Their detention was to take place on Saturday evening. Professor McGonagall, who had been awoken the night of the duel by a near giddy Filtch, had taken twenty points from each of the boys in addition to giving them detention.
"I have never been more disappointed in my students." She had said severely. Dean said later that he suspected that was a bit of an exaggeration on her part, but Harry felt that she had meant every word. In the span of 24 hours, he had been responsible for the loss of 80 points from the Gryffindor glass and received his first detention.
What was worse than either of those things, however, was the smug look on Malfoy's face come morning. Harry thought he could feel Malfoy's smirks and sneers on the back of his neck during the entirety of breakfast.
"Smug bastard." Harry heard Ron whisper under his breath, and Harry privately agreed.
The rest of the day seemed to pass far too quickly for Harry's liking. The boys kept being confronted by various people throughout the day, demanding to know if it was them that had lost Gryffindor all those points. Seamus wanted to keep it quiet, but Harry felt it was best to be honest about what happened.
Interestingly enough, the range of reactions to the boy's late night recreation fell in between the reactions of Percy Weasely and Fred and George. Percy, of course, was 'hugely, tremendously disappointed'. Fred and George were decidedly not.
"Mate, you have to be sneaky." Fred said, clapping Harry on the back and shaking his head, "You can't just go around be caught."
"Yeah." George agreed, "Fred and I sneak out all the time, but you don't see us getting caught and loosing points now do you?"
Fred nodded sagely, "Don't worry Harry, if you still have the urge to go on late night jaunts, just come to us."
"Yeah," George said, leaning over the arm of Harry's chair in the common room, "We'll teach you everything we know."
"Rule number one?" Fred stage whispered, "Don't take this idiot." He gestured to Ron, who was seated on the couch.
"Hey!"
Six o'clock finally came, and all four boys marched down the hallways towards the grounds, where Professor McGonagall had told them to meet her.
The crisp fall air nipped at Harry's cheeks, and he drew his clock more tightly around him.
As the boys entered the grounds, they were greeted by the site of an irate-looking Professor McGonagall and a decidedly not irate Hagrid.
"Hello there!" Hagrid smiled merrily, waving one large hand at their little group. Harry and Dean returned the wave.
"Hagrid this is a detention." Professor McGonagall said pointedly.
"Oh! Righ' ya are Professor." Hagrid said, still not quite managing to keep the cheer out of his voice.
"Then I'll leave you to it." And with a withering look at the boys, Professor McGonagall swept back towards the castle.
"All righ' boys, follow me." Hagrid waved them towards him and began walking down the slope of the hill towards the groundskeeper hut where Harry surmised Hagrid lived.
"You'll be shucking corn for the Halloween Feast." Hagrid said, pointing to hundreds of bushels stacked next to his house.
When the boys balked, Hagrid said, "Don't worry, you won't be here long enough to finish all of it. Usually the house-elves would be doing it, but Professor McGonagall wanted you all to do something, and the grounds are quiet tonight." Hagrid smiled down at them.
"Don't worry about one detention." Hagrid said merrily, "One detention is nothin' to be worried about. I was at Hogwarts meself but I - er - got expelled, ter tell yeh the truth. In me third year. They snapped me wand in half an'everything. But Dumbledore let me stay on as gamekeeper. Great man, Dumbledore." Hagrid gazed fondly up at the castle.
"Why did you get expelled?" Harry asked.
"You better pull up a stool!" Hagrid said loudly, sitting down on a very large stool that was already propped up next to the bushels. Seamus, Ron, Dean, and Harry all sat on the grouping of smaller stools next to Hagrid's.
As they worked, Hagrid talked. He was easy to listen to, Harry decided. He was friendly and seemed eager to hear about their classes and lives. He sort of reminded Harry of Aunt Petunia in that way.
The conversation flowed easily. Hagrid agreed that Malfoy sounded like a right git (though he made the boys promise not to tell any of the teachers he said that). He told them interesting grounds-keeper stories about the squid in the lake and the unicorns in the Forrest.
They were about an hour into shucking and the conversation had lulled. Suddenly, Hagrid turned to Harry and blurted, "I knew your parents!"
Harry looked up, shocked. Besides his Aunt Petunia, he had never met someone that had known his parents personally before.
Hagrid was nodding, as though he couldn't contain himself anymore, "I was there the night that we left you with your aunt and uncle."
"Really?" Harry breathed. He knew the others were looking at him, but he was suddenly excited, "Then, you know what happened?"
Hagrid took a deep breath and nodded, " Yer mum an' dad were as good a witch an' wizard as I ever knew. Head boy an' girl at Hogwarts in their day! Talented…talented. Suppose the myst'ry is why You-Know-Who never tried to get 'em on his side before... probably knew they were too close ter Dumbledore ter want anythin' ter do with the Dark Side. "
Something warm had grown inside Harry's chest. Aunt Petunia had told him time and time again what good people his parents were, but to hear someone else say it? It made Harry very happy in a strange way.
But Hagrid was not done with his story, "Maybe he thought he could persuade 'em... maybe he just wanted 'em outta the way. All anyone knows is, he turned up in the village where you was all living, on Halloween ten years ago. You was just a year old. He came ter yer house an' - an' -" Hagrid suddenly pulled out a very dirty, spotted handkerchief and blew his nose with a sound like a foghorn.
Harry's stomach sank. He knew the rest of the story. He had never heard it in quite so much detail (probably because Aunt Petunia did not know), but he knew what happened next.
Hagrid had finished wiping his nose. "Sorry," he said. "But it's that sad - knew yer mum an' dad, an' nicer people yeh couldn't find - anyway..." "You-Know-Who killed 'em. An' then - an' this is the real myst'ry of the thing - he tried to kill you, too. Wanted ter make a clean job of it, I suppose, or maybe he just liked killin' by then. But he couldn't do it. That's what yeh get," Hagrid pointed towards the scar on Harry's forehead, "when a powerful, evil curse touches yeh - took care of yer mum an' dad an' yer house, even - but it didn't work on you." Hagrid shook his head, "But it didn't work on you."
Hagrid trailed off and Harry bent over his bushel, working furiously to shuck corn as fast as he could. For the first time he noticed that the grounds were completely silent, except for their little group's breathing. Harry just knew that his friends were staring at him. Something very painful was going on in Harry's mind. He saw again the blinding flash of green light that he had seen the night after the Opening Feast, more clearly than he had ever remembered it before - and he remembered something else, for the first time in his life: a high, cold, cruel laugh. He felt like he couldn't breathe.
He startled when he felt one, large hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry." Hagrid said, looking down at him with his large, tear-filled eyes.
Harry shook his head, "It's…ok. It's fine." He chanced a glance at his friends. All three of them looked stricken.
It was then that Hagrid seemed to notice the hour and how dark it had gotten.
"You boys better be getting back up to the castle now." Hagrid said, standing and stretching.
As Harry made to leave with his friends Hagrid said, "Harry! Hold a mo'." He went into his hut and emerged moments later with a large, bound book with fancy script on the front. "I wanted to give this to you when I got the chance."
Harry opened the book curiously. It was full of wizard photographs. Smiling and waving at him from every page were his mother and father.
"Sent owls off ter all yer parents' old school friends, askin' fer photos... d'yeh like it?"
Harry couldn't speak, but Hagrid understood.
Clutching the book to his chest, Harry and his friends made their way back towards the castle. Harry trailed slightly behind his friends, glancing back over his shoulder every few steps at the giant friend he was certain he had made.