Thank you to my amazing betas Denari and Mdman1! And to my friend Aleah for reading this over.
Special thanks to Guest, anand891996, blacklightningwolf, absolutionism, Amyb11, Nauruhina1519, Amandalucia, Guest, audra626, noone297, snowflake2410, guest, infinateconstellations, trispectrum, Gr8rockstarrox, guest, AnnyJackson19, Scarlet, cw1991, mzfeebs, guest, RandomPerson, Barby03, Malfoy Mouth James MMJ and guest.
And thank you to everyone who showed up to my reddit AMA! It was so much fun answering your questions!
Also, RandomPerson my beta Denari also ships Graham and Draco. Haha Sorry about the plot holes, I wasn't aware I had any. If you want you can message me on the site and I would love to go over them and see if there is a solution.
Chapter 85
"Mr. Montague, I would like a word with you."
Graham paused in his stride to the breakfast table and looked back to see an Auror approaching him. Not just any Auror, he noted, Draco's cousin. He elegantly raised his eyebrow, curious as to how his morning had become so interesting.
"Regarding?"
"I have some questions."
"Regarding?" Graham emphasized, annoyed.
"Your whereabouts last night," the Auror replied coolly, her eyes seeming to darken a considerable amount of shades.
Graham paused. "Am I under suspicion of a crime?"
"Just come with me," Tonks—he believed her last name was Tonks—demanded. Graham made a mental note to brush up on his pureblood gossip. He knew the general story of how this woman came to be, but he never paid attention to the names.
Graham's eyes lazily appraised the woman in front of him. "No, I don't think I will. Not unless you are charging me with a crime."
The lines around the woman's eyes tightened. Graham noted that they tightened very similarly to how Draco's did when he was getting annoyed with him. "You're refusing to be questioned?" she challenged.
"Obviously," Graham drawled lazily.
"Why?"
Graham purposely allowed his mask to slip. In a feign of surprise and indignation. "Because you're not charging me with anything and seem reluctant to explain what you want to question me about. It appears to me that the only reason for such a course of action is to hope I will incriminate myself."
"You seem awfully paranoid for an innocent man."
Graham narrowed his eyes, but refused the bait. He wondered how it was that someone related to Draco so closely could not know how to control their emotions. Granted, Draco and Graces weren't always that good at maintaining their appearances, but they had never been this bad in such a public setting. With a stranger. Looking at this Auror was like reading a book. He could read her far too easily. And from what he was reading he could tell she didn't like him and was already far too irritated with him. He idly wondered if this was a Black trait and then quickly pushed that thought from his head. He regarded Narcissa too highly.
"Where were you last night, Mr. Montague?" the woman before him asked suspiciously.
"Again—" Graham began, his words cold and hard in challenge and contempt "—what does that matter to you?"
"He was with us." Graham turned at Draco's voice. The blond met his eyes briefly, before they turned back to Auror Tonks. Graham smirked, trying to goad the Auror with his smile, when he caught a glimpse of Graces standing a few steps back from Draco.
"You cut your hair," Graham frowned, his eyes not straying from Graces despite how she obviously seemed to wish they would. She gave a small nod and moved closer to her brother. "Why on earth did you do that? You look like Draco."
"It's not that short." Graces flushed, her hands moving to touch the ends of her hair as though she needed reassurance that it truly wasn't that short.
"What? You don't find me handsome, Montague?" Draco challenged, his silver eyes giving him a warning.
Graham gave Draco an assessing look and grinned. "I'd find you more handsome if you had longer hair."
Draco's eyes narrowed and Graham had to turn away so that he wouldn't laugh, or point out that his cousin and him shared the same expression.
"He was with both of you? All night?" Tonks asked slowly, breaking Graham's attention from Draco.
Draco said "yes" at the same time Graces said "no."
Graham and Draco both stared at Graces as she denied Graham's presence. Graham hadn't thought he offended Graces too greatly yesterday afternoon, but now... now he wondered if he had.
"Yes, he was," Draco growled, his eyes glowering at his sister. "All night."
Graham watched as Graces struggled to swallow some emotion. She looked as though she were close to trembling.
"Not with me," she insisted. "I went to bed early, remember?"
Both boys gave Graces a curious stare before nodding and quietly proclaiming that they forgot. The Auror watched them all with insight that made it hard to stand still.
"Don't lie for him," Tonks hissed, her eyes glaring at Draco. No, not glaring, Graham realized, pleading.
Draco raised a cool eyebrow. "I'm not, and how dare you accuse me of lying?"
"You are lying," Tonks accused.
"Prove it." That was Graces' voice, so tense, quiet and cold that Graham found himself having to take a step back. The Auror stared back at her with a familiarity that felt wrong given the situation. "That's what I thought," Graces sneered, taking Graham by his arm and leading him away.
She was trembling. He could feel her body vibrating against his, but he didn't know what to make of it. What to say to it. He looked over at Draco and the other boy didn't seem to notice. He apparently had his own thoughts to attend to.
"So where were you last night?" Draco asked quietly, taking the seat across from him.
Graham flicked him a glance before clearing his throat. "Honestly. I, uh, was in my room all night." Draco's brows twitched together, but he waited for more. Unfortunately, there really wasn't more. "Truly, I was."
"Oh," Draco breathed, slightly deflated.
"Did you want me to be out committing crimes?" Graham asked, taking a sip of his tea.
Draco rolled his eyes. "Of course not."
"You sure? You seemed a bit put out."
"I'm not put out."
Graham smirked a little in his tea. "Missed me last night, Malfoy?"
"Missed your help," Draco corrected, taking his wand and putting up a silencing ward around them. "Now, if you're done flirting with me, I would like to actually talk to you."
"Don't like flirting with me, Malfoy? I'm not pretty enough for you?"
Draco gave him a flat, unreadable look before continuing. "I want to discuss other things. Such as the siren."
"I don't," Graham said coolly, vaguely aware that Graces was leaving the table without so much as a goodbye or a bite of breakfast.
"I. Do," Draco intoned slowly. "She threatened you. She threatened my sister. She threatened me. And now I want to talk about this threat looming over us."
"I believe she said that so long as we left her in peace she would do the same."
Draco frowned. "She attacked you, Graham," he breathed, his body tensing at the memory. "She slashed your face. She—"
"I attacked her first, and it was much more violent. Trust me."
"Graham," Draco began, meeting his eyes with an incredulous look. "What were you—"
"Draco," Graham interrupted, letting his anger seep into his voice. "I am done talking about this. We keep away from her. And thus keep the danger at bay. Understood?"
The blonde snorted and looked like he was going to make another snide remark, causing Graham to bang his fist on the table while repeating that it was done. Draco flinched but said nothing else. Graham ground his teeth as the boy in front of him kept his eyes down as he finished the little bit of porridge he had in his bowl. For the first time he wondered if Draco was afraid of him.
Draco knew that he had killed, and after the incident the other day he probably thought that he got a kick out of attacking those he deemed inferior. Not to mention he had tortured Draco.
"Draco," Graham began, trying a gentler tone that he was sure didn't sound natural on his tongue. "I'm sorry. I'm just—" He thought for a moment. "—embarrassed."
"It's fine," Draco shrugged, waving his hand in dismissal.
"No. It's not." Graham took a breath. "I don't want you frightened of me, Draco."
"I'm not."
"You flinched."
Draco looked away as a flush crept up on his neck.
"I don't want you frightened of me," Graham whispered, thinking of the look in his father's eyes when he saw the mark. "You don't need to be frightened of me. I know I have hurt you, but never because I wanted to."
Draco pushed his bowl away and stood, gathering his belongings so that he could leave. He avoided Graham's eyes as he adjusted his bag on his shoulder.
"I didn't flinch because I was afraid you would hurt me. I flinched because... because you're the only one who talks or spends any time with me these days. Even Graces—when she is around—seems distracted," he said tightly, his eyes still anywhere but on Graham. "And I couldn't bear it if you were mad at me. I couldn't bear to be truly alone."
Draco left and Graham stifled the impulse to follow him. It was too vulnerable a moment and he suspected—based on how and when Draco made his declaration—he wanted to be alone after saying it. Not to mention he wasn't sure he could react to Draco's words in a way that would make him feel any better. So he sat with his breakfast and tried not to think about how lonely Draco must have been last night or what a horrible friend he was to him for not telling him about Sunder… or Graces and Longbottom.
ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
She didn't know where to begin. She felt as though snakes were squirming in her belly. She had felt like that since Nott's attack. The uncomfortable sensation of wrong. There were no other words for it than wrong. How could she look at Neville and explain to him what happened to her? Why she wasn't there. She knew she needed to. She just didn't know how.
She felt alone and isolated. Scared and unsure. She closed her eyes and willed herself to gather. She needed control. Not perfect control, but some.
Students began gathering around her. She ignored the glances, the lingering stares at her hair. Her face. They can't see, she promised herself. She was shaken, but not shaking. She moved her eyes down to the wood of her desk and practiced breathing in through her nose and out through her mouth. She was okay. It was okay. Just another normal day. Just another boring day in Herbology.
She could feel Neville approaching and a tremor went down her spine as her heart pounded in her throat. She couldn't move her eyes from the desk. Even as he took the seat beside her and she could feel his eyes taking in her short hair. She couldn't look at him. She couldn't even breathe.
Neville began arranging the desk. Every second of his silence hammered into her and it took all her will not to let the tears come. She had to say something. She had to. Sprout had already begun class, and still Graces tried to find her voice. The class couldn't end without a word. She needed to say something. She had to.
"I wanted to be there," she began, in a voice that was barely a whisper.
"Then you would have been there."
She knew that Neville was going to be angry. He didn't know what really happened. But despite that, the harshness of his words sliced through her defenses and she covered her mouth to hold in her sob, though she could do nothing for the tears that came. She tried to stop it, the crumbling of her walls. The crumbling that was about to expose her agony to the class, but it was going. It was falling apart. She now realized she had been in shock, like the healer said and the shock was giving way. It was giving way right now. She couldn't breathe, she was almost gagging on her own tears. She didn't need to look at Neville to see his shock, she could feel his startlement. But she couldn't stop the pain. It all hurt and his hurtful words had taken her last defense.
But before anyone, other than Neville, could notice her world crumbling a gentle hand was on her shoulder. But it wasn't on her right where Neville was sitting, it was her left. She stared up at Hagrid looming beside her, his body shifting so that no one other than Neville could see her face.
"It's okay," he whispered. "Take a breath. I'm taking you out of class."
The shock of Hagrid being there at all was enough to allow her to somewhat gather herself. Her heart was still pounding, but she held her breath and stopped the tears. She even managed to ensure her face only showed surprise and not pain and anguish.
"Hope ya don' mind, Professor Sprout, but I need ta borrow Miss Malfoy for the day. It's rather urgent."
The other professor scowled and asked what he needed with the her.
"Have a few hurt thestrals, I'm not so good with healing spells, but I was told Miss Malfoy here is. And the thestrals that need tending to have a fondness for the girl."
Professor Sprout nodded and then continued on with her lesson. Graces gathered her things the best she could, avoiding eye contact with Neville and focused on making her breaths come more naturally.
"Come on," Hagrid whispered gently, taking her out of the greenhouse, his strong hand warming the spot between her shoulder blades. It should have been comforting, but it wasn't. Nothing could comfort her from the storm raging inside her.
She could feel her magic lashing out inside of her and she was desperately struggling to regain control. She shook with the effort and didn't dare take a breath lest it break free.
"It's okay," Hagrid cooed. "All is well. It's okay."
It wasn't though. It was very far from. The half giant tried to comfort her as they exited the greenhouse, his hands moving in soothing circles on her back and he whispered words she wasn't paying attention to. She felt it coming, though, like a snake whipping around inside of her. Threatening to lash out at any moment. So she did what the only thing she could think of.
She ran. Sprinted as fast as she possibly could and as far as she could from the school. She was like a doe weaving in the forest, leaping over trunks and fallen branches on the Forbidden Forest's floor until she found a clearing. She dropped down to her knees and suddenly she was four years old again. Desperately trying to hold in her accidental magic until her father picked her up and ran to a far side of the mansion. She still remembered his strong arms pulling hers apart, forcing her to hold her hands out as far as possible from her chest as he shook her and violently told her to let it go.
It had been like bile coming up in her then. Bile she wanted to hold in, but her father forced it out of her. She had shattered the windows in the room, shards flew around them violently in a storm of her own making and still her father held her, soothing her with words of pride even as she cried. My powerful little witch, he called her. He had grinned from ear to ear as he surveyed the damage of her temper tantrum, called her mother in and lifted her high up on his shoulder, splotched cheeks and all. Magic, he said, was never to be held in like that. Under no circumstances was she to suppress her magic.
Tears burned her eyes at the memory assaulting her with her already whirly emotions. She looked around through bleary eyes at the damage she had caused in the clearing. Fire climbed up into the trees and swirled around her, the flames licking at anything in its reach. She tried to breathe, to calm herself enough to pull it back into her. She was too old for this, for her magic to be so tied to her emotions, for it to burst forth like this. Children had accidental magic and she was no longer a child.
She focused on putting out the flames. Her magic danced at the opportunity to have a target and seemed to work through her wand with merely her thoughts. For a moment she wondered if she could cast non-verbal spells but chose to speak anyways, needing the normalcy. She wished her mother was there. Her mother was always so gentle with her when her accidental magic flared. She closed her eyes and could hear her mother's gentle voice telling her to focus on breathing and to use her wand. Calm yourself and give your magic something to do, she would say, waiting patiently for Graces to obey. The memory alone calmed her more and she was able to stop all of the flames. She stood in the clearing assessing the damage for a moment before a gentle cough alerted her that she wasn't alone.
"It's okay, Graces," Hagrid murmured softly, not moving forward from the edge of the clearing where he was watching her.
"You can't make me talk!" Graces snarled, backing away and once again trying to regain control of herself as a flame whipped out towards the older man. "You can't!"
She needed him to leave. Just looking at him was tearing down her newly built walls.
"I know that," Hagrid nodded, putting his hands up in surrender.
"I don't have to listen to you either! You can't persuade me."
"I swear, Graces, I have no intention of trying to make you."
She stood there for a moment, her ragged breath the only sound.
"Then why did you take me out of class?"
The older man sighed and nervously touched the back of his head. "Cause I reckoned you needed a day. Some time to be alone with your thoughts." Graces frowned but didn't say anything. She waited for him to continue. "I have lots of stuff for you to do today, just busywork really, work I find calming. You're excused from all of your classes, I saw to that. An I didn' tell anyone anything."
It was too much. It was everything she needed. She gently pressed into the giant's head with her Legilimency to see if this was a trick, if he did have some motivation, some hope she would come out with the truth. He didn't.
"Why?" she rasped. Choosing not to search his mind for the reason and invade his privacy further. "Why would you do that?"
Hagrid's face fell. "Cause I-I know what it's like to have someone hurt you and-and to not want to talk about it. To know talking about it wouldn't change anything and the person who hurt me would still get away with it. I know what it's like to feel ashamed of something that's not my fault."
"Nothing happened to me," Graces denied, turning away and wrapping her arms about her.
"It's not the same," Hagrid hiccuped, ignoring her words. "Being half giant isn't the same as what happened to you. But- but I figured what you're feeling is worse. And I just want to try to give you peace, love. Just for a few days. If you'll let me."
She closed her eyes and tried to deny that she needed this. Nott had not succeeded. He hadn't. She should be fine. Relieved. Not trembling as she was now and forcing the bile back down into her throat. She was okay. She was healed. She was okay. Fine.
She felt Hagrid's tentative hands move onto her shoulders, stilling the shivers that were overwhelming her.
"You don't have to talk, Graces. Just come with me. Help me around the castle. Surely, you realize you can't go to class. You need this time. Just come with me."
"I can handle my magic," Graces snapped, knowing it to be a lie, but saying it nonetheless.
"I don't doubt that," Hagrid answered calmly. "But that's not good for you, is it? If you come with me you won't need to handle it. And I can put it to use. We can center you in a task that allows you to use your magic but be alone with your thoughts."
"You're not worried for yourself?" Graces asked darkly, her silver eyes moving to glare up at the professor.
"Professors are trained to handle accidental magic."
"I'm not a first year," Graces sneered. "My magic is more powerful than younger students'… and more deadly."
"I have faith in your control." She still shook her head. She couldn't take this. Taking this would admit that something had happened. "And I really could use your help, Graces. I'm not very good with healing spells. I do need some help."
She bit her lip hard enough to draw blood. She could not take this. She couldn't. But as much as her mind told her that, she found herself allowing Hagrid to gently guide her out of the Forbidden Forest. It all felt like a dream.
No. A nightmare, she corrected as she saw the barn looming ahead. She stiffened and tried to drown her panic as she realized Hagrid was taking her there. Her Malfoy mask couldn't serve her, no matter how hard she tried to pull it up. She stopped moving forward and stared down at her shoes, closing her eyes.
Hagrid didn't press; he just waited. Graces felt heat rising to her cheeks, but didn't say anything. She knew she was behaving badly, and that this giant was seeing it. She didn't feel like a Malfoy, like someone raised to be proud. She could hear her father scolding her in the back of her mind. Telling her to smooth out her face, to control her actions if she could not control her emotions.
"I should have known you would be scared to go in there," Hagrid said softly.
Graces shook her head at the understanding in his voice. Hagrid tried to guide her away, but she yanked out from under his hands. She would not be a coward. It was only a place. Only a barn, she snarled at herself. Walking foward to the doors and ignoring the sick feeling in her stomach.
She was a witch. She was a powerful being that could demolish this whole wooden shack with a flick of her wand. She would not be afraid. She held her shoulders back and approached the barn like Neville would. Like a Gryffindor would.
"Graces," Hagrid murmured gently, again trying to stop her.
"I want to help them," Graces growled. "I want to heal them."
"I don't need to bring you into the barn to do that."
"I need to go into the barn." Graces didn't know where the words came from, but there they were hanging out in the open air. She stared up at Hagrid, willing him to understand without further explanation. His lips pursed slightly and he nodded, following her a few steps back as she met with the barn doors and pushed them open.
She didn't know why she expected it to look different. Like her assault would cloud it, but she did expect that. And it didn't. It looked perfectly ordinary. There was not even a drop of the blood that had been spilled between them. The doors that the thestrals had broken on their pens were all fixed and the hay was all neatly stacked.
The only thing different was the nasty slashes on the animals locked in their pens. It took her breath away to see the pain inflicted on them. Pain they took on her behalf. She didn't know how she felt about such innocence being sacrificed on her behalf.
She swallowed some of her emotions and approached one of the pens. And she knew with certainty that there was recognition in those milky eyes. Real recognition and real emotions. Emotions that were for her.
"They musta been worried about you," Hagrid commented, watching the thestral stare down at her. He handed her a jar of some nasty smelling salve. "Apply it gently. Make sure it's thick on top of the wounds. It will heal them up good as new after a few days."
She stared at the nasty cut. It seemed to be healed somewhat, but the skin was scabbed over angrily.
"We couldn't heal it fully with a spell?" She asked quietly, already moving for her wand.
"It's not the same as human skin," Hagrid said sadly. "No spell has been invented specifically for their hides… This is as much as can be accomplished for 'em at the moment. I'll have you do a few healing spells on some others with deeper cuts, I'm not talented enough with healing spells for those ones, but it won't matter how much talent you have it won't heal 'em the same way. But the salve will be applied for a few days and it will eventually give the same results."
Graces nodded and went to work. Throwing herself over to the task at hand. It was much harder than she realized to get the deeper cuts to heal even somewhat with the spells she knew. But she always managed to get them to the point where the skin met together, so there was no gaping wounds. They were all so lucky that Nott didn't manage to get his dagger in deeper. The salve stayed well, but some of the thestrals kept licking it off, causing her to have to go back and reapply.
Hagrid answered her questions when she had them, but seemed content to leave her in silence and give her as much space as he seemed comfortable with. She was a bit surprised. She honestly thought he would be chatting her ear off, but he didn't. He gave her tranquility. He was always within ear reach for if she did want to speak, but he didn't say anything to her. And on the occasion where a few tears did break loose from her, he didn't comment on them.
She was free to cry, to think and to rage without interference. She wished she could think more clearly, but even after hours she wasn't able to. Her thoughts were an explosion of chaos wrapped in emotion. She couldn't grab one without the other. It hurt. It all hurt. And she wanted more than anything to turn around and tell someone that Nott hurt her. He hurt her and she hurt. But she couldn't say that to Hagrid. She did accept his presence though. And that helped. She didn't know why it helped, but it did.
She was finishing up tending to a thestral's leg which had a nasty splinter in it from breaking his door when Hagrid asked if she was ready for lunch. She hesitated, not really wanting to go to the castle, but then saw that the giant had a basket with him.
"I'm not that hungry," she admitted, turning back towards the hoof. The knot in her stomach clenched hard at her words, as though wanting to angrily remind her of why she didn't feel hunger despite not eating since dinner last night.
"I think it's time for a break nonetheless," Hagrid continued, bending down beside her. "Come on. I won't force you to eat, but I think you need a break. I don't want to work you into magical exhaustion. Or be accused of working you like a house elf," he chuckled. "Never thought I'd be in a situation where I could work a Malfoy like a house elf."
Graces smiled despite herself and nodded. Hagrid waited for her to finish dressing the hoof and then led her away from the barn to the edge of the lake where they both sat down on a smoothed boulder. She wondered idly if Hagrid ate here often. He didn't seem to be looking for a place for them to sit, he seemed to know exactly where they would sit.
It was a beautiful place, she realized as she stared out across the water. Hogwarts' grounds were beautiful. She never really took the time to appreciate it, but now with it sprawled out in front of her like this she did.
Hagrid handed her a paper bag with what she assumed was the lunch he intended for her. It smelled divine, and despite the fact that she had no intentions of eating anything she looked inside.
"Got some Cornish pasties from the Three Broomsticks. Should still be hot. Madam Rosmerta is good at warming charms for food. I figured after all the hard work we should have a treat. You like em don't you?"
"I've never had one," Graces admitted quietly, and stopped herself from making the same comment she had made to Neville about pauper's food. She didn't want to offend Hagrid. They were, though. Her father said they were working class food for people who couldn't sit down at a table and have a real civilized meal.
"Really? Never?" Hagrid gawked, handing Graces a mug of warm tea. Graces shook her head in answer. Hagrid hummed a curious thought. "Well, I know ye said you weren' hungry, but you should at least have a bite of that. Just to try."
Graces hesitated, but between the smells coming from the bag and the fact that Hagrid had gone out of his way to get this lunch she couldn't think of a reason not to appease the man with a small bite. Gingerly she took the pastie out and tried it, pausing as the flavorful meat and potatoes flooded her mouth. It wasn't a chore to take another bite and enjoy the way the onions and swede highlighted the dish. Her cheeks burned as a soft sigh broke loose from her lips and her appetite returned to her with a vengeance.
Hagrid didn't make a comment on either, but he did have a very satisfied smile as she continued to eat. She wondered if he planned this, and then realized with a start that he had. A bite just to try.
"That was very Slytherin," she commented taking another bite and staring determinedly forward.
"Not sure what yer referrin to," Hagrid shrugged taking another bit of his own pastie.
Graces hummed a disbelieving reply, but continued on eating. "Don't you have classes to teach today?"
"They're being covered," Hagrid shrugged. "Told Dumbledore I needed to tend to some sick animals today."
"Does he know that I'm here?" Graces asked, trying to keep her voice casual.
"He knows what Professor Sprout knows."
Graces let out a breath she didn't know she was holding and reached in the bag for another pasty. Hagrid had provided her with enough to feed three people. She finished the second one in silence and was debating whether she could eat a third, when Hagrid took out another bag and handed her a cauldron cake that was far too hard to be edible, but Hagrid shyly revealed he made himself, so Graces tried to eat it out of politeness that she never dreamed she would give to a half breed, but she found herself wanting to give it all the same, as if he were pure of blood like her.
She suddenly was very aware of who was sitting next to her and how awful she had been to him in the past. She now wondered idly how she could have ever called the man sitting beside her savage. She thought about the article her and Draco had encouraged from Skeeter and suddenly was unbearably ashamed.
"Don't you hate me?" she asked quietly.
"Why would you think I hated you?" Hagrid asked. She didn't need to look up to know he was staring down at her with bewilderment.
"I've never been kind to you," Graces flushed. "I'm sure you know all the awful things I have said and done."
"I'm an adult," Hagrid reminded. "Adults don't hate children for being children."
Graces bristled slightly at being called a child, but made no comment.
"You only acted how you were taught to act. And that's not all yer fault."
Graces didn't respond, but couldn't help her thoughts turning to her father. He was not a child, and he had acted to hurt the man sitting beside her. She wondered how he would feel about Hagrid now. How he would feel after knowing what he was doing for her. He probably wouldn't be happy about her sitting with him like this, she realized. He probably wouldn't care that the man beside her was kind, he only cared that he was half giant.
"What's Azkaban like?" she asked, her thoughts now completely with her father.
Hagrid stared at her for a long moment, apparently looking to see if her question held any malice.
"You thinking of your father?"
Graces flushed and wished violently that she hadn't asked. She cleared her throat delicately. "I just wanted to know."
"It's okay to be worried about him," Hagrid said softly. "It's understandable that you would want him here with you now. Merlin knows I still wish my father could be with me when things get hard."
Graces sat silent at that, not wanting to have such an intimate discussion.
"I know you don't want to talk to anyone. But I-I would be happy to owl your mother, and have her come to—"
"No," Graces interrupted, her body going rigid at the thought. "Absolutely not."
Hagrid nodded and didn't push. Graces bit the inside of her cheek and calmed herself down. Not wanting to snap at the man that was being so kind to her. There was a long pregnant silence that followed. She could tell Hagrid was thinking about the night before and she wished she could yank those memories out of his head.
You could.
She shook that thought away. She wouldn't.
"I-I wasn't raped." Hagrid looked down at her and she put down the teacup she was holding, embarrassed at how she trembled. "I don't want you to think I was. I really wasn't," she stressed.
"But something happened," Hagrid concluded, his gentle eyes looking down at her.
Graces' pressed her lips together and looked away. Hagrid sighed and rubbed his face tiredly.
"I'm glad that didn't happen, but I don' feel much better. I know someone hurt you yesterday. An' knowing that person isn't being punished worries me, Graces. I don't want em to do it again."
"I wish you trusted us to take care of you," he whispered sadly. "We're supposed to take care of you."
Graces sat there for a long time before Hagrid stood, uncomfortable with the tense silence, and led her back to the barn to work some more. They worked through dinner, so Hagrid invited her into his hut to eat the remaining pasties. It was a more silent meal than before, though Hagrid tried to make polite conversation. She just couldn't really participate, her thoughts were too far away.
"Suppose I better take ya back now," Hagrid sighed, when the pasties were gone and Graces declined a game.
The blonde nodded and stood from the table so that Hagrid could walk her back to the castle. It wasn't that late and students were still walking about the halls. Graces tried to tell herself that she wasn't uncomfortable being seen with the groundskeeper, but despite that thought she was. And suddenly she was very ashamed of herself.
"I think you can make it to the dungeons yourself," Hagrid muttered gruffly, looking at a group of 4th year Slytherins who kept looking back at them warily.
Graces nodded and adjusted her bag on her shoulder.
"Professor Hagrid," she began hesitantly, unsure if she really wanted to say anything. "You have taken care of me," she whispered, her eyes meeting his solemnly. "Truly, you have."
And with that she left, but not to the Slytherin dorms like she knew she was supposed to. She went to find the only person she wanted to pour her heart out to.
Don't forget to review/ follow! Next chapter is Neville/Graces promise!