Twenty-Seven: The Gatekeeper's Tale
Disclaimers: I do not own any D. Gray-Man or Harry Potter characters/settings. They rightfully belong to Mr. Hoshino (D. Gray-Man) and Ms. Rowling (Harry Potter). Also, some conversations between the Harry Potter characters are direct quotes from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and that also does not belong to me!
"Merlin's beard, keep it down!" Hagrid said hastily, staring into the empty air. "Under that cloak, are ye? Well, get in, get in!"
"I'm sorry!" Hermione gasped as she, Ron, and Harry suddenly materialized into the air inside the hut. "I just- oh, Hagrid!"
"It's nuthin', it's nuthin'!" Hagrid brushed her off, shut the door, and made to close the curtains. He glanced at the Exorcists, who shrugged and sipped their tea.
"What happened to you?" Harry demanded.
"Told ye, nuthin'," Hagrid repeated. "Want a cuppa?" he asked.
"Come off it," Ron said in a gruff voice, "you're in a right state!"
"I'm tellin' ye, I'm fine," Hagrid said. He turned to Harry. "Blimey, it's good ter see you three again- had good summers, did ye?"
"Hagrid, you've been attacked!" Ron said.
"Fer the las' time, it's nuthin'!"
"Would you say it was nothing if one of us turned up with a pound of mince instead of a face?" Ron asked.
"And what are you two doing here?" Harry demanded randomly at Allen and Lavi who gave him the strangest looks they could muster up with.
"That's really not the point-" Lavi began.
"You ought to go and see Madam Pomfrey, Hagrid," Hermione said anxiously. "Some of those cuts look nasty."
"I'm dealin' with it, alrigh'?" Hagrid asked, sounding anxious as well. He walked to the wooden table in the middle of the room, grabbed the piece of meat he'd put down, and tossed away the tea towel he'd placed over it. The soggy towel landed on top of Allen's head, but the boy merely grimaced.
"You're not going to ear that, are you, Hagrid?" Ron asked, looking closely and suspiciously at the meat. "It looks poisonous."
"It's s'posed ter look like that, it's dragon meat," Hagrid answered, and slapped the meat over his face. "An' I didn't get ter eat...Tha's better. It helps with the stingin', ye know."
"So are you going to tell us what's happened to you?" Harry asked.
"Can', Harry. Top secret. More'n me job's worth to tell ye that...besides that, can' go 'round talkin' ter students 'bout this..."
"They look like they know," Ron said, motioning to Allen and Lavi.
"They're differ'nt," Hagrid grunted.
"Did the giants beat you up, Hagrid?" Hermione asked, sounding almost shy.
Hagrid seemed to have a stroke. The dragon steak slid from his fingers and down his chest. Grabbing it up before it reached his belt, Hagrid slapped it back over his bruises and said, "Giants? Who said anythin' abou' giants? Who ye bin talkin' to? Who's told ye what I've- who's said I've bin- eh?"
"Hagrid," Allen groaned, and Lavi snorted with suppressed laughter.
"We guessed," Hermione said apologetically.
"Oh, ye did, did ye?" Hagrid asked, looking at her sternly.
"It was kind of...obvious," Ron said, and Harry nodded.
Hagrid glared at them, snorted, and threw the steak onto the table once again, and stumbled over to the whistling kettle of tea. "Never known kids like you three fer knowin' more'n ye oughta," he muttered to them, filling the mugs with tea, splashing boiling water everywhere. "An' I'm not complimentin' ye, neither. Nosy, some'd call it. Interferin'."
"You're smiling, Hagrid," Lavi said, and Allen elbowed him hard in the stomach, making him spit out his tea. "Ugh! What was that for?"
"So you have been to look for giants?" Harry asked, grinning as he sat down at Hagrid's giant table. Hermione and Ron joined him, and Hagrid set tea in front of each of them. The giant man nodded at Allen and Lavi, who sat down on his bed with their cups of tea. Hagrid picked up his steak and placed it roughly over his face once again.
"Yeah, all righ'," he said gruffly, "I have."
"And you found them?" Hermione asked in a quiet, hushed voice.
"Well, they're not taht difficult ter find, ter be honest," Hagrid answered. "Pretty big, see."
"Where are they?" Ron said.
"Mountains."
"So why don't Muggles-?"
"They do," Hagrid cut in darkly. "O'ny their deaths are always put down ter mountainerin' accidents, aren' they?"
"Come on, Hagrid, tell us what you've been up to!" Ron urged. "Tell us about being attacked by the giants and Harry can tell you about being attacked by the dementors-"
Hagrid choked on his tea, coughed it up, and dropped the steak all at the same time. Harry, Ron, and Hermione flinched back from the mess on the table. The steak slid off the wooden surface and landed with a muffled splat onto the floor.
"Whadda ye mean, attacked by dementors?" Hagrid demanded.
"Didn't you know?" Hermione asked him with her eyes as large as saucers.
"I don' know anything that's been happenin' since I left. I was on a secret mission, wasn' I, didn' wan' owls followin' me all over the place- ruddy dementors! Ye're not serious?"
"Yeah, I am," Harry said, "they turned up in Little Whinging and attacked my cousin and me, and then the Ministry of Magic expeled me-"
"WHAT?"
"-and I had to go to a hearing and everyitng but tell us about the giants first."
"You were expelled?"
"Tell us about your summer and I'll tell you about mine," Harry said.
Hagrid glared at him through one good eye, his other one swollen shut through the nasty bruisings. Harry returned the gaze with a look of innocent determination. Hagrid must have been resisting it for as long as he could, but in the end, he sighed and said in a defeated tone, "Oh, all righ'." He bent down and tugged the dragon steak out of his dog Fang's mouth and slapped it over his face again, ignoring Hermione when she whimpered about hygiene. "Well, we set off right after term started," he began. "After you came," he added to the Exorcists.
"Madame Maxime went with you?" Hermione asked at once, and Allen remembered her as the half-giant headmistress of the French magic school that Ginny had told him about before.
"Yeah, tha's right," Hagrid answered gruffly, and his face softened a great deal. "Yeah, it was jus' the pair of us. An' I'll tell ye this, she's not agraid of roughin' it, Olympe. Ye 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 compained once."
"You knew where you were going?" Harry said. "You know where the giants were?"
"Well, Dumbledore knew, an' he told us..."
"Are they hidden?" Ron asked. "Is it a secret, where they are?"
"Not really," Hagrid answered, shaking 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 Dumbldore's instructions. Took us abou' a month ter get there-"
"A month?" Ron repeated. "But- why couldn't you just grab a Portkey or something?"
"We're bein' watched, Ron," Hagrid said in a muffled voice.
"What d'you mean?"
"Ye don' understand," Hagrid said. "The Ministry's keepin' an eye on Dumbledore an' anyone they reckon's in league with him, an'-"
"We know about that," Lavi interrupted. "We know about the Ministry watching Dumbledore-"
"So you couldn't magic to get there?" Ron asked. "You had to act like Muggles all the way?"
"Well, not exactly all the way," Hagrid replied. "We jus' had ter be careful, 'cause Olympe an' me stick out a bit-"
Both Lavi and Ron hid a snort at that, but the former once again earned a hit from his friend.
"-so we're not hard ter follow. We was pretendin' we was goin' on holiday together, so we got ter France an' we made like we was headin' fer where Olympe's school is, 'xause we knew we was bein' tailed by someone from teh Ministry. We had to go slow, 'cause I'm not really s'posed ter use magic an' we knew the Ministrry'd be lookin' fer a readon ter run us i. But we managed ter five the berk tailin' us the slip round abou' Dee-John-"
"Ooooh, Dijon?" Hermione gasped excitedly. "I've been there on holiday, did you see-?"
"Hermione-" Allen began, and Ron sent her a look that made Hermione fall silent.
"We chanced a bit o' magic after that, and it wasn' a bad journey," Hagrid continued. "Ran into a couple o' mad trolls on the Polish border, an' I had a slight disagreement with a vampire in a pub in Minsk, but apart from tha', couldn't'a bin smoother.
"An' then we reached the place, an' we started trekkin' up through the mountains, lookin' fer signs of 'em...
"We had ter lay off the magic once we got near 'em. Partly 'cause they don' like wizards an' we didn' want ter put their backs up to soon, and partly 'cause Dumbledore had warned us You-Know-Who was bound ter be after the giants an' all. Said it was odds on he'd sent a messnger off ter them already. Told us ter be very careful of drawin' attention to ourselves as we got nearer in case there was Death Eaters around."
"Go on!" Harry urged as Hagrid paused to take a gulp of tea.
"Found 'em," Hagrid said shortly. "Went over a ridge on nigh' an' there they was, spread ou' underneath us. Little fires burnin' below an' huge shadows...It was like watchin' bits o' the mountain movin'."
"How big are they?" Ron whispered the question.
"'Bout twenty feet," Hagrid said offhandedly. "Some o' the bigger ones mighta bin twenty-five."
Lavi and Allen exchanged bewildred looks with each other. "And how many were there?" Allen asked.
"I reckon abou' seventy or eighty."
"Is that all?" Hermione asked.
"Yep, eighty left, an' there was loads once, musta bin a hundred different tribes from all over the world. But they've bin dyin' out fer ages. Wizards killed a few, o' course, but mostly they killed each other, an' now they're all dyin' out faster than ever. They're not made ter live bunched up together like tha'. Dumbldore says it's our fault, it was the wizards who forced 'em to go an' stick together fer their own protection."
"So," Harry said, "you saw them and then what?"
"Well, we waited till morning, didn' want ter go sneakin' up on 'em in the dark, fer our own safety," Hagrid said. "'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. Casled an avalanche near mornin'.
"Anyway, once it was light we wen' down ter see 'em."
"Just like that?" Ron said in awe. "You just walked right into a giant camp?"
"Well, Dumbledore told us how ter do it. Give the Gurg gifts, show some respect, ye know."
"Give the what gifts?" Harry and Allen asked.
"Oh, the Gurg-"
"Means the chief," Lavi answered for Hagrid. "Learned from panda geezer when I was little, didn't think it would come to use though. Back then, I didn't even know it was for giants-"
"How could you tell which one was the Gurg?" Ron asked.
Grunting in amusement, Hagrid answered, "No problem. He was the biggest, the ugliest, an' the laziest. Sittin' there waitin' ter be brought food by the others. Dead goats an' such like. Name o' Karkus. I'd put him at twenty-two, twenty-three feet, an' the wait of a couple o' bull elephants. Skin like a rhino hide an' all."
"And you just walked up to him?"
"Well...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' by the lake roarin' at the others ter feed him an' his wife. Olympe an' I went down the mountainside-"
"But didn't they try and kill you when they saw you?" Ron asked.
"It was def'nitely on some of their minds," Hagrid shrugged, "but we did what Dumbledore told us ter do, which was to hold our gift up high an' keep our eyes on the Gurg an' ignore the othrs. 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 presents down in front o' him."
"What do you give a giant? Food?"
"That's what you would give Allen- OW!"
Hagrid chuckled. "Nah, he can get food all righ' fer himself. We took him magic. Giants like magic, jus' don' like us usin' it against 'em. Anyway, that firs' day we gave him a branch o' Gubraithian fire."
Hermione and Allen gasped, "Wow," but Harry, Ron, and Lavi frowned in puzzlement.
"A branch of-?"
"Everlasting fire," Hermione said impatiently, "you ought to know that by now, Professor Flitwick's mentioned it at least twice in class!"
"Well, anyway, Dumbledore'd bewitched this branch to burn evermore, which isn' somethin' any wixard could do, an' so I lies it down in the snow by Karkus's feet and says, 'A gift to the Burg of the giants from Albus Dumbledore, who sends his respectful greetings.'"
"And what did Karkus say?"
"Nothin'. Didn' speak English."
"You're kidding!"
"Didn' matter," Hagrid said, "Dumbledore had warned us tha' migh' happen. Karkus knew enough ter yell fer a couple o' giants who knew out lingo an' they translated fer us."
"And did he like the present?" Ron asked eagerly.
"Oh yeah, it went a down a storm once they understood what it was," Hagrid said, turning his dragon steak to the cooler side and replacing it over his eye. "Very pleased. So then I said, 'Albus Dumbledore asks the Gurg to speak with his messenger when he returns tomorrow with another gift.'"
"Why couldn't you speak to them that day?" Hermione asked.
"Dumbledore wanted us ter take it very slow. Let 'em see we kept our promises. We'll come back with anoter present, an' then we do come back with another present- gives a good impression, see? An' gives them time ter test out the firs' present an' find out it's a good one, an' get 'em eager fer more. In any asee, giants like Karkus- overload 'em with information an' they'll kill ye just to simplify things. So we bowed outta the way an' went off an' found ourselves a nice little cave ter spend the night in, an' the followin' mornin' we went back an' this time we found Karkus sittin' up waitin' fer us lookin' all eager."
"And you talked to him?"
"Oh yea. Firs' we presented him with a nice battle helmet- goblin-made an' indestructible, ye know- an' then we sat down an' we talked."
"What did he say?"
"Not much."
"What?" Allen and Lavi asked.
"Listened mostly," Hagrid said. "But there were good signs. He'd heard o' Dumbledore, heard he'd argues against the killin' of the last giants in Britian. 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. Promiser ter come back next day with anothe present.
"But that night it all wen' wrong."
"What d'you mean?" Ron said quickly.
"Well, like I say, they're not meant ter live together, giants," Hagrid said sadly. "Not in big groups like that. They can' help themselves, tehy hald kill each other every few weeks. The men fight each other an' the women fight each other, the remnants of the old tribes fight each other, an' that's even without squabbles over food an' the vest fires an' sleepin' spots. Ye'd think, seein' as how their whole race is about finished, they'd lay off each other, but..."
Hagrid, sighed deeply.
"That night a fight broke out, we saw it from the mouth of our cave, lookin' down on the valley. Went on fer ours, ye wouldn' believe the noise. An' when the sun the came up the snow was scarlet an' his head was lyin' at the bottom o' the lake."
"Who's head?" Hermione gasped.
"Karkus's. There was a new Gurg, Golgomath," Hagrid sighed again. "Well, 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, but had ter try."
"You went to speak to him? After you watched him rip off another giant's head?"
"'Course we did, we hadn' gone all the way ter give up after two days! We wen' down with the next present we'd meant ter give ter Karkus.
"I knew it was no go before I'd opened me mouth. He was sitting there wearin' Karkus's helmet, leetin' at us as we got nearer. He's massive, one o' the biffest 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' think I knew, I was hangin' upside down in the air by me feet, two of his mates had grabbed me."
Hermione gasped and clapsed her hands to her mouth, and Harry demanded, "How did you get out of that?"
"Wouldn'ta done it if Olympe hadn' bin there. She pulled out her wand an' did some o' the fastes' spellwork I've ever seen. Ruffy Marvelous. Hit the two holdin' me right in the eyes with Conjunctive Curses an' they dropped me straightaway-"
"But don't giants-?" Allen started.
"Yeah. We were in trouble then, 'cause we'd used magic against 'em, an' that's what giants hate abou' wizards. We had ter leg it an' we knew there was no way we was going ter be able to match inter camp again."
"Blimey, Hagrid."
"So how come it's taken you so long to get home if you were only there for three days?" Hermione questioned.
"We didn' leave after three days!" Hagrid said, outraged. "Dumbledore was relyin' on us!"
"But you've just said there was no way you could go back!"
"Not by daylight, we couldn't, no. We just had ter rethink a bit. Spend a couple o' days lyin' low up in the cave an' watchin'. An' wha' w saw wasn' good."
"Did he rip off more heads?"
"No. I wish he had."
Allen coughed up the tea he had almost swallowed, and Lavi sputtered, "What d'you mean?"
"I mean we soon found out he didn' object ter all wizards- just us."
"Death Eaters?" Harry suggested quickly.
"Yep. Couple of 'em were visitin' him ev'ry day, bringin' gifts ter the Gurg, an' he wasn' dangling them upside down."
"How d'you know they were Death Eaters?" Ron asked.
"Because I recognized one of 'em," Hagrid growled. "Macnair, remember him? Bloke they sent ter kill Buckbeak? Maniac, he is. Likes killin' as much as Golgomath, no wonder they were gettin' on so well."
"So Macnair's persuaded the giants to join You-Know-Who?" Hermione asked desperately.
"Hold yer hippogriffs, I haven' finished me story yet!" Hagrid snapped, who, considering he had not wanted to tell anything to the three students, now seemed rather eager to get the story out. "Me an' Olympe talked it over an' we agreed, jus' 'cause the Gurg looked like favorin' You-Know-Who didn' mean all of 'em would. We had ter try an' persuafe some o' the others, the ones who hadn' wanted Golgomath as Gurg."
"How could you tell which ones they were?" Ron asked.
"Well, they were the ones bein' beaten to a pulp, weren' they? 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 we'd go pokin' round the caves by night an' see if we couldn't persuade a few o' them."
"You went poking around dark caves looking for giants?" Ron asked, and Lavi shook his head in disbelief.
"Well, it wasn' the giants who worried us most," Hagrid said. "We were more concerned abou' the Death Eaters. Dumbledore had told us before we wen' not ter tangle with 'em if we could avoid it, an' the trouble was they knew we was around- 'spect Golgomath told him about us. At night when the giants were sleepin' an' we wantedter be creepin' into the caves, Macnair an' the others one were sneakin' around the mountains lookin' fer us. I was hard put to stop Olympe jumpin' out at them...She was rarin' ter attack 'em...she's somethin' when she's roused, Olympe...Fiery, ye know...'spect it's the French in her..."
Hagrid gazed into the fire, suddenly lost in his own world. Both Allen and Harry allowed him about thirty minutes' reminiscence before they cleared their throats in unison. "So what happend? Did you ever get near any of the other giants?"
"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 and headed back down inter the gully, keepin' our eyes skinned fer the Death Eaters. Got inside a few o' the caves, no go- then, in about the sixth one, we found three giants hidin'."
"Cave must've been cramped."
"Wasn' room ter swing a kneazle," Hagrid replied to Ron.
"Didn't they attack you 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," Hagrid said. "Golgomath's lot had beaten 'em unconscious; they'd woken up an' crawled inter the nearest shelter they could find. Anyway, one o' them had a bit of English an' 'e translated fer the others, an' what we hat ter say didnt 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?" Ron repearted eagerly. "Well that's not bad- are they going to come over here and start fighting You-Know-Who with us?"
"Do you think it'll go that easily?" Lavi scoffed. "That's like us Exorcists trying to convince Akuma to fight against the Earl-"
"My master can do that, Lavi, remember what Bookman said?" Allen said, making his friend whine about cruelty and betrayal. "Oh, be quiet."
"What do you mean 'at one point,' Hagrid?" Hermione asked.
"Golgomath's lot raided the caves. The ones tha' survived didn' wan' no more ter do with us after that," Hagrid said sadly.
"So...so there aren't any giants coming?" Ron asked dissappointedly.
"Nope," Hagrid sighed, "but we did wha' we meant ter do, and gave 'em Dumbledore's message an' some o' them heard it an' I 'spect some o' them'll remember it. Just 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 them...Could be they'll come..."
Allen downed the last of his now lukewarm tea and set the cup down on the ground. Stifling a yawn, he lied on his back on the bed, staring at the window where snow was slowly filling up. Beside him, Lavi had abandoned his tea and was slowly twirling it in the cup.
"Hagrid?" Hermione said after a while of silence, her voice quiet and soft.
"Mmm?"
"Did you...was there any sign of...did you hear anything aobut your...your...mother while you were there?"
Nobody answered.
"I'm sorry...I...forget it-"
"Dead," Hagrid said at last. "Died years ago. They told me."
'Oh...I'm...I'm really sorry," Hermione said in the smallest voice Allen had ever heard.
"No need," Hagrid said, although there was a slight gruffness to his voice. "Can' remember her much. Wasn' a great mother."
"But you still haven't explained how you got into this state," Ron said, changing the topic of conversation. "
"Or why you're back, so late," Harry added. "Sirius says Madame Maxime got back ages ago-"
"Who attacked you?" Ron said.
"I haven' bin attacked!" Hagrid said. "I-"
But the rest of his sentence, whatever it may have been, never reached their ears. It was lost in a sudden outbreak of rapping on the door that made Hermione gasp and drop her mug. Fang yelped, and all of them stared wide-eyed at the door. Allen saw someone small and squat move on the other side of the window.
"It's her!" he and Ron whispered.