Okay, this chapter has been posted early for a very good reason: today is the release of Star Wars Episode 3 Revenge of the Sith! And I have seen it. My parents treated me to the first ever showing at our local cinema this morning at 9:30, which also meant I had the morning off from school as well…FANTASTIC ending to the Star Wars saga.
Because of its release, I thought my reviewers should have a treat as well, so I thought I'd update a little earlier, though I won't update this Saturday, but the Saturday after.
Enjoy! And make sure that if you are interested in seeing how Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader, then see Episode 3. Believe me, it brought tears to my own eyes…
Okay, enough of Star Wars, and onto Harry Potter…Here it is Hagrid's Tale!
Prongs Rides Again
Chapter Twenty-Two: Hagrid Returns
James raised a fist and knocked hard on the wooden door. From inside came the sounds of barking and the scuffle of large feet, rushing to open the door. James tensed, wondering what Hagrid would say when he saw him. After all, the last time that the gamekeeper had seen James alive was about a month before his death. It had probably been a big shock when he had been told about his return. But then so had everyone else.
"I'm comin'" he heard Hagrid shout from within his hut.
"This is it, mate." James whispered to the dog at his side. Sirius wined in response.
The door opened and Hagrid's head appeared.
James stepped back as Hagrid came into view. He gasped. Speechless, he just gaped at the sight of the gamekeeper.
Hagrid's face was covered in bruises and cuts; a black eye had reduced his left one to a puffy slit. Dried blood covered the top of his hair, and it was obvious from the looks of things that Hagrid had only just returned from his little venture, wherever that had been.
"Come in, James." Hagrid said, looking a bit in awe of James. "You too, Sirius."
Hagrid closed the door as soon as they had stepped into his hut, and Sirius immediately transformed, proclaiming: "What the heck happened to you?"
James elbowed his friend in the side. "Now that's not very polite." He whispered. Sirius sighed. James focused his hazel gaze on the gamekeeper. "I gather your mission went well?" Though he had no actual proof that Hagrid had been on a mission, the nature of Dumbledore's letter suggested that he had been doing something for the Order. That had kept him way from Hogwarts far longer then Dumbledore had possibly wanted him to.
Hagrid leaned over and picked up a piece of meat, which James instantly recognised as dragon's meat. Before he could say anything, Hagrid had slapped it over the left side of his face. From his Care of Magical Creature classes James knew that Hagrid was doing that to ease the stinging. He didn't require an explanation.
As James was about to ask about Hagrid's mission, their came another knock at the door. Then a familiar voice sounded.
"Hagrid! It's us!"
James rolled his eyes. He'd had no clue that Harry was close to the gamekeeper, but obviously he was. Hagrid moved forward, the steak still pressed to his eye. He opened the door, and a shrill, female scream echoed out.
Hermione.
"I'm sorry, Hagrid…it's just that…" the voice trailed off as Hagrid moved to the side to let them.
The trio of friends walked into the hut and settled themselves onto stools. It was only then did Harry notice James and Sirius sitting there as well.
"What are you doing here?" he asked.
James grinned. "Same reason you are, I expect, to find out what Hagrid's been up to."
Hagrid grunted. "Fortunately only your father has been authorised ter hear what I've got ter say, and while you're 'ere Harry, I can't say nothin'."
"Why not?" Harry asked, clearly annoyed that he wasn't trusted. After all Hagrid was his friend. He deserved to know. "You've been somewhere dangerous. You're hurt."
Hagrid shuffled uncomfortably.
"It's for the Order, Harry," James spoke up, "you can't know about this."
"You want looking for the giants, didn't you, Hagrid?" Hermione asked, standing up and facing the half-man, half-giant, with her stare.
James waited with baited breath. How would Hagrid take this?
"Giants? Who said anythin' abou' giants? Who yeh bin talkin' to? Who's told yeh what I've - who's said I've bin - eh?"
"We guessed." Hermione said, apologetically.
"Oh, yeh did, did yeh?"
"It was kind of… obvious." Ron interjected.
James had to give them credit. All three of them were observant of anything. Nothing could get by them.
"Never known kids like you three fer knowin' more'n yeh oughta. An' I'm not complimentin' yeh, neither. Nosy, some'd call it. Interferin'."
"So you have been looking for giants." James prompted. If Harry was not going to leave until he had heard the full story, then he may as well get Hagrid speaking about it.
"Yeah, I have." Hagrid responded.
"And you found them?" Hermione whispered, fear evident in her voice.
"Well, they're not that difficult ter find, ter be honest," said Hagrid. "Pretty big, see."
"Where are they?" said Ron.
"Mountains." Replied Hagrid, albeit a little unhelpfully.
Ron frowned. "So if they are in the mountains, how come the Muggles -?"
"They do," said James, "It's quite obvious really."
"Huh?"
"The Muggle mountaineers are killed by the giants, but when they are found, they find evidence suggesting that they fell off the cliff to their deaths. The Muggles don't see how giants could exist. The same with Witches and Wizards. Anything supernatural happening, they put it down to either scientific or religious, or they change the story entirely."
Sirius nodded in agreement. "Exactly. They put the deaths of thirteen Muggles down as a gas explosion rather then magic. That's how ignorant Muggles really are of other kinds."
"So Fudge still won't hear you out?" Hagrid asked.
"Nope." Sirius sighed.
"I tried but…" James shrugged. "Unfortunately Fudge would prefer to remain incompetent in what really happened that night."
"Oh…"
"Which is why Sirius is here with me, disguised as a dog during daylight hours."
"That explains wot Professor Dumbledore meant by a dog runnin' round the castle."
"Hey! I do not run around the castle!"
James laughed. "Obviously Dumbledore believes otherwise. Just drop it Padfoot." He said. "Anyway we were talking about the giants?"
"Not while these three are 'ere." Hagrid responded.
"Come on, Hagrid, tell us what you've been up to!" said Ron. "Tell us about being attacked by the giants and Harry can tell you about being attacked by the Dementors -"
He was cut off by Hagrid practically choking on his drink. "Whadda yeh mean, attacked by Dementors?"
"Didn't you know?" Hermione asked, wide-eyed.
"I don' know anythin' that's bin happenin' since I left. I was on a secret mission, wasn' I, didn' wan' owls followin' me all over the place - ruddy Dementors! Yeh're not serious?"
When he had been younger, James would've responded to that last question as 'I'm Sirius, I'm James. Are you sure you don't need your eyes tested?' But now when that remark came up he remained silent. This situation was serious; it was no time for laughing or joking.
Harry continued the story. "Yeah, I am, they turned up in Little Whinging and attacked me and my cousin, and then the Ministry of magic expelled me -"
"WHAT!" Hagrid exploded.
"-and I had to go to a hearing and everything, but tell us about the giants first."
"You were expelled?"
"Tell us about your summer and I'll tell you about mine." Harry prompted.
Blackmail. James grinned. Pure and simple. Harry wanted to know what Hagrid was up to, while Hagrid wanted to know about the Dementors. There was only one way that Hagrid would get his story, and that was to tell Harry, Ron and Hermione what had happened to him.
Sighing, Hagrid gave in. "All righ'." During the brief discussion, the steak that Hagrid had been covering over his left eye, had fallen to the ground and his dog, Fang was chewing on it. Without seemingly a care about hygiene, Hagrid picked it up and slapped it onto his face.
"Well, we set off righ' after term ended -"
"We?" James and Sirius asked at the same time.
"Madame Maxine." Hermione responded. "She did go with you then, right?"
"Yeah. Jus' the pair of us. An' I'll tell yeh this, she's not afraid of roughin' it. Olympe. Yeh know, she's a fine, well dressed woman, an' knowin' where we was goin' I wondered 'ow she'd feel abou' clamberin' over boulders an' sleepin' in caves an' tha' bu' she never complained once."
"Then you knew where you were going?" James asked. "You knew where the giants were?"
Hagrid nodded. "Dumbledore told us. He knew."
"Are they hidden?" Ron asked. "Is it a secret where they are?"
"Not really." Hagrid shook his shaggy head. "It's jus' that mos' wizards aren' bothered where they are, s'long as it's a good long way away. But where they are's very difficult ter get ter, fer humans anyway, so we needed Dumbledore's instructions. Took us abou' a month ter get there-"
"A month?" Ron bellowed, surprised. "But - why couldn't you just grab a Portkey or something?"
Hagrid smiled sadly from beneath the steak.
"All of us are being watched." James responded. "Anyone seen or suspected to be in league with Dumbledore is being looked out for. If they do anything that the Ministry doesn't like then they can just haul us in."
"We know the Ministry's watching Dumbledore-" Harry was keen to hear the rest of Hagrid's story.
"So you had to act like Muggles?" Ron asked.
"Not exactly all the way." Said Hagrid cagily. "We ju' had ter be careful, 'cause Olype an' me, we stick out a bit-"
Ron and Sirius both made a stifled noise somewhere between a snort and a hasty sniff. James elbowed Sirius in the stomach, while Ron took a sip from his tea.
Hagrid continued. "-so we're not hard ter follow. We was pretendin' we was goin' on holiday together, so we got inter France an' we made like we was headin' fer where Olympe's school is, 'cause we knew we was bein' trailed by someone from the Ministry. We had ter go slow 'cause I'm not really s'posed ter use magic an' we knew the Ministry'd be lookin' fer a reason ter run us in. But we managed ter give the berk tailin' us the slip round abou' Dee-John-"
Hermione squealed in excitement. "Ooooh, Dijon? I've been there on holiday! Did you see…"
"Hermione, now is not the time." James warned, and he watched as her face fell.
"We chanced a bit o' magic after that an' it wasn' a bad journey. Ran inter a couple o' mad trolls on the Polish border an' I had a sligh' disagreement with a vampire in a pub in Minsk, bu' apart from tha' couldn't'a bin smoother."
Hagrid sighed. Closing his eyes he seemed to remember. They waited for him to continue his story.
"An' then we reached the place, an' we started trekkin' up through the mountains, lookin' fer signs of 'em….We had ter lay off magic once we got near 'em. Partly 'cause they don' like wizards an' we didn' want ter put their backs up too soon, an' partly 'cause Dumbledore had warned us that You-Know-Who was bound ter be after the giants an' all. Said it was odds on he'd sent a messenger off ter them alread. Told us ter be very careful of drawin' attention ter ourselves as we got nearer in case there was Death Eater's around."
He took a sip of tea and sat back.
"Go on!" James urged, ready to hear the rest. He could feel that they were coming to the pinnacle point of the story.
"Found 'em. Went over a ridge one nigh' an' there they was, spread ou' underneath us. Little fires burnin' below an' huge shadows…it was like watchin' buts o' the mountain movin."
"How big are they?" Ron asked in awe.
"Bout twenty feet," said Hagrid casually, "Some o' the bigger ones mighta bin twenty-five."
"How many were there?" Harry asked.
"I reckon abou' seventy or eighty," Hagrid estimated.
"Is that all?" Hermione asked.
"Yes," said Hagrid sadly, "eighty left, an' there was loads once, musta bin a hundred diff'rent tribes from all over the world. Bu' they've bin dyin' out fer ages. Wizards killed a few o' course, bu' mostly they killed each other, an' now they're dyin' out faster than ever. They're not made ter live bunched up together like tha'. Dumbledore says its our fault, it was the wizards who forced 'em to go an' made 'em live a good long way from us an' they had no choice bu' ter stick together fer their own protection."
"But you saw them though." Sirius said.
Hagrid nodded. "Well, we waited till morning, didn' want ter go sneakin' up on 'em in the dark, fer our own safety. 'Bout three in the mornin' they fell asleep jus' where they was sittin'. We didn' dare sleep. Fer one thing we wanted ter make sure none of 'em woke up an' came up where we were, an' fer another, the snorin' was unbelievable. Caused an avalanche near mornin'."
"Anyway, once it was light we wen' down ter see 'em."
James gasped. "You walked right in."
Hagrid shrugged. "Well, yeah, bu' Dumbledore had shown us how ter do it. Give the Gurg gifts, show some respect, yeh know."
"The what?" Harry asked.
"The Gurg." James explained. He knew a little but about giants. "He's the chief."
"How can you tell which one is the Gurg?" Hermione asked.
Hagrid grunted in amusement, but James answered the question.
"Simple. The biggest, the ugliest and the laziest. He was probably sitting there waiting to be brought food by the others."
"How'd you know that?" Harry asked, amazed his father knew anything about giants.
James grinned. "We learnt a bit about the giants in History of Magic."
"Please continue Hagrid." Harry prompted.
"Your father's right. The Gurg was exactly that. Name o' Karkus. We walked down ter him, where he was lyin' in the valley. They was in this dip between four pretty high mountains, see, beside a mountain lake, an' Karkus was lyin' roarin' at the others ter feed him an' his wife. Olympe an' I went down the mountainside-"
"Didn't they try to kill you when they saw you?" asked Ron incredulously.
"It was def'nitely on some o' their minds," said Hagrid, shrugging, "but we did what Dumbledore told us ter do, which was ter hold our gift high an' keep our eyes on the Gurg an' ignore the others. So tha's what we did. An' the rest of 'em went quiet an' watched us pass an' we got right up ter Karkus's feet an' we bowed an' put our present down in front o' him."
"Let me guess," Sirius said, "the gift was a branch of Gubraithian fire."
"Huh?" Harry asked.
Hermione uttered. "A branch of everlasting fire. Honestly, you ought to know that by now. Professor Flitwick has mentioned it at least twice in class!"
"Exactly," Hagrid replied, "Anyway, Dumbledore'd bewitched this branch to burn fer evermore, which isn' somethin' any wizard could do, an' so I lies it down in the snow by Karkus's feet and says, 'A gift to the Gurg of the giants from Albus Dumbledore, who sends his respectful greetings."
"And what did they say?" James asked.
"Nothin'," Hagrid simply said, "Didn' speak English."
"You're kidding!"
"Didn' matter. Dumbledore had warned us tha' migh' happen. Karkus knew enough to yell fer a couple o' giants who knew our lingo an' they translated fer us."
"Did he like the present?" Sirius asked.
"Oh yeah, once they understood what it was. So I said, 'Albus Dumbledore asks the Gurg to speak with his messenger when he returns tomorrow with another gift."
"Why couldn't you speak that day?" Harry questioned.
"Simple," James answered, "If you go too fast, you'll hurt the giants feelings. If you go slow through the process it is likely that you will make friends with them instead of turning them into your enemies. Also some giants don't like too much information. Am I right?"
Hagrid nodded his approval. "Otherwise they migh' jus' kill you." So we left' tha' night and spent it in a cave until the followin' mornin' when we went back and found Karkus sittin' up and waitin' fer us lookin' all eager."
"And this time you talked to him?" Harry asked.
"Oh yeah. Firs' we presented him with a nice battle helmet - goblin-made an' indestructible, yeh know - an' then we sat down an' we talked."
Sirius leaned into James and whispered: "I was unaware that humans could talk in giant."
"He had someone to translate, you idiot." James responded.
Sirius scowled. "I know that! I was just trying to lighten the mood."
James sighed and focused his attention back on Hagrid.
"What did he say?" Ron said.
"Not much, he listened mostly. Bu' there were good signs. He'd heard of Dumbledore, heard he'd argued against the killin' o' last giants in Britain. Karkus seemed ter be quite int'rested in what Dumbledore had ter say. An' a few o' the others, 'specially the ones who had some English, they gathered round an' listened too. We were hopeful when we left that day. Promised ter come back next mornin; with another present. Bu' that night it all wen' wrong."
James sat up straighter, his hazel eyes full of worry.
"What d'you mean?" said Ron quickly.
"Well, like I say, they're not meant ter live together, giants, not in big groups like. They can' help themselves, they half kill each other every few weeks. The men fight each other an' the woman fight each other; the remnants of the old tribes fight each other, an' that's even without squabbles over food an' the best fires and' sleepin' spots. Yeh'd think, seein' as how their whole race is abou' finished, they'd lay off each pther, bu'…"
Hagrid sighed, obviously annoyed about the fact that their mission had gone wrong by what he was about to relate next.
"That night a fight broke out, we saw it from the mouth of our cave, lookin' down on the valley. Went on fer hours, yeh wouldn' believe the noise. An' when the sun came up the snow was scarlet an' his head was lyin' at the bottom o' the lake."
James had a horrible feeling what was about to be said next.
"Whose head?" Hermione numbly whispered.
"Karkus's. There was a new Gurg, Golgomath. We hadn' bargained on a new Gurg two days after we'd made friendly contact with the firs' one, an' we had a funny feelin' Golgomath wouldn' be so keen ter listen to us, bu' we had ter try."
"You went to speak to him?" asked Ron incredulously.
"After you'd watched him rip off another giant's head?" Harry urged.
Hagrid nodded. "Course we did. We hadn' gone all that way ter give up after two days! We wen' down with the next present we'd meant ter give Karkus. I knew it was no go before I'd opened me mouth. He was sittin' there wearin' Karkus's helmet, leerin' at us as we got nearer. He's massive, one o' biggest ones there. Black hair an' matchin' teeth an' a necklace o' bones. Human-lookin' bones some of 'em. Well, I gave it a go - held out a great roll o' dragon skin - an' said, 'A gift fer the Gurg of the giants-' Nex' thing I knew, I was hangin' upside-down in the air by me feet, two of his mates had grabbed me."
Hermione gasped; Ron looked horrified and Harry responded: "How did you get out of that?"
"Wouldn'ta done if Olympe hadn' bin there," Hagrid explained. "She pulled out her wand an' did some o' the fastest spellwork I've ever seen. Ruddy marvellous. Hitthe two holdin' me right in the eyes with Conjunctivitus Curses an' they dropped me straightaway - bu' we were in trouble then, cause…"
"You used magic." James supplied instantly.
"Yeah. We had ter leg it an' we knew there was no way we was going ter be able ter march inter the camp again."
"Blimey, Hagrid." Said Ron quietly.
"You could've been killed." Harry said.
Hagrid shrugged. "It's part of me job. Anyways, we left and went up into the mountains."
"If you were there for only three days, how come its taken you so long to get home?" Hermione asked, curiosity evident in her features.
"We didn' leave after three days!" Hagrid look outraged at the words. "Dumbledore was relyin' on us!"
Hermione bit her lip. "But you just said there was no way you could go back!"
"Not by daylight we couldn', no. We jus' had ter rethink a bit. Spent a couple o' days lyin low up in the cave an' watching. An' wah' we saw wasn' good."
James whispered into Sirius ear. "Why do I get the feeling that Voldemort is involved in this somehow?"
"He always is." Sirius responded.
"Did he rip off more heads?" Hermione asked, hoping that that wasn't what Hagrid was talking about.
"No, but I wish he had though."
"What d'you mean?" Hermione said.
"I mean we soon found out he didn' object ter all wizards - just us."
Harry was quick on the uptake, which James marvelled him for. "Death Eaters?"
"Yep," Hagrid said sadly, his shoulders drooping. "Couple of 'em were visitin' him ev'ry day, bringin' gifts ter the Gurg, an' he wasn' dangling them upside-down."
Ron frowned. "How'd you know they were Death Eaters?"
"Because I recognised one of 'em. Macnair, remember him? Bloke they sent ter kill Buckbeak? Maniac…"
"Who's Buckbeak?" James asked, whispering to Sirius.
"I'll tell you later."
James nodded.
"So Macnair's persuaded the giants to join You-Know-Who?" said Hermione desperately.
"I haven' finished me story yet!" Hagrid said in defence. "Me an' Olympe talked it over an' we agreed, jus' 'cause the Gurg looked like favourin' You-Know-Who didn' mean all of 'em would. We had ter try an' persuade some o' the others, the ones who hadn' wanted Golgomath as Gurg."
"How would you know that?" Ron asked, indignantly.
James had to admit that Ron Weasley had a point.
"Simple. They were the ones bein' beaten to a pulp. The ones with any sense were keepin' outta Golgomath's way hidin' out in caves roun' the gully jus' like we were. So we decided to go pokin' round the caves by night an' see if we couldn' persuade a few of them."
"You went poking around dark caves looking for giants?" said Ron, who could hardly believe what he was hearing.
Hagrid shrugged. "Well, it wasn' the giants who worried us most."
"Death Eaters?" James asked, knowing full well that the answer would be yes.
"Yeah, Dumbledore told us before we wen' ter tangle with 'em if we could avoid it, an' trouble was they knew we was around -s'pect Galgomath told 'em abou' us. At night, when the giants were sleepin' an' we wanted ter be creepin' inter the caves, Macnair an' the other one were sneakin' round the mountains lookin' fer us."
"Judging by this Olympe character, I am not surprised she didn't try to jump out at those two." James remarked.
"She tried to, bu' we couldn' afford ter be seen." Hagrid explained. "Very fiery woman…'spect the French in her."
James noticed that Hagrid's eyes had gone all misty. He exchanged glances with Sirius who tossed him a grin. It was obvious that their game keeping friend liked this Olympe.
"So, what happened? Did you ever get near any of the other giants?" Harry prompted after thirty seconds had passed.
Hagrid did a double take. So focused on Olympe he had been, that he had forgotten he had visitors. "What? Oh…oh, yeah, we did. Yeah, on the third night after Karkus was killed we crept outta the cave we'd bin hidin' in an' headed back down inter the gully, keepin' our eyes skinned fer the Death Eaters. Got inside a few o' caves, no go - then, in abou' the sixth one, we found three giants hidin'."
Hermione looked horrified.
"Cave must've been cramped." Ron muttered.
"Wasn' room ter swing a Kneazle." Hagrid said, catching the significance of the joke.
"Didn't they attack when they saw you?" Hermione asked.
"Probably woulda done if they'd bin in any condition, but they was badly hurt, all three o' them. Beaten by Golgomath's lot. They'd crawled inta the nearest shelter they could find. Anyway, one o' them had a bit of English an' 'e translated fer the others, an' what we had ter say didn' seem ter go down too badly. So we kep' goin back, visitin' the wounded…I reckon we had abou' six or seven o' them convinced at one poin'."
"Six or seven?" James and Ron said, simultaneously.
"That's not bad - are they going to come over here and start fighting You-Know-Who with us?"
Hermione was looking at Hagrid with an expression of confusion. Then something clicked. "What do you mean 'at one point'"
"They didn't come did they, Hagrid," James said, sorrow filling his heart.
"That Golgomath's lot attacked them, didn't they?" Sirius predicted.
Hagrid nodded sadly. "That's right."
"So, they are not coming?" Ron asked, to confirm it.
"Nope. None whatsoever. But we did wha' we meant ter do, we gave 'em Dumbledore's message an' some o' then heard it an' I 'spect some o' them'll remember it. Jus' maybe, them that don' want ter stay around Golgomath'll move outta the mountains, an there's gotta be a chance they'll remember Dumbledore's friendly to 'em…could be they'll come."
Hagrid clasped his hands together and it was apparent that his tale had finished.
"Hagrid?" said Hermione. "Did you…was there any sign of…did you hear anything about your…your…mother while you were there?"
Hagrid shook his head. "No. She died years ago. They told me."
"I'm so sorry, Hagrid." Hermione apologised.
"No need," Hagrid said shortly. "She wasn' a great mother. Can't remember her much."
The room was silent.
Sirius frowned. "There's just one thing you haven't answered."
"And wha's that?"
"You haven't explained why you are so late back."
Harry piped in. "Or how you got in that state."
"Who attacked you?" Ron asked.
"I haven' bin attacked! I-" Hagrid's voice broke off as a shrill knocking erupted on his door. Through the window, James could tell that someone small and squat stood behind the door.
"Umbridge!" he whispered, urgently.
Immediately Sirius transformed, and Harry, Ron and Hermione slipped under the Invisibility cloak that they had used to sneak across the grounds. They huddled together, backing into a corner. James placed his chair in front of them, with Sirius as a dog at his side. Hagrid, meanwhile, hid any evidence that the trio was in the hut.
"Open the door." James instructed.
Hagrid did so and he came face to face with Umbridge.
"You're Hagrid, are you?" She pushed her way into his hut.
"I don' want ter be rude, but who the ruddy hell are you?"
"My name is Dolores Umbridge." Her eyes swept the cabin, focusing on James. "Ah, Professor Potter, what are you doing here?"
"Is it a crime to talk to an old friend?" James asked.
She scowled but did not comment.
"Dolores Umbridge?" Hagrid questioned. "I thought you were one o' them Ministry - don' you work with Fudge?"
"I was Senior Undersecretary to the Minister, yes."
"She's now the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher," James answered.
"-and Hogwarts High Inquisitor." Said Umbridge giving no sign that she had heard him.
"What's that?" Hagrid asked, thoroughly confused.
"Precisly what I was going to ask." Umbridge explained, pointing to a smashed cup on the floor, which Hermione had broken in her haste to hide under the cloak.
"That was mine." James replied, before Hagrid to muster a response. "I broke my cup so I had to use another one."
"And what about the visitors. I heard children in here." Umbridge said sweetly.
"There's no children." Hagrid said.
"Just me." James grinned.
"I find that hard to believe." Hogwarts High Inquisitor said. "Just one more thing: where have you been? Term started two months ago."
"I've been away - fer me health."
"For your health?" Umbridge asked slyly, clearly unconvinced.
"Yeah…bit o' fresh air."
Idiot. James thought.
"Yes, as gamekeeper fresh air must be so difficult to come by."
Hagrid flushed. "Well - change o' scenery, yeh know-"
"Mountains?" Umbridge asked.
James stared in horror. How did that old bat know?
"Mountains?" Hagrid repeated/ "Nope, South o' France fer me. Bit o' sun an'…an' sea."
"Really? You don't have much of a tan?" Umbridge questioned, clearly enjoying herself.
"Sensitive skin." said Hagrid.
"I shall be of course informing the Minister of your late return. As High Inquisitor, it is my unfortunate duty to inspect my fellow teachers. So i daresay we shall meet again soon enough."
She turned sharply and made to leave. James breathed a sigh of relief.
"You're inspectin' us?" Hagrid repeated blankly.
Umbridge smiled sweetly, causing James to feel ill to the stomach. That smile…was just revolting. "Oh, yes. The Ministry is determined to weed out unsatisfactory teachers, Hagrid. Goodnight."
She left, closing the door to Hagrid's hut as she went.
A few minutes passed before Sirius transformed back into a human, followed by Harry, Ron and Hermione from under the Invisibility Cloak.
"Inspectin' people, is she?"
James nodded. "Yeah, I've been given a warning. I'm not on probation, but I'm sure she will find a way to get me kicked out."
"You never told me about this warning!" Harry exclaimed, looking annoyed at the fact that his father had kept this from him.
James shrugged. "You never asked."
Harry scowled. "What did it say?"
"Basically, it warned me that I should respect the students opinions on what they learn."
"What?" Hermione asked.
"Apparently I should ask students what they think of the current magical creatures they are studying and ask them to write more about them." James grimaced. "I get the feeling she only wrote that to try and find a way to get me fired and in trouble with the Ministry. She has it in for me."
"Now that Hagrid's back, are you still teaching us?" Ron asked.
"Well, I was hoping that I could continue teaching alongside you, if that was okay?" James turned to Hagrid.
"Tha's fine." replied Hagrid.
"We'll work on the details later." James added. "Now, I think it's time for the rest of us to retire to bed." He pointedly looked at the trio.
"Come on guys," Harry said, catching the hint, "we'd better go before dad turns us in."
The trio then left, covering themselves in the Invisibility Cloak.
Sirius transformed back into a dog and sat patiently waiting for James.
"It's good ter see ya again James." Hagrid said, smiling through his beard.
James bowed his head. "You too, Hagrid. It's good to be back here. Especially in a place that I love and hold a lot of memories of."
He turned to leave. "I'll see you tomorrow, to talk over lesson plans."
"Righ'." Hagrid replied, and then, as James walked out of his hut, he shut the door, and sat back down to heal himself.
Three days after the Quidditch match and Hagrid's return, was the first lesson of Care of Magical Creatures that James would co-teach. They had already been informed that Umbridge would be coming to inspect them and James had been trying to persuade Hagrid to teach something sensible, however he was adamant that the Ministry official wouldn't mind him showing the students Thestrals.
James had reluctantly accepted, though he knew it would spell doom. Once Hagrid got his mind onto something there was no changing it. Either way he would have to wait and see what transpired during the lesson. He only hoped Hagrid wouldn't fowl it up.
Umbridge was not there at the beginning of the lesson, so the two proceeded to lead the class into the Forbidden Forest, to a clearing where sun fell through the gaps in the trees. James let Hagrid take rein of the class and watched as he explained about the magical creature and then threw meat to the ground.
James was surprised when a horse - a black one - with wings emerged into the clearing. Hazel eyes widened. Glancing round he saw that some students had a look of confusion on their faces. What were they meant to see?
"Hagrid?" James asked, his throat tight. "Why can I see them and others can't?"
"Simple. Can anyone tell me why some o' yeh can see 'em an' some can't?" he addressed the question to the class.
Hermione raised her hand and answered: "The only people who can see Thestrals are people who have seen death."
"Tha' right. So that's how yeh can see 'em James."
It made sense now. After all he had been dead. He had seen death before. He had seen his parents die so he supposed that qualified. Harry, of course, must have seen either Lily die or that Cedric Diggory he had told him about during the summer.
Suddenly came the sound that James had been dreading.
"Hem, hem."
Oh no.
"You received the note I sent to your cabin this morning? Telling you that I would be inspecting your lesson?"
"Oh, yeah!" replied Hagrid. "Glad yeh found the place all righ'! Well, as you can see - or I dunno - can you? We're doin' Thestrals today-"
He was cut off by Umbridge. "I'm sorry? What did you say?" she said this rather loudly to make it clear that she was trying to bait him.
Don't fall for it. James thought.
Unfortunately Hagrid did. "Er - Thestrals! Big - er - winged horses, yeh know?" He flapped his arms demonstrating.
James saw Umbridge look oddly at him. She started to write on her clipboard, muttering clearly under her breath. "Has….to…resort…to…crude…sign…language."
Hagrid was beginning to get flustered. "Well…anyway…erm…what was I sayin'?"
James slapped his head with his hand. He noted that the Slytherins were laughing.
"Appears…to…have…poor…short…term…memory." Umbridge continued, causing more laughter to ring out.
Time to save his skin. James stepped forward, ready to take his place. He cleared his throat. "Right, as you can see here (whether you can or not) we know that Hogwarts has a whole herd of Thestrals. This one," James patted one of animals, "is called Tenebrus. He was the first one born into the forest and Hagrid's favourite. This is the only male that we have. There are five females altogether as well."
Umbridge 'hemmed' again. "Are you aware that that Ministry of Magic has classified Thestrals as 'dangerous'?"
"I am," James added, "I have been trained to deal with these creatures. I know that if they are annoyed or upset by comments made by people, they can be dangerous, but if one follows the proper cautionary then Thestrals will cause no harm."
Umbridge scowled. "I'm going to take a walk. Please continue as normal."
James let Hagrid take over, but just as he was gaining confidence, Pansy Parkinson ruined it by rising to the challenge of saying that she could not understand Hagrid's speech. Hagrid lost his confidence again, causing James to take over.
After getting more responses from the students about Hagrid, Umbridge proclaimed that inspection complete and then left the lesson. So annoyed was James that he almost pulled out his wand and hit her with a hex, however he resisted the temptation and instead concentrated on teaching the rest of the lesson, while Hagrid sat back.
The lesson had not gone well.
December came in, and the end of term hurtled toward them at lightning speed. Between the DA and teaching Care of Magical Creatures, James hardly had time to speak to Harry. One thing he did manage to discover was that Harry had a crush on one of the DA members. A girl called Cho Chang. He promised himself to ask his son about her during the Christmas holidays.
He and Harry had been invited to the Weasley's home for Christmas, meaning that Sirius would be left alone at Grimmauld Place. James vowed to see if his friend could come along.
A few days before the end of term, James was woken by Professor McGonagall. Harry had, had a dream about Arthur Weasley, and what he had seen had come true. Within the hour of being woken up, James, Harry, Sirius and the Weasley's had left to go back to Grimmauld Place.
James had the feeling that this was just the beginning of his troubles.
TBC
Most of Hagrid's speech came directly from the 'Hagrid's Tale' chapter from OOTP, though I modified it to include James and Sirius.
Thank you's go to the following: RoschLupin-Black; Loonie Potter; Crazy-Physco; Suicidal Bunnies; Rogue200315; PrincessSkywalkerOrgana; xLaceMeWithWindx; Lunatic Pandora1; supernova8610; Padfoot's Sidekick; Birchy; Lilac (I don't think Singapore is for me…maybe a bit too hot…); amrawo; faeriekittie306animelover; Eric2; xodanielle03ox; JTBJAB; americanidalfreak; nogoalielikeme; Daftlilme; Sirius-Black-SFan; zippyfox; IamSiriusgrl; emuerz; magicgirl45852; The Kaizeress; Hazel Maraa; and RainingInsanity.
realpyromaniac: Well British weather is mainly rain, but every now and then we get a burst of sunlight. I am considering moving to a hotte country but that means leaving my family and I don't want to do that.
littlewolf-moony: If I'm hinting at a H/HR romance then that is not my intention. I can't write romance at all. I will only include romance if it happens in the book, so whether Ron and Hermione eventaully get together depends on what happens in the sixth book. I'm waiting like the rest of you to see how it all turns out. As I'm following the plot for the books I don't intend to delve to far from the original book. Yeah, I need to add in more facial expressions and stuff to give the characters more personality. James didn't go to team practices because he doesn't want to distract them and its not a teachers place to really do that. Besides he's been busy getting used to the fact that he's alive again and teaching. Hagrid does know about James being alive because Dumbledore's informed him before he sent the letter in the last chapter. I just didn't mention that. You envy me for living in the UK. Excuse me for laughing but when you said about extreme heat that is a bit of an overstatement. Last year we had two to three weeks in the summer of a heat wave and no rain…I know you have worse but every summer we have more and more sun than the last one. The rain comes in the Winter, but because of the heat wave last summer we haven't had much rain, instead we had mountains of snow falling, which was quite good, but then its got hot again! My first exam is this Monday…which is ICT and since I failed the first time I don't have much optimism that I'll do well this time, but I have tried my best this time…Thank you for your very long review!
HarrysGrl: Two reviews from you! Thanks for telling me that you reviewed twice though! I actually thought new reviewer! I hope this chapter answered your questions!
Ambereyes2873: Don't apologise for the randomness. I quite enjoy reading the rants and raves of the reviewers. Thank you for your wonderful insight into my latest chapter. I hope you enjoyed this one as well!
empatheticallychosen: Sirius is useless in this story because he is still in hiding. No one can see him or he'll be given to the Dementors.
Lady Taliesin: For the rating of your story I reckon you should be cautious and give it a T (is that the highest?) or if K+ is higher give it that rating just to be cautious. Yes, my dad owns a digital camera so if I draw the picture I can put it on the computer and send it you. Fantastic idea! Thanks! If I'm leaning towards Harry/Hermione relationship in the writing, then that is not what I mean to do. So if it came out like that when I said that Hermione is like Lily, its just that James is recognising certain qualities that Lily had in Hermione. Ahhh, I don't hate Ron. He's quite a good character to write about but since this story isn't about him, I'm not expanding on his character. Yes, James was a chaser, though people tell me that he was a Seeker, but that is wrong because JKRowling has said HERSELF that James was a Chaser. The Philosopher's Stone film said he was a Seeker, so that people could identify Harry with James easier. And that funny exceprt you made was hilarious. I was laughing for a long while…one of your best I think. I had the image of the 6 Potters carrying a 7th on a stretcher…hehehe. Another typo, DOH! Unfortunately I cannot tell you if James will see the visions Harry sees. The connection will be explained after the incident at the Department of Mysteries. I still haven't made up my mind if Sirius will die or not. I do know James will survive until the end of the sixth book. (I am carrying this fic on into HBP). Yep, I would certainly strangle Malfoy if I had the chance. I'll have to look for that 'project ferret' site. It sounds really interesting. I hope this chapter was long enough for you!
Next chapter: Christmas - this is another long chapter, but not as long as this one! Will be available to read on the 28th May 2005!
Thanks again,
MissBlackPotter