Chapter Nine

"So who's this guy again?"

"He's the one who brought us to the castle on that first night remember?"

"Oh, yeah! He's the really big and really tall one, right?"

"Yeah, come on."

The four companions headed towards the little hut by the Forbidden Forest past the quidditch field, to where Rubeus Hagrid, the keeper of the grounds at Hogwarts, lived. Harry knocked on the tall wooden door. An explosion of barking erupted inside the house. Hannah jumped.

"Don't worry, Hagrid's got a dog. His name is Fang and, like Hagrid, he's not as fearsome as he looks."

"Oh, no problem, after that three headed dog, I don't think anything could scare me." Hannah replied.

After the barks had subsided, the door opened a crack and a snout sniffed out of it.

"Come here, Fang, come on." Hannah heard a voice say. The door opened wider to a bulk of a man. He smiled down at them through his wild black beard and bade them come in.

Hannah was led to a huge wooden table. Looking around, she saw a wide bed with a quilt spread on top and there was a roaring fire in the grate across from the bed. Hannah climbed on to one of the chairs and the table came to her chin.

"Um, Hagrid?"

"Yep."

"I need a boost."

"Oh, sorry, not used to little visitors like yerself."

Hannah didn't know whether to take this as a compliment, but simply sat up as Hagrid slid a pillow onto the chair.

"Ah that's better." She looked around at Harry, Ron and Hermione.

"I'll go make some tea and bring out some o'my homemade cauldron cakes."

Hannah licked her lips, but Harry and Ron glanced at each other. Hermione looked confusedly at the boys, for she had never been to Hagrid's yet either.

A few minutes later, Hagrid came back with mugs of hot tea and a plate of cauldron cakes.

"Oops, forgot the milk, hold on a sec while I find a pitcher."

Hannah went for a cake, but caught Harry mouthing at her.

"Don't eat!" he mouthed at her, then closed his mouth tightly, clenching his jaw, pointing to it. Hannah dropped the cauldron cake as if it were suddenly hot, but drank some tea instead. Harry and Ron went back to drinking their tea and consulting softly about a newspaper article. Hagrid came and sat at the table, setting down a milk pitcher.

"Hagrid? There was a robbery at Gringotts and it was the day we went shopping. Was that for that—?

Hagrid cleared his throat loudly. "Uh, yes, there was a robbery at Gringotts, Harry."

"And that thing you brought to Hogwarts, that top secret thing, was that what the robber was after?"

"Uh, probably," Hagrid mumbled, sinking his teeth into a cauldron cake, crunching hard. Hannah looked from one to the other, feeling she was missing something.

"This thing that you're talking about, is that being guarded by something?" she suddenly thought aloud.

"It would have to be, if it's so special," Harry eyed Hagrid.

"Then that's what that three-headed dog was about!" Hermione spoke up, "I knew I saw a trapdoor and figured it was hiding something."

"Why didn't you tell us about it, Hermione?"

"Because I was too mad at you at that moment."

"Wait a sec, you know about Fluffy?"

"Fluffy?" Hannah exclaimed.

"That thing has a name."

"Sure, he's mine, bought him last year."

"So he is guarding something?" Ron asked excitedly.

"I-I've said too much…and there's the lunch bell, you'd better go! Go on now and don't go talking about things that aren't your concern!"

Hagrid hurriedly escorted them out towards the castle.

"There's definitely something going on that he's not telling us about." Harry looked back as he climbed the stone steps.

"Yeah." Hannah agreed with a gleam in her eye.

~**~

"Eat something. You'll need it."

"No, I'm fine."

"This is your first quidditch match, you need strength."

"If you're not ready, I'd gladly take your place."

"Thanks Hannah, but I think I'm just gonna go to the field."

Harry set out from the Great Hall with his new broomstick that Professor McGonagall had sent him, a Nimbus Two Thousand, over his shoulder.

Hannah, Ron and Hermione looked back at him.

"He's never gonna make it through," Ron said.

"Don't say that! Of course he will!" Hermione turned to him.

"I've got the banner ready in our room and Dean finished drawing it yesterday. It's gonna look great and it that doesn't encourage him, I don't know what will."

The three left the Great Hall too, which wasn't that crowded anyway, everyone was getting ready for the first quidditch game of the season. Hannah and Hermione retrieved the banner they had created and ran up to the stands in the pitch. The teams were in the locker rooms and the stands were slowly filling up. They sat high up so as to see everything and soon after Hagrid joined them with a set of binoculars.

Madame Hooch walked onto the field, blowing her whistle. The crowd silenced a little and the teams flew out on their brooms. Hannah had never been so excited. She cheered loudly right along with everyone else as the Gryffindor team flew out, waving the banner. It said "Potter for President" with a Gryffindor lion on the front, drawn by Dean Thomas, a fellow Gryffindor. The colors of the words changed by a clever trick Hermione had found.

Harry smiled at them from the air and did a loop. Hannah laughed and watched the teams get ready for the game. Today they were playing Slytherin. The opposing team in green looked very menacing and big. Madame Hooch blew her whistle and the game began. Hannah promptly began to get dizzy watching all the players going faster than her brain could direct. Ron was cheering and Hermione was biting her nails in nervousness, watching Harry. Gryffindor scored, but Hannah didn't know how. It was too fast to fathom anything.

"How's Harry doing?" she yelled back at Hagrid, who had the binoculars raised.

"Fine, he hasn't had much to do yet."

The game went on and Slytherin scored, then Gryffindor, then Slytherin, it seemed never ending. Hannah tried to search one player at least, but they all moved in a blur.

"Hey, what's goin' on with Harry?" Hagrid said suddenly, a little while later.

"What could be wrong with Harry? What's happening? What's he doing?" Hermione stood up, panicking.

"His broom's going all strange."

Hannah grabbed the binoculars and searched Harry.

"Oh my God! His broom it's going bonkers!" Harry was being flipped and swung around by what seemed like his broom. All of a sudden, a sudden jolt flipped Harry off his broom and he was hanging off it by one hand. Hannah gasped.

Hermione snatched the binoculars and peered through the crowd.

"Hermione, what are you doing?" Hannah asked.

"I knew it! Look at Snape, he's jinxing the broom!"

Hannah looked accordingly and raised her eyebrows in shock.

Come on!" Hermione grabbed Hannah's hand, throwing the binoculars down.

"Hey, where you going?" Ron shouted.

"Be right back!"

The girls scrambled through the seats and accidentally passed the quivering Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Quirrel, knocking him over. Hermione took out her wand, going beneath the stands.

"What are you—?

"Hush." Hermione whispered something to her wand and a blue flame shot out of it onto Snape's robes, drooping down under the stands. It took a little while to realize that he was on fire, but when he did, he stood up, yelping. Hermione smiled and rushed back to Ron and Hagrid. They watched Harry and he slowly got his way up onto his broom again.

"What's the score?"

"Well, Wood's hurt, so—

"Who's Wood?"

"The team captain. He got hurt so Slytherin's been scoring a lot. If Harry doesn't catch the Snitch soon, we're gonna lose," Ron explained.

"What's the Snitch?" Hannah asked hurriedly, not wanting the miss anything.

"Shush, Harry's neck and neck with the Slytherin seeker."

Hannah watched Harry hurtle towards the ground next to a huge boy in green. Something glittered towards the ground. As the two got closer and closer to the ground, the Slytherin seeker couldn't dive so low and turned upwards again. Harry zoomed downwards still and flipped up just before he hit the ground. The broom's tip hit the ground and he toppled onto the grass. Hannah gulped and Harry stood up slowly and put his hands over his stomach.

"Looks like he's gonna be sick!" Hagrid said.

Harry coughed and out of his mouth came a small golden-looking thing. He smiled and held it up for everyone to see. The Gryffindors exploded.

"What just happened? What just happened?" Hannah screamed at Ron.

"WE WON!" he yelled in her face and jumped up in his seat. Hannah shrugged and started cheering too.