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!"
