"So… yeh're close with my boys?"
Hagrid had finally lost some of his initial vigour, and had slowed down enough so Hermione could keep a steady, endurable pace next to him. He had been silent until now though; Hermione had had trouble consolidating the kindhearted, joyful man she had heard stories about with the frightening one before her, but she had attributed his behaviour to worry for Harry and had not questioned it.
Now she looked up at him, and found that Hagrid was surveying her kindly, black eyes bright beneath bushy eyebrows.
"Yes," she replied. "We met in the forest, I…" she hesitated, "I thought they might… be Riddle's spies… so I, um, attacked them," she finally managed to stammer.
To her surprise Hagrid let out a roar of laughter. "Ha! Riddle's spies. I bet you gave them a good fright though, am I right? I worried about them meeting girls for the first time."
Hermione blushed. "I think that might have given me the tactical advantage, yes."
Hagrid chuckled. "Fine lads though, excellent figh'ers. The things Ron can do with a sword… and I tell yeh, Harry's bowmanship is unsurpassed, it is."
Hermione smiled at this, but said nothing. This was not the time or the place to brag.
Hagrid walked on, looking thoughtful. "Well," he continued slowly, "except for by his father, I s'pose."
Hermione frowned. "Lord James? You knew him?" Hermione had of course heard snippets of the tragic story of Lord James and Lady Lily, and how they and their son had lost their lives in the forest that fateful night 16 years ago. And when Harry had appeared in the camp, she had heard whispers, of how he could have survived, and what Lord Riddle would do if he knew. But she did not know the whole story, and it seemed that Harry had plenty of blanks to fill, too. Hermione, being naturally inquisitive and seeking knowledge wherever she could, was actually very keen to learn more about the Lord and Lady of Godricshollow.
"Oh, I knew him," Hagrid sighed. "Lady Lily, too. Magnificent woman. She was beautiful, and kind… fiercely independent. I've never met any woman like her – well, until today o'course," Hagrid winked at Hermione, who blushed and smiled. "James and Lily always treated me kindly, and it was a sore loss to hear of 'em killed. It has been an honour, raising their child." Hagrid sniffed a little, and for a while he was silent.
"I lost my parents, too," Hermione blurted out suddenly. Ron and Harry had been right, there was something about Hagrid which inspired confidence and trust; there were few people she would have admitted such a thing to only hours after having made their acquaintance. "I was only a baby when it happened. I think they were murdered by Lord Riddle, too… I'm not sure. I was raised by my nursemaid, and she… she never talked about them much."
Hagrid turned, frowning. "I would expect tha's only left you mighty more curious if anything."
Hermione nodded. "She wanted to protect me from the pain, I understand, but… the thing is," she said, suddenly feeling that she needed to get it all off her chest, "at least Harry knew who his parents were! He might never have met them, and that is horrible, but he knows the little things: he takes after his father in looks, he told me, he has his mother's eyes, his skills with a bow… I don't know in what ways I am like my parents, whose archery skills I take after…" she sighed.
"You are an archer too?" Hagrid asked, surprised.
Hermione nodded.
"And you said that you are in Lupin's rebel camp?"
"Yes, he recruited us from Mugglewood, where me and Minerva – my nursemaid – had been living."
Hagrid suddenly stopped, dropping his pack on the forest floor. Hermione continued on for a few paces before stopping too, realizing her big companion was no longer next to her. "What are you doing?" she asked. "We have to make haste if we-"
"Show me," Hagrid said simply, indicating the bow and quiver she had slung over her shoulder. "Show me what you can do."
What an odd request, Hermione thought. After a moment she relented – if this was what it took to make Hagrid continue on, then fine. She set down her pack, and pulled an arrow out of her quiver. She ran her fingers down the arrow in a practiced manner, before taking a hold of her bow and stringing it. She could do this in her sleep, and it took her only moments before she had the arrow balanced on the bowstring, holding it laxed and turning to Hagrid, who was watching her with a look she couldn't interpret. It was disconcerting.
"Name your target," she said, eager to get this bizarre test of her skills over with. Did he want to see if she was better than Harry? 'Is he one of those fathers?' she thought, remembering Amos Diggory, Cedric's father, after she had beaten his son in both archery and hand-to-hand combat practice two years previous – and then immediately felt shameful, because of course Amos had suffered an unthinkable loss not long afterwards, and had left the camp, heading for Mugglewood never to be heard from again.
Hagrid considered for a moment, then strode away and then carved a rough 'X' into the bark of a tree a good distance away. Not an easy distance, but in no way challenging for a skilled archer, Hermione thought.
Without further ado, Hermione lifted her bow and pulled her elbow back, feeling the familiar ease of the motion and the well-trained muscles working to stretch the string out as far as it would go. Archery was like a dance, truly in her bones. She let the arrow soar, with the always-comforting knowledge that it would head home – and it did, embedding itself deeply into the tree at exactly the centre of the X.
Hagrid raised an eyebrow. "Impressive," he said gruffly.
"Thanks," Hermione said, bemused. "Can we go?"
"Just one more," Hagrid said. Great.
"Fine, but then we have to go, Hagrid," Hermione sighed.
And so Hagrid went – and went a bit further, and further yet again. The target was further than it had been at the tournament, when Hermione had shot the arrow for Harry and cleaved Riddle's down the middle; it was an impossible shot for most archers. Hermione felt a twinge of nervousness – this truly was a test of her skills. She glanced at Hagrid, who was walking back towards her, and felt something else stir in her: pride, and a deep desire to prove herself, both to Hagrid and to whatever long-lost relative who left her this extraordinary gift. Hagrid clearly didn't think she could do it, but she would show him. She was Hermione, and she could do this.
She looked into her quiver; she had brought a good number of arrows with her. She carefully selected one, and loaded her bow for the second time. The X was marked on a tree so far away she could hardly distinguish its shape – but hardly was just another way of saying 'only just', Hermione thought stubbornly.
She pulled her arm back. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes for a fraction of a second – and fired. She and Hagrid watched the arrow cut through the air with a whoosh! and hit the marked tree: embedding itself in the upper left corner of the X, right at the end.
"Good shot," Hagrid said. "I didn't expect you to hit the centre, the fact that you even his the X at all-" he began, but Hermione was already loading her bow again, and shook her head.
"I'm not finished," she said. She had decided to prove, once and for all, just what kind of archer she was.
She shot again, this time aiming for the upper right corner of the X, which she also hit. Twice more she shot, hitting the lower left and right corners of the X, forming a perfect square made of arrows.
Hagrid had said nothing all this time, and Hermione silently loaded her bow for the sixth time that day, and lifted it. "This is for Harry," she whispered, and fired. The arrow soared through the air, and completed the X, hitting the target dead centre.
She turned to Hagrid, and raised an eyebrow.
Hagrid just looked at her as though he had seen a ghost. Finally, he cleared his throat. "No one could have done that better," he said. "Now, let's get a move on. I have matters to discuss with your mighty leader." And with that, he continued on, leaving a very bewildered Hermione to follow in his wake.
…
Hagrid and Hermione's arrival at the camp caused a bit of an uproar. Seeing Hagrid set a lot of them running, screaming that the rumours of a monster living in the forest all these years had been true. It took Hermione shouting for order for several minutes before finally, the campers calmed down long enough to let Hermione introduce Hagrid to everyone.
Lupin and Ron ran up at that point, but anything Ron might have been about to say to Hermione about her unexplained absence died on his lips the moment he saw Hagrid with her.
"My boy!" Hagrid yelled gruffly, making his way through the confused campers to embrace Ron fiercely, making the young man disappear from view completely, engulfed in Hagrid's massive arms.
"Ha'id!" came Ron's muffled reply. "Wha'fu din'ere?"
"Wha'? Oh, sorry Ron." Hagrid released Ron, who smiled as he took a few gulps of air.
"I said, what are you doing here?"
Hagrid beamed. "It was all 'ermione! She came all the way to my hut to get me! Thought you'd need me, after everythin'."
Ron smiled sadly. "She was right."
After a moment, Lupin cleared his throat and stepped forward towards the two.
"Hagrid," he said warmly. "It must have been…"
"Too many years to count," Hagrid said, clapping Lupin on the back so vigorously that Ron had to hurry over and help Lupin keep from falling over. "Listen," he continued, "I'm 'ere to help rescue Harry. But I need to talk to you, in private."
Lupin raised an eyebrow, but nodded. And with a final smile and ruffle of Ron's hair, Hagrid left with Lupin, leaving Ron and Hermione standing behind.
