Author's Notes: So tired…but must post chapter…

Monday, 6 November

10:22 p.m.

Hagrid's back!!! He nearly got killed and he looks perfectly awful, but at least he's back at Hogwarts now and he's safe. He and Madame Maxime did try to contact the giants, as we suspected, but I couldn't possibly write all the details out in here, especially with Parvati in the room. She's shut herself up in her bed and refuses to speak to Lavender (who is sleeping in Ginny's dormitory tonight to avoid further conflict), because Lavender apparently "stabbed her in the heart with a jagged knife" by consenting to go out with Anthony Goldstein without Parvati's permission. Consequently, Parvati's taken to moaning and groaning and attempting to share her woes with me, and the only way I got her to shut up was, ironically, suggesting that she put all of her thoughts and feelings about the incident into a journal (she insists on calling it a diary) in order to achieve emotional satisfaction. I think she's currently writing a poem about despair and loss.

Anyway, with regards to Hagrid, suffice to say that the mission was not exactly a success. Their initial contact with the giants was good, but then the Gurg was killed and the new Gurg got quite violent with them. Madame Maxime had to use magic to get Hagrid out of a bind, and obviously the giants were not pleased with that, and so Hagrid and Madame Maxime gave up on the new Gurg's lot and tried to make contact with the few rebels who were not happy with the new leadership. Meanwhile, the new Gurg made friends with some nice Death Eaters, which is most definitely not good. If only the Ministry had extended the hand of friendship long ago…it's really quite sad what wizardkind has driven giants to. I mean, sure they're a bit violent…but what race wouldn't be after years of oppression and intolerance? There used to be hundreds of tribes, and now Hagrid says there's only seventy or eighty giants left in the whole world…and wizards are partly responsible for this growing extinction.

The trip doesn't seem to have been a total waste, though. The giants heard Dumbledore's message and if they're still unhappy with the current Gurg, perhaps they'll remember it. And Hagrid seems to have finally found someone like himself to identify with. I went over yesterday to try to help him plan his lessons (Umbridge showed up Saturday night while we were visiting him… that prejudiced, loathsome, vile woman is going to look for any excuse to sack him now that he's back), but all Hagrid could talk about was Madame Maxime.

"Shoulda seen her, Hermione," Hagrid said with a far-off look when I went to visit. "Wasn't afraid of roughing it, Olympe. She's a fine woman and I spect she's used to the finer things in life, but when the goin' got rough…not a word of complaint, not a word of it…"

(This was a repetition of a similar speech from Saturday night).

"Well, that's very nice, Hagrid," I said impatiently. "But please, we really have to talk about your lesson tomorrow. Umbridge will try to find any excuse to belittle you. You have to have a full-proof lesson plan - "

"But I do!" Hagrid said eagerly. "Wait 'til you see 'em…or rather, don't see 'em…"

This contradictory statement didn't make me feel any better. "Hagrid, are 'they' dangerous?"

"'Course not!" Hagrid exclaimed.

"Maybe I should rephrase the question," I said with a sigh. "Is there even the remotest chance that what you plan to show us on Tuesday will bite, kick, trample, sting, or emotionally scar any of the students in any way, shape, or form?"

"Well if yer did somethin' to offend 'em or hurt 'em or the like, acourse they'll get nasty with yeh," Hagrid laughed. "But a bunny rabbit'll bite yeh if yeh bug it enough."

"That's not encouraging, Hagrid," I said weakly. I eyed his mangled face and the green-tinged dragon meat he was still holding over his wounds. "And please don't show up to class with that slab of meat on your face."

"'Course not," Hagrid said. "Nothin' to worry about, anyway…jus' had a little accident…"

"A little accident?" I said doubtfully. "Hagrid, what on earth happened? Why hasn't it begun to heal yet? Some of those cuts are still bleeding!"

"Scone?" Hagrid said gruffly, ignoring me.

"Hagrid, please," I pleaded, "Professor Grubbly-Plank was just about to start Knarls, and I think that would be the best topic for your first lesson back. Everyone would much rather learn about Knarls than say…Chimaeras, or something."

Hagrid gave a hearty chuckle. "Nobody in their right mind would want ter learn about Knarls over Chimaeras!"

"You're not actually showing us Chimaeras, are you?" I asked in alarm.

"Don't be daft!" Hagrid exclaimed.

I felt momentarily relieved.

"Don't yeh know how hard it is ter get Chimaera eggs?" Hagrid said resentfully.

My relief vanished.

Well, I tried my best. The good news is that he does have something planned. The bad news is that the lesson may or may not end with someone losing a limb. I hope it's Umbridge, at least.

11:14 p.m.

"Hermione," Parvati just called from within her fortress of solitude. "What rhymes with melancholy?"

"Er…perhaps the diary and the poetry thing were bad ideas," I said quickly. "Maybe you should just talk to Lavender. I'm sure you'd feel better if you two just talked this out."

"I shall never speak to her again," Parvati said solemnly. "Iron has entered my heart, Hermione."

Now she's put on the Wireless and it's playing that dreadful song by that witch with the excessive, dark eye makeup and the throaty voice…ugh.

In other news, Ron's decided to stay on the Quidditch team, possibly because if he quit now they wouldn't even have half a Quidditch team. Angelina's slowly coming to terms with reality and she's holding tryouts next week sometime. Ginny admitted that she's been thinking about trying out for Seeker. I think it would be absolutely wonderful for Ginny if she made it. I hope Harry won't be angry with her if she takes his position...but they do need a new Seeker, and Ginny's quite good, from what I understand.

Ron was really down on himself when he finally came back to the common room on Saturday night, right before I noticed Hagrid was back. I think his self-esteem reached an all-time low. I swear I will get Malfoy back for that song. But after we visited Hagrid I think things were put in perspective for Ron. After all, he'd only done poorly at a Quidditch game; it wasn't as if he traveled to the European mountains and back and got beaten on by giants essentially for nothing. Anyway, Ron doesn't seem to be inconsolably depressed anymore, so that's good.

I er…sort of forgot to take off that horrible bracelet Saturday night, and he noticed when we got back from Hagrid's. Harry went straight to bed when we got back, but as prefects Ron and I have to ensure that the common room is spotless before we go to bed, and it looked as if Fred and George had decided to take out their frustration with Umbridge by spraying the entire room with an abundance of what I thought was Silly String, but turned out to be another patented Weasley invention that had the annoying habit of wrapping itself around your hands and arms and trying to squeeze the life out of you when you picked it up.

"I heard them talking about this stuff," Ron said gloomily, trying to disentangle himself from a load of it. "Serpent String…'all the power of a boa constrictor', or some rubbish like that."

"Argh, get off!" I growled as a particularly violent piece bound my wrists together and started squeezing. I struggled in vain to grab my wand, which is no easy feat with bound wrists.

"Hang on, I got it," Ron said, successfully disentangling himself and grabbing his own wand. He took a step forward and grabbed my bound wrists. "Immobilus," he said, careful to tap the Serpent String and not my wrists. It fell, unmoving, to the ground.

Ron rubbed my wrists and then seemed to realize what he was doing. He hastily let his arms drop to the side. "You okay?" he muttered, looking embarrassed.

"Yeah, thanks," I muttered back.

Insert uncomfortable silence here. I rubbed my wrists some. The remaining Serpent String decided to surrender and stopped moving after seeing the fate met by its brethren.

"Hey," Ron said suddenly, gesturing to the bracelet. He looked fairly pleased.

"Oh," I said, flustered. "I er…wore it for Quidditch…I mean, for luck, you know."

A gloomy look returned to Ron's face. "Didn't do much good, did it?" he sighed. "Oh well…thanks…that was…er…nice of you. It…um…looks nice…on you."

The horrible, horrible bracelet dangled from my wrist, looking appalling.

"Thanks," I said weakly.

Drats. Now I may actually have to wear it once and awhile.

Harry's doubled his devotion to the DA in the few days since he was banned from Quidditch. Today he spent almost all of his time in class writing out ideas for spells to try out at the next DA meeting, and doodling Cho's name on his Slinkhard textbook. Part of me wants to lecture him, but it makes him happy, and he feels like he's doing something to get back at Umbridge, so I'm just going to let him be. That, and I welcome any and all graffiti on the Slinkhard textbook.

Well, I should go to sleep. Hopefully Hagrid will avoid disaster tomorrow.

"Parvati?" I just tried. "I'm going to sleep, are you going to be up much longer?"

"Yes," Parvati's muffled voice replied miserably. "How can I possibly enter the peace of slumber when I'm in the depths of despair?"

It's going to be a wonderful week.

Weekly Goals

1. Reconcile Parvati and Lavender for the sake of my own sanity.

2. Do not allow Hagrid to be sacked!!!

3. Encourage Harry's DA-related activities, but stress the importance of completing homework as well.

4. Potions major essay (due next Friday and I haven't even started yet…absolutely horrendous).

5. House elf clothes.

6. Continue tutoring Neville in Potions - help him with essay when I'm finished my own?

7. Arithmancy Checkpoint #6.