down. "We've just eaten."

"Oh," Hagrid's face fell. "Maybe just a bit o'tea then."

As he served their tea, Hagrid noticed Ron's preoccupation and unusual silence. He smiled. "Just heard about yer sister, Ron," he said.

Ron started. "Already? It's only been a few hours!"

"Well, I saw yer brothers nosin' around the edge of the Forest--again." Hagrid shook his head. He took a seat at the table across from Ron. "They told me. They were proud though. Not upset like you."

Ron looked down at his tea. "You don't understand," he almost whispered.

"Don' understand!" Hagrid exclaimed, and suddenly let out a loud hoot of laughter. "Yeh think I don' understand, Ron?" He looked across the table at Ron, his great brown eyes smiling gently down at him. "Ron, don' yeh think that I wanted to be the best at something too? Don' get me wrong, I love bein' groundskeeper here, an' I love bein' a teacher. But I'm not very good at it, I know."

"Hagrid!" Hermione chided him. "That's not true!"

"No, Hermione, it's all right. I can face facts. The point is," he focused on Ron again, "that's okay. I'm not the best teacher in the world, but I'm gettin' better. An' even if I'm never a great teacher, tha's not the most important thing in life anyway."

Ron looked confused. "Hagrid, what are you getting at?"

Hagrid smiled again. "Ron, look around. Yer friends. What matters the most to us in life isn't the things we have or the things we do, it's the friends we make along the way."

They sat in silence for a few moments. Ron appeared to consider this. And although he spoke less than usual for the remainder of that afternoon, Harry noticed that his mood had lightened a little. The four of them sat in Hagrid's hut for a few hours and talked about the coming Quidditch season, classes, and Streelers. When they finally stepped out of Hagrid's hut and onto his front porch, the sun was just starting to touch the tops of the trees in the forest behind them. In the distance they could see Professor Green leading a group of hapless first-years down to the lakeside.

***

At a quarter to six on Monday morning, Harry was awakened by Ron tugging roughly at his shoulder.

"Harry! Come on! We've got to meet Green on the lawn in fifteen minutes."

"Unnnnnffff," was all Harry managed to reply. From what seemed like very far away, he heard Seamus snicker.

"Just leave him here, Ron. I want to see what happens if she has to come for him."

"A'right! I'm up!" He sat up and put on his glasses. The room was pitch black. He dressed quickly and followed the other fifth-years down into the common room. There they met Hermione, Lavender, and Parvati, who looked quite as sleepy as Harry felt.

"Come on," Hermione mumbled, leading the way out of the portrait hole and down through the castle, onto the grounds.

Professor Green wasn't on the lawn this time. They found her down on the lakeside in the dark, with Sirius the dog again, waiting for them. At six o'clock, just as the first light of dawn appeared on the horizon, she counted the assembled fifth-years and gave them all an approving smile. "Well, you made it," she announced. "The hardest part is over. Now, you know the drill. Same run as last time. Only this time, let's try to pick up the pace a little, shall we?" She pulled the stopwatch out of her pocket, and began to put the whistle to her mouth.

Just then, a figure separated from the crowd of students and walked up to her. Squinting through the receding darkness, Harry could see that the figure had white-blond hair and was wearing normal day robes, not the gray workout robes the rest of the fifth-years wore.

"Yes, Mr. Malfoy?"

"Professor," he began in a silky tone. "I can't run today. I think I strained my ankle on Friday, and it just hasn't gotten any better." Harry could hear the smug smile creeping onto Malfoy's pointy little face. "I have a note from Madam Pomfrey." He handed her a slip of parchment.

Professor Green took the note, but kept her eyes on Malfoy's face. She pocketed the watch and whistle again. "So you do," she said, without looking down. "Malfoy, you say you're hurt?"

"That's right." Harry could see that Malfoy had shifted his weight over to his right foot, as though his left were hurting him. Professor Green continued to stare at him. He began to fidget uncomfortably.

Finally, Professor Green spoke very slowly. "You're lying. Five points from Slytherin, Mr. Malfoy. Now fall in with the rest of the students."

Malfoy's jaw dropped. "I ... I ... I'm hurt! I can't run! My ankle!"

"That'll be ten points from Slytherin."

Malfoy's voice lowered in indignation. "Professor, I cannot run today. I'm injured--"

"Really, Mr. Malfoy, your continued lies leave me no other choice but to assign detention. Now, fall in."

"But I--" Malfoy paused, obviously choosing his words carefully now. "I have a note!"

"What, this note?" Professor Green asked, looking down at the note in her hand as though she had just noticed it. She stepped toward him. While Malfoy watched in horror, she held the note up in front of his face and proceeded to shred it into tiny fragments. As she tore it, the wind blew tiny bits of parchment into Malfoy's face and hair. He didn't move. Harry couldn't see the color of his face, but he was sure that Malfoy must be scarlet with rage.

"But I'm not dressed for running!"

Professor Green backed up and drew the watch and whistle out of her pocket again. "Should've thought about that before you decided to come down here and lie to get out of it, now, shouldn't you? Consider it a valuable lesson."

She looked down at the watch, put the whistle to her lips, and blew it. This time all the fifth-years began running at once, even the Slytherins. Malfoy grudgingly set off at a very light jog. "Professor Snape will hear about this," he mumbled.

"Yes, he will," Harry heard Professor Green say to herself as he passed her. "But not from you."

That morning's run was almost as difficult as the previous Friday's, but Harry noted that most of the students' times had improved. Again Harry was one of the first students to finish, and Neville was the very last. As they all circled the lawn to cool down, Professor Green walked over to Harry.

"Harry," she said as she began to walk beside him, "I'd like to speak to you for a moment in my office, if you don't mind."

"Alright."

Hermione and Ron looked quizzically after him as he followed Professor Green and Sirius up the steps to the Great Hall. He looked back at them and shrugged.

They climbed the flight of stairs in the entrance hall and walked to her office.

"Please sit down," she said, motioning toward a chair in front of her desk. She sat behind the desk. Sirius sat on the floor next to Harry's chair.

"Harry, I wanted to speak to you briefly about your performance out there. I'm going to be honest: I'm very disappointed."

Harry's eyes opened wide in shock. "What? I don't understand. I was one of the first to finish!"

She looked at him intently, and Harry felt--as he had so many times with Professor Dumbledore--that she was looking right through him. "Come on, Harry. It's me. I know what you're capable of. You're holding out--you can do better."

Harry thought for a moment. He supposed he hadn't been trying his hardest. He was fast, so he had assumed that he didn't have to work as hard as the other students.

"I don't care how hard you work relative to the other students," she said uncannily, "I'm only interested in how close you come to reaching your full potential. Take Neville. He's the only one I don't pick on. Why? Because he works harder than anyone else."

Harry began to understand. He nodded. "Alright," he sighed. "I'll try harder."

"Good," she smiled. "Now, I think someone wants to have a word with you," she said, glancing down at Sirius, then back up at Harry. "I'm going down to breakfast."

Professor Green got up and walked to the door. "Don't stay too long; you've got to get ready for your other classes." She opened the door stepped out, and shut it behind her. Suddenly, the door swung open again, and Professor Green's head poked back into the room. "Oh yes. And don't touch anything!"