The Houses Competition
House: Gryffindor
Class: Charms

Round 1
Standard
Prompt: [Song] Human by Christina Perri
Word Count:1201
AN AU that plays around with canon timeline a bit; skullsnapper is a creature of my own creation

More than Human

Rubeus Hagrid was primarily known for two things: his size and his love of all things dangerous and deadly. The first was a result of genetics-nothing more, nothing less. The second's origins-contrary to popular belief-were not so innate or innocent.

-THC-

Being the son of a wizard and a giantess was not an easy business. For the first seven years of his life, the family had lived on the outskirts of a giant colony. Like all young boys, Little Rubi (as he was called by most of the giants) just wanted to fit in. While he excelled at hiding games and activities that required stealth or finesse, poor Little Rubi was just too human to fit in with his larger peers.

The average giant child could hold their breath for thirty minutes, an adaptation that made it easier to pretend to be a mountain in the days gone by. Poor Rubi could barely make it for ten minutes without fainting, and while Rubi was fast, his little legs could not compare to the lengthy strides of other giant children, like Cousin Brawk.

In spite of this, Rubi would have been quite happy to remain at the giant colony were it not for The Incident. Rubi was sure that Cousin Brawk and his friends hadn't meant to hurt him; they'd only wanted him to prove that he was a real giant worthy of their time. In order to accomplish that goal, he'd had to go up against a slithering red-eyed skullsnapper on the hunt. Needless to say, Papa had had to go rescue and heal his son; unfortunately, the severe nature of his injuries had convinced Papa that they would all be better off living with wizards.

Mama tried; Little Rubi knew that his mother tried her very hardest to be happy. He saw it in the way her smiles and laughter turned hollow in the days leading up to her disappearance. Papa was happy; therefore, everyone else pretended to be so until one day they woke up to find Mama gone without a trace, and Papa's solution was to simply move again. Rubi didn't learn much from his mother, but he certainly learned how to fake a grin from her.

Little Rubi didn't have much better luck with human kids than he'd had with giant ones. The finesse and skill he had at hiding had left him when they'd moved away from the giant settlement. Human kids had just as many rituals as giant ones-rituals meant to deny him entry into the group. Any time he thought he might have made a friend, they were snatched away by children that were higher up on a social ladder that Little Rubi could barely comprehend. He was less than human, so no one would ever intervene to help the boy. Every time Little Rubi found his peers playing a game that he might have done well in, they decided to change it 'for their own protection'. He was just too big. Little Rubi had become Big Rubi in a world of insects.

Then his acceptance letter came by owl. He would get to go to Hogwarts? He was going to Hogwarts! Leaving his dad behind had been hard, but Rubi decided that this would be a new start for him. He couldn't change his size, but he could choose to go by something that didn't sound like a girl's name when shortened. 'Hagrid' might risk him being called a hag, but it beat having his personal name used against him.

At Hogwarts, Hagrid had new worries. It wasn't his size holding him back socially (if one ignored a certain flying lesson incident); it was his lack of magical ability. He was almost always the last person to succeed at performing a spell, and when he did get the right results, it was often discovered that he did it using the wrong method. The long, twisty Latin words were just not very good at making magic happen; that was all. If he knew what he wanted to happen, he could sort of make it work using what he remembered of his mother's language.

Nonetheless, Hagrid could not and would not stop studying and practicing to be the best wizard he could be. By now, he mostly knew that he didn't actually fit in anywhere, even if he benefitted from Gryffindor's policy of protecting its own, regardless of friend-status. He was not giant enough for giants and not human enough for the humans. If he couldn't get a handle on using his magic, Hagrid honestly didn't know what he would do.

While Hagrid no longer actively sought out friends, he remained vulnerable to seeming acts of kindness and had the tenacity to continue trying after innumerable efforts had failed in the past.

The year that his father died over Winter Hols, Hagrid had a hard time sleeping. His heritage made many potions useless for him, such that the Healer could not help. Finally, after several days of getting no rest, one of his dormmates told him that he'd heard about a special blossom called the Night Lily that could put anyone to sleep. According to the boy, the Forbidden Forest was rumored to have many Night Lilies in its deepest depths. Unfortunately, they could only be identified at night.

Finding that lily became a welcome distraction from the grief in Hagrid's heart. Months passed where the half-giant boy would sneak out after curfew in search of the bloom. The difficulty of the task, combined with the late hours, eventually helped the boy to find rest in the forest that still eluded him while in the dorm. A herd of Thestrals and the most magnificent spider Hagrid had ever seen kept him company. The herd would stand guard around him when he finally collapsed in exhaustion, nudging him with their noses or licking him with their skeletal tongues when it was time to return to the world of man. The clever spider had noticed his shivering and gifted him with a silky warm blanket. Hagrid would reciprocate by bringing toads and frogs from the shores of Black Lake to his friend.

Eventually, the Keeper of the Keys and Grounds discovered the boy out after hours. Hagrid learned that the Night Lily only existed in more tropical climates, and even if it were in the forest, it wouldn't be in bloom at this time of year. When Hagrid confronted the boy who'd suggested that he look for it, he found out that his dormmates were sick of hearing him whine about missing his dad and had taken advantage of the excuse to get him out of the dorm. Apparently, he was also a horrible snorer when he did actually sleep.

That was when Hagrid truly realized that humans were the cruelest of creatures. When he discovered that Thestrals and giant spiders were generally as disliked as he seemed to be, a shift was made in his self-perception. He wasn't less than human; no, he was more than human. He would be a friend to the creatures that man hated. He could do it. He could do anything with his spider friend at his side.