Twenty-Eight: Old Hag
DisclaimersE: 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!
She walked into Hagri'd small hut, looking haugty and somewhat taken aback by the messiness of it. She glared at Fang and hissed, "Get away."
"Er-I don't want ter be rude," Hagrid said, glancing apologetically at Fang and looking worriedly at the corner of the room where Harry, Ron, and Hermione hid under Harry's Invisibility Cloak, "but who the ruddy hell are you?"
"My name is Dolores Umbridge," she said absentmindedly, glancing at the broken mug on the floor. Allen couldn't help but notice the way she spoke to Hagrid: loud and slow, as if she were talking to a rather slow-witted foreigner. She then shot a look at Hagrid's bed on which he and Lavi were sitting innocently. "Good evening, both of you."
"Hello," Lavi said, and Allen regarded her coolly.
"Dolores Umbridge?" Hagrid repeated, trying to get her attention away from the Exorcists. "I thought you were one o' them Ministry- don' you work with Fudge?"
"I was Senior Undersecretary to the Minister, yes," Umbridge answered, looking away from the boys and sweeping the hut with suspicious eyes, taking in every detail. "I am now the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher-"
"Tha's brave of ye," Hagrid said, "there's not many'd take tha' job anymore-"
"-and Hogwarts High Inquisitor," Umbridge finished her sentence, not showing any sign she'd heard Hagrid at all.
"Wha's that?"
"Precisely what I was going to ask," Umbridge pointed at the broken mug that Hermione had dropped.
"Oh, oh, tha' was...was Fang. He broke a mug. So I had ter use this one instead," Hagrid said hastily, pointing to the mug he had been using.
"We were having tea, see," Lavi added, motioning to his own mug.
"I heard voices," Umbridge said flatly. "More than three."
"That would have been us and-"
"I was talkin' ter Fang," Hagrid said.
"And he was talking back to you?"
"Well...in a manner o' speakin'. I sometimes say Fang's near enough human-"
"There are three sets of footprints in the snow leading from the bastle doors to your cabin," Umbridge said, eyeing Allen and Lavi. "And considering there are only you two here, there is an extra set of feet somewhere...?"
"Well, I on'y jus' got back," Hagrid replied, waving an enormous hand where his coat lay. "Maybe someone came ter call ealier an' I missed 'em."
"Ther are no footsteps leading away from your cabin door."
"But we're still here-"
"Like I said, there is an extra set of footprints if they belonged to you."
"Well I...I don' know why tha'd be..." Hagrid said, glancing again in the general direction of Harry, Ron, and Hermione. "Erm..."
With a sharp glare at the gigantic man, Umbridge began to raid the hut. She bent and peered under the bed, making Allen and Lavi yelp pull their legs up hastily. She opened Hagrid's cupboards and passed dangerously close to where Harry and his friends stood. She peered into the large cauldron Hagrid must use for cooking, and, looking at Hagrid once more, said, "What has happend to you? How did you sustain those injuries?"
"Oh, I...had a bit of an accident," Hagrid answered lamely.
"What sort of accident?"
"I-I tripped."
"You tripped."
Lavi stifled a snort, and Allen glared at him.
"Yeah, tha's right. Over...over a friend's broomstick. I don' fly, meself. Well, look at the size o' me, I don' reckon there's a broomstick tha'd hold me. Friend o' mine breeds Abraxan horses, I dunno if you've ever seem 'em, big beasts, winged, ye know, I've had a bit of a ride on one o' them an' it was-"
"Where have you been?" Umbridge interripted, clearly in no mood to listen to Hagrid's potentially interesting rambling.
"Where've I...?"
"Been, yes," Umbridge nodded. "Term started more than two months ago. Anotehr teacher has had to cover your classes. None of your colleagues has been able to give me any information as to your whereabouts. You left no address. Where have you been?"
Hagrid didn't answer for a moment, apparently working his mind furiously, how to get out of this predicament...
"I-I've been away for me health," he said at last.
"For your health," Umbridge repeated, looking skeptically at his bruised, swollen face, the dragon steak he now held limply in his heand. "I see."
"Yeah," Hagrid nodded, "bit o'-o' fresh air, ye know-"
"Yes, as gamekeeper fresh air must be so difficult to come by," Umbridge agreed sweetly, and what was not black or purple of Hagrid's face flushed.
"Well- change o' scene, ye know-"
"Mountain scenery?" Umbridge asked quickly.
"Oh shoot," Lavi whispered, hardly audible, but Allen just barely shook his head and smiled.
"Mountains?" Hagrid repeated. "Nope, South of Francer fer me. Bit o' sun an'...an' sea."
"Really? You don't have much of a tan."
"Yeah...well...sensitive skin."
Umbridge was looking at him coldly. Then, she hoisted her handbag a little higher on her arm and said, "I shall, of course, be informing the Minister of your late return."
"Righ'."
"You ought to know too that as the High Inquisitor it is my unfortunate but necessary duty to inspect my fellow teachers. So I daresay we shall meet again soon enough."
"You're inspectin' us?" Hagrid asked as he followed Umbridge to the door.
"Oh yes," Umbridge said softly, smiling at him again. "The Ministry is determined to weed out unsatisfactory teachers, Hagrid. Good night." Her eyes turned to the Exorcists and narrowed. They glared back. "You be careful too, boys. You don't know what's lurking around at night...oh, but it isn't anything as bizarre as You-Know-Who coming back to life. Honestly, those children..."
"What if he is back?" Lavi asked, loudly, but Umbridge merely slammed the hut's door behind her without answering. "Stupid frog woman," Lavi muttered.
Hagrid stumped across the room towards them and peered through the curtains, sighed a breath of relief. "She's goin' back ter the castle," he said. "Blimey...inspectin' people, is she?"
"Yeah," Harry said as he, Ron, and Hermione reappeared from under the cloak. "Trelawney's on probation already..."
"Um...what sort of thing are you planning to do with us in class, Hagrid?" Hermione asked, sounding nervous. Niether Allen or Lavi understood why.
"Oh, don' you worry abou' that, I've got a great load o' lessons planned," Hagrid said, cheering up immediately and splashing the dragon steak over his eye again. "I've bin keepin' a couple o' creatures saved fer yer O.W.L. yead, you wait, they're somethin' really special."
"Erm...special in what way?" Hermione asked.
"I'm not sayin'," Hagrid answered. "I don't want ter spoil the surprise."
"Look, Hagrid," Hermione began, and she, Ron, and Harry spent the next several minutes trying to convince their large friend to follow Grubby-Plank's lesosn plans, but it was to no avail. Hagrid rushed them out of the house, saying it was late and that they should go back to their dormitories, warning them not to leave their footprints behind.
"I dunno if you got through to him," Ron told Hermione as they walked under the Invisibility Cloak back to the castle. They were walking ahead of Allen and Lavi who, being the ones Umbridge had seen in the castle, did not have to worry about wiping away their footprints. If needed be, their footprints would cover up any of the ones Hermione had missed.
"Then I'll go back again tomorrow," Hermione's voice replied. "I'll plan his lessons for himif I have to. I don't care if she throws out Trelawney, but she's not taking Hagrid!"
"We can stay with him during lessons next week," Allen offered. "I haven't seen Hagrid teach, and Komui told Lavi and me the other day that he can excuse us from paperwork for a while."
Lavi nodded his agreement. "Hagrid's a member of the Order of the Phoenix, right? Then we won't have to worry about contact with the wrong crowd, and we could serve as messengers to both of our bosses, ne?"
"That wasn't exactly my motive, Lavi," Allen said, "but you're right, I guess. I just wanted to make sure Professor Umbridge doesn't get Hagrid fired."
"Allen, you're too nice."
"It's not a matter of being nice or not!" Allen argued. "But Hermione, don't take everything on your shouders. We'll watch over Hagrid."
"Hypocrite," Lavi said under his breath. "Follow your own advice, yeesh."
Sunday morning greeted them with pure white snow. Allen and Lavi accompanied Hermione to Hagrid's hut and came back around noon, all of them shivering slightly and their cheeks flushed from being exposed to the cold. While Hermione seemed crestfallen and admitted that she was only able to try, Allen and Lavi seemed a bit encouraged. They disappeared again later, and it was only on Tuesday, that Harry, Ron, and Hermione saw then again.
"We're working in here today!" Hagrid called happily to his Care of Magical Creatures class. "Bit more sheltered! Anyway, they prefer the dark..."
"What prefers the dark?" Malfoy asked his posse quickly. "What did he say prefers the dark- did you hear?"
"Ready?" Hagrid called to them again once they reached the edge of the Dark Forest. The dead cow body he held wasn't easy to ignore, and Hary felt more and more apprehension builidng in his stomach as they gathered around Hagrid, who was gesturing towards the Dark Forest.
"Right, well, I've bin savin' a trip inter the forest fer yer fith year. Thought we'd go an' see these creatures in their natural habitat. Now, what we're studyin' today is pretty rare, I reckon I'm probably the on'y person in Britian who's managed ter train 'em-"
"And you're sure they're trained, are you?" Malfoy asked loudly. "Only it wouldn't be the first time you'd brought wild stuff to class, would it?"
"'Course they're trained," Hagrid said, scowling and hoisting the dead cow highter on his shoulder.
"So what happened to your face then?"
"Mind yer own business! Now if ye've finished askin' stupid questions, follow me!"
He turned and marched straight towards the forest, and the class followed reluctantly. They walked for about ten minutes until they reached a place where it seemed as if the trees were knitted together. It was as dark as twilight here, and even the snow didn't fall through the thick canopy of leaves. There was a grunting noise, and Harry saw, through the darkness, the shadows of Allen and Lavi as they took the cow's corpse from Hagrid and lugged it over to the center of the area.
"Gather roun', gather roun'," Hagrid said with encouragement. "Now, they'll be attracted by the smell o' the meat but I'm goin' ter give 'em a call anyway, 'cause they'll like ter know it's me..."
Hagrid turned around to face the forest, shook his shaggy head, and gave a strange, shrieking cry that echoed through the dark trees. The Exorcists backed away from the cow and disappeared into the trees too, as if to follow Hagrid's shout that sounded erily like the cry of a mondtrous bird. A minutes passed where the class stood, looking nervously around themselves for a first glimpse of what exactly hagrid was calling towards them. When the man shook his head again and expanded his enormous chest once again, Harry nudged Ron and pointed to the black space between two twisted yew trees.
A pair of blank, white eyes shone through the dark, growing larger and larger before the dragonish face, neck and then skeletal body of a black winged horse appeared through the tangle of trees. It was followed by Allen, who was watching it with both high instrest and slight unease. The horse surveyed the class for a few seconds, its black tail swishing back and forth, and then it bend its neck to start eating at the cow.
Harry remembered seeing the horse pulling the carriages at the beginning of the term, how nobody else, expect for Luna Lovegood, had been able to see it. He had wondered back then if he erally was going insane, but he now knew that this was the proof against it. Hagrid knew about them too. He glanced at Ron hopefully, but the boy was glancing back and forth between Allen and where the horse had emerged from.
"Why doesn't Hagrid call again?" Ron asked him. "And what is Allen looking at? Where's Lavi?"
Looking around, Harry noticed that most of his classmates were still glancing around or staring at Hagrid in wonder and apprehension. There were only two other people who could see the horses: a scrawny Slytherin behind Goyle who looked revolted at the sight, and Neville, whose eyes were following the swishing progress of the horse's long tail.
"Oh, an' here comes another one!" Hagrid said suddenly as Lavi emerged from the darkness with another horse and joined Allen's side. Both boys exchanged glances with each other and grimaced, as if they knew the secret behind who saw the horses and who didn't- and weren't exactly pleased by it. Hagrid didn't seem to notice and said, "Now...put yer hands up, who can see 'em?
"Yeah...yeah, I knew you'd be able ter, Harry. An' you too, Neville, eh? An'-"
"Excuse me," Malfoy sneered, "but what exactly are we supposed to be seeing?"
"It's good that a majority of the class can't see them," Harry heard Lavi say as Hagrid pointed to the cow carcass for an answer. The class watched it for a few seconds, then several people gasped loudly, and Pravati Patil screamed. Harry didn't blame them: Bits of flesh and cow meat peeling themselves off bone and disappearing into thin air must look very odd indeed.
"What's doing it?" Parvati demanded in a horrified voice, almost hiding behind the nearest tree. "What's eating it?"
"Thestrals," Hagrid answered. "Hogwarts has got a whole herd of 'em in here. Now, who knows-?"
"But they're really, really unlucky!" Parvati cut in, her eyes wide with alarm. "They're supposed to bring all sorts of horrible misfortune on people who see them. Professor Trelawney told me once-"
"No, no, no," Hagrid chuckled, "tha's jus' superstition, that is, they aren' unlucky, they're dead clever an' useful! 'Course, this lot don' get a lot o' work, it's mainly jus' pullin' the school carriages unless Dumbledore's takin' a long journey an' don' want ter Apparate- an' here's another couple, look-"
Two more thestrals came silently out of the trees, one of them passing very close to Parvati, who shivered and said, "I think I felt something, I think it's near me!"
"Don't worry, it won't hurt you," Allen said soothingly, walking over to the thestral and patting its scaly head. "Come here, now, come on...Food's this way."
Hagrid nodded approvingly at Allen and said, "Righ', now, who can tell me why some o' you can see them an' some can't?"
Hermione's hand shot into the air, as per usual. Hagrid beamed at her and said, "Gon on then."
"The only people who can see thestrals," Hermione said promtply, "are people who have seen death."
"Tha's exactly right," Hagrid nodded, "ten points ter Gryffindor. Now, thestrals-"
"Hem hem."
Harry whipped around and saw Umbridge standing a few feet away from him, right beside Lavi, who immediately scurried away and pretended to join Allen in watching the thestrals, although the latter's eyes were glued onto the High Inquisitor, reflecting deep dislike. Hagrid, meanwhile, was staring confusedly at one thestral, clearly under the impression that it had made the noise. Of course, it was only because he had never heard Umbridge's fake cough before.
"Hem hem."
"Oh hello!" Hagrid said cheerfully, finally having located teh source of the noise.
"You received the note I sent to your cabin this morning?" Umbridge asked. Her voice just as loud and slow as it was on Saturday night. "Telling you that I would ve inspecting your lesson?"
"Oh yeah," Hagrid said cheerfully. "Glad ye found the place all righ'! Well, as you can see- or, I dunno- can you? We're doin' thestrals today-"
"I'm sorry?" Umbrige said loudly, cupping a hand around her ear and frowning. "What did you say?"
"Er," Hagrid said, looking confused. "Thestrals! Big-er-winged horses, ye know! He flapped his gigantic arms hopefully, and Harry saw Lavi slap his forehead. Allen, standing beside him, was staring at Umbridge in horror.
Umbridge raised her eyevrows at him and wrote on her clipboard, muttering, "'has...to...retort...to...crude...sign...language...'"
"Well...anyway..." Hagrid said, flushing. "Erm...what was I sayin'?"
"'Appears...to...have...poor...short...term...memory...'" Umbridge muttered, yet again writing her notes.
Harry thought he heard Allen hiss, "No, Lavi! You can't use 'Hiban' to burn Umbridge to a crisp-OW. Lavi, you poked me with the tip! It's bleeding!"
"Oh yeah," Hagrid said, looking at Umbridge with obvious discomfort. "Yeah, I was gonna tell ye how we got a herd. Yeah, so, we started off with a male an' five females. This one," he said, patting the first thestral, which was now staring hungrily at Allen's hurt finger, "name o' Tenebrus, he's my special favorite, firs' one born here in the forest-"
"Are you aware," Umbridge interrupted loudly and clearly, "that the Ministry of Magic has classified thestrals as 'dangerous'?"
"Thestrals aren' dangerous!" All righ', they might take a bite outta you if ye really annoy them-"
"'Shows...signs...of...pleasure...at...idea...of...violence...'" Umbridge muttered again.
"No-come on!" Hagrid said hastily, looking a little anxious now. "I mean, a dog'll bit if ye bait it, won' it- but thestrals have jus' got a bad reputation because o' the death thing- people used ter think they were bad omens, didn' they? Jus' didn' understand, did they?"
Umbridge didn't acknowledge that he'd spoken. She finished writing her last note, looked up at him with her wide smile, and said, "Please continue teaching as usual. I am going to walk"- she pretended to walk-"among the students"- she pointed at the crowd around her-"and ask them questions." She pointed at her own mouth.
"You hag, you evil hag!" Hermione whispered angrily as Umbridge approached Pansy Parkinson, a Slytherin and one of Malfoy's usual crowd. "I know what you're doing, you awful, twisted, vicious-"
"Old hag," Lavi and Allen said from besides the threstals.
Hello readers,
This is something that came up in one of the reviews.
A: when all you people right these HP xovers w/ w.e. the anime is, do you guys actually have the book right there and type it up and add some changes in there?
Q: Well, I don't know about the other authors, but that's what I do. The book is always sitting by my computer. It drove my brother mad when I started to hog the book because I refused to let him read it.