Harry evaded Dumbledore for the rest of the day, first by flying circles round the castle (and re-entering through the Astronomy tower), then by judicious use of the Marauder's Map (and the sudden and timely intervention of Peeves when McGonagall got too close once), then back out of the castle, down to Hagrid's hut (stopping by the Beauxbatons carriage and Durmstrang ship), and finally ending in the kitchens, where he found Hermione debating with Dobby, Winky and several other elves, who were calmly insisting that, no thanks, they were happy being bonded to the castle.

"Hermione, you're thinking about this the wrong way."

"But Harry! They don't realize they're being taken advantage of-"

Harry pinched the bridge of his nose. "That's just… perspective, Hermione. It's a…" he searched for the right words. "...cultural thing? To them, they aren't being taken advantage of." he turned to Dobby. "You guys like working, and like being helpful, right? But what do you want that you don't have?"

The elves became rather bashful, but Dobby spoke up. "Harry Potter sirs, we is not wantings anything, not proper for elveses to be wantings anything!"

"Well it's not proper for bigots like Malfoy to mistreat loyal and brave people like you, Dobby. Come on, we already give magic for service, what else do you wish you had more of?"

The elves looked at each other, then a smaller elf-woman called Ginger squeaked, "E-elflings."

Hermione cocked her head. "Elflings?"

"Little elves, Miss Grangy. We's not allowed to be making new elves without permission from masters, but they is not always remembering…"

Hermione opened her mouth to rant, but Harry stepped in. "Why don't they just let you do as you like for… er, making elflings?"

He was not blushing, thank you very much!

"Well, elflings be taking looong time to make and we is not so good at the work when we is making them… is three months, you see."

"That's not long at all!" Hermione exclaimed.

"To elves it might be…" Harry mused, looking around at the scurrying little figures. "I mean, look how much they move! Three months without being able to do that? It'd drive Dobby spare, I know." Dobby nodded hurriedly, shuddering at the thought. "And for families that rely on house elves or that only have one, three months without their help might make a big problem, Hermione." Harry pointed out. The elves nodded solemnly.

"But… but you should be able to have children!"

"Is just way it is, Miss Grangy."

"What… what if you could call other elves to help while you were, uh, making elflings? So you could do your duties and still have elflings?"

The eyes of the elves widened at that, and they started whispering excitedly.

"And… and what about elves with bad masters? If you earned money, you could buy them from bad masters… or you could push for laws so they couldn't treat elves badly at all!" Hermione pressed. To her delight, a few elves nodded along to this thoughtfully, thought most looked a bit ill at the idea.

Before she could continue though, Harry pulled her aside. "One step at a time, Hermione. Too much and their brains might overheat from excitement." Indeed, a few elves were starting to vibrate unnervingly as they thought of the possibilities. Hermione and HArry looked at each other, then very, very carefully snuck out the portrait.

As they headed up to Gryffindor Tower, Harry filled Hermione in on what had happened the rest of the day. She was a little put out that he avoided Dumbledore but dropped it when Harry insisted that he wasn't ready to speak with the 'goatbeard' anytime soon.

He told her how dozens of students had apologized to him, including a dozen Hufflepuffs led by Susan Bones. A few others here and there from other houses, except Slytherin of course. On most accounts, however, he felt it was too little, too late.

He told her how Krum, Fleur and Cedric had all cornered him as he was leaving the castle again, and thanked him for his words in the Great Hall while also apologizing for previous comments. They'd insisted on giving Harry a tour of the Beauxbatons carriage and Durmstrang ship, during which Harry learned a lot about French young women (they got quite cranky and red-faced when surprised by visiting celebrities) and Bulgarian young men (they were disturbingly good at smuggling in vodka). Cedric had profusely thanked Harry for his warning about the dragons and promised to repay his help in the First Task by giving him a leg up on the Second, when he figured out the clue himself.

Most imprtantly in his mind, Harry went on to tell her of how Hagrid had been blubbering into a tankard of ale in his hut when Harry showed up, apologizing for everything under the sun.

-Flashback-

Harry was surprised for once that Fang wasn't leaping on him the moment he knocked on the door. In fact, Hagrid usually was out in his garden at this point in the day… but there was light inside, so he had to be home.

Gingerly, Harry opened the door and found himself stunned by the sight of his large, normally cheerful friend, bent over the table and sobbing into a tankard…

And by the discarded bottles on the floor, this was not his first.

"Hagrid?"

Hargrid turned, and Harry was shocked to see the look of anguish and sorrow on his face… it was like seeing a Slytherin happily smiling, it just didn't look right.

"Ah… hullo, H-Harry…" Hagrid mumbled softly, trying to wipe away his tears on the sleeve of his enormous coat.

"Hagrid, what on earth is wrong? Is something wrong in the forest? Are you all right?" Harry asked, bewildered at the man's utterly defeated expression.

To his further confusion, Hagrid actually broke down and bawled at that! "Y-yeh ask… y-eh ask if 'ol 'Agrid is all righ'!" The big man blubbered, fat tears splashing onto the table and dribbling into his beard. "After evry'thin tha' hapn'd!"

Harry blinked, but put down his bag and walked over to the giant-sized softie. "There, there…"

Hagrid lookedl ike he wanted to burst into tears again, but instead pulled out a large handkerchief that was more like a quilt and blew his nose noisily. "Ah… I… I'm so sorry, 'Arry…"

"What?"

"I was the one tha' took ye ta Dumbledore! I saw ye placed at those… monsters' h-home! I didna even think ta come by and check on ye, Harry!" the man wailed, his fists slamming into the table and making the whole thing creak ominously.

Harry rubbed his back. "It's alright, Hagrid-"

"NO! IT AIN'T ALRIGH' HARRY!" The man bellowed, rising with such speed that the table flipped and splintered to pieces on the floor. "Ah coulda' let Sirius have ya! Then he would'na gone off after tha' rat Pettigrew an' you'd be safe a-an' s-sound!" Hagrid moaned, stumbling over to an enormous armchair and slumping into it. "Ah failed yeh, Harry…"

Harry's brow furrowed. "Hagrid, it's not your fault."

Red-rimmed eyes looked down at Harry… even sitting, Hagrid was taller than he was. "Wha…? But Harry…"

"No, Hagrid. Do you know what you did? You ran into a place that Voldemort had just been at to try and save a baby. He could have had other Death Eaters watching and you still came to get me out of there."

"But…"

"You just took me to the person you trusted to make sure I was safe, that's all. In the end, it's Dumbledore's fault that he didn't check up on me. He is my magical guardian, he took responsibility and he mucked the whole thing up, despite McGonagall telling him not to, from what I hear."

"But…" Hagrid had stopped crying and instead looked bewildered.

"You on the other hand, rescued me. You were the one that came for me when the letters weren't answered. You traveled out to that island in the middle of a storm and knocked down the door to take me away from those awful people." Harry smiled. "Hagrid, you saved me, again! Not Dumbledore, not McGonagall, not the Ministry or anyone else, you."

"H-Harry…"

"Did you know, I thought all adults were like like the Dursleys? Even my teachers and the nurses that bandaged me up after my cousin beat me up didn't pay attention and listened to the Dursleys. You were the first adult I ever thought to actually trust, that ever treated me kindly. No!" Harry took one of Hagrid's beefy hands in his own. "No, more than that! You were my very first friend!"

Hagrid looked like he was about to cry again, but Harry went on. "You showed me to Diagon Alley for the first time. You took me to my vault, told me about my parents, got Hedwig for me! You let me help you hatch a dragon, Hagrid! A dragon! It might have been a bit tough at the end of that but I got to see something only handful of people in the world have ever seen, because of you!"

Hagrid was crying now, big, sloppy tears, but Harry only smiled and kept going. "And at the end of first year, you gave me the album. Hagrid, you didn't just tell me stories of my parents, you gave me my parents. You contacted everyone and put the whole thing together for me, one kid out of dozens that came to Hogwarts that year."

"Y-yer special H-Harry, you know tha'..." HAgrid mumbled, looking at the floor.

"But I didn't believe it at the time, Hagrid! You showed me and told me more of my parents than everyone else combined! You reminded me that I had an actual family!"

Harry reached out and grabbed the sides of Hagrid's head, tilting it up to look him in the eyes. "And every year, in the face of centaurs, monsters in the forest, dragons, the school abandoning me, basilisks, dementors and more trouble than should be possible, you've always stood by me and been here with tea and a warm place to sit when I needed someone to talk to."

Harry smiled. "Hagrid, you are ten, no, twenty times the man Albus Dumbledore wishes he could be, and I am grateful every day that you are, and if I have any say will always be my friend."

-

Hermione looked at Harry with misty eyes, and Harry managed a blush. "Er… yeah."

"Harry… that was beautiful."

"Well… it's true. Hagrid's a great friend, even if he thinks dragons are cuddly and giant spiders are cute."

Hermione smiled and sniffed, rubbing at her eyes briefly. "What happened then?"

"Near-death by hugging. I thought he was going to squeeze me until I turned into diamonds."

Hermione slapped his arm lightly. "Harry…"

"Okay okay, we just talked for a while. He's still grateful to Dumbledore for all he's done, but I don't think he'll ever be his man again. After talking about the dragon in the First Task a bit, he gave me a few rock cakes and I headed back up to see you i nthe kitchens."

"...But you weren't carrying any."

Harry looked a bit sheepish. "Well… I found out that they skip really well on the Black Lake…"

"Harry!"

"What? The giant squid liked them!"

As they finally made it to the Gryffindor Tower, Harry was pleasantly surprised to find that, while he did gather stares, he wasn't mobbed by dozens of questions. However, that might have been because a small wooden box had been set up in the far corner with the legend; "Ask Harry, the Boy-Who-Really-Can't-Get-A-Break!"

It was full to bursting.

He glanced at the twins, sitting near the fire with Neville, who shrugged innocently.

"Your doing, gentlemen?" Harry asked.

"We admit nothing!" They chorused.

"Didn't see you at dinner." George (maybe) said.

"Wanted to avoid some questions… and since I'd already been attacked by the Slytherins earlier I felt I'd dangled my feet in the fire once too often today." Harry said irritably.

To his and Hermione's surprise several house members around the room snickered at that.

"...Am I missing a joke here?" Hermione asked, eyes narrowed.

"Oh, nothing much." Fred said with a wide grin.

"Just a certain Gryffindor," George continued

"Who we are surprised to find doesn't clang when he walks,"

"From those brass quaffles he's got between his legs-"

"Ew." Hermione said flatly, to the amusement of the room.

Fried picked it up without missing a beat. "-going up the staff table,"

"And calling Snape out," George echoed with an eager face,

"In front of all three schools!" the pair exultantly finished, collapsing into laughter along with most of the other Gryffindors.

Harry and Hermione gaped. "Really?! Who had the guts to do that?!"

All heads turned toward the mildly pudgy and rapidly-reddening face of Neville Longbottom.

Hermione's jaw dropped open, while Harry's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Mate? Got something you want to tell us about?"

Neville squirmed a little under the attention. "I didn't actually call him out…"

"No, Krum did that." George chimed in.

"With great enthusiasm too!"

"Krum!?" Harry and Hermione exclaimed in shock.

"Oh yes indeed!"

"We're thinking about giving him a Hogwarts toilet seat."

"And making him an honorary Gryffindor,"

"But Neville got the ball rolling,"

"Or big brass balls, if you prefer."

Harry sighed and sat down. "Okay, please start at the beginning."