I do not own Harry Potter. Charlotte Potter is my OC.

A Giant Discovery

Hogwarts was known to be thrown into all kinds of chaos, most of which Charlie had experienced first-hand. But she did not mind this sort of chaos—everyone in the castle was taking up the mantle of Fred and George, their story of flight being retold countless times.

The swamp the twins had left behind still remained, for all teachers feigned cluelessness on how to remove it. Filch was forced to cart students across the murky waters on a raft after Umbridge had given up, unable to remove the jinx.

Umbridge's office door had been damaged when the twins' broomsticks made their escape and was replaced with one that was reinforced with steel. Charlie had absolutely no clue what had happened to her Firebolt, but she heard rumours that Umbridge had sent it to be locked up in the dungeons.

Charlie wasn't too concerned with her beloved broomstick at the moment. Almost every student in the castle were pulling pranks, all an attempt to drive Umbridge from the castle. Dungbombs and Stink Pellets went off constantly in the corridors and Filch was completely outnumbered. The Inquisitorial Squad did their best to help, but they were often focussed on defending themselves from the wrath of students partaking in the Umbridge Rebellion, and on top of that Montague still hadn't recovered from his experience with the Vanishing Cabinet.

The twins had sold a vast number of Skiving Snackboxes before they departed, and their buyers were using them in full force against Umbridge. Vomiting, aching stomachs and bleeding noses caused students to leave the DADA class in waves. She put everyone she could into detention but could not find the cause of the sudden, inexplicable illnesses. Without her Blood Quill, she could not coerce students into sharing information, and as such was forced to let her students leave class sick.

But there was no one better at creating chaos than the master himself. Peeves was unstoppable—he crashed through chalkboards and disrupted classes, upended tables and threw chairs, he broke vases and statues and shoved Mrs. Norris into a suit of armour every chance he got.

Charlie knew she shouldn't get involved in the war against Umbridge. She had already done enough, and one more misstep would result in Umbridge bodily throwing her from the castle. But she couldn't resist in joining up with Peeves for two occasions. The first time she and the poltergeist removed all the taps in the bathroom on the second floor, causing a flood. The second time she had taken some magic paint, given to her by Peeves, and wrote 'Down with Umbridge!' on the wall just outside the Great Hall. It would not be removed unless she did it herself, and she took great joy in seeing the utter fury on Umbridge's face when she discovered the unflattering graffiti.

Hermione had given her a good chewing out, of course, but it was worth it.

Her Occlumency lessons with Snape continued, and she found herself facing a dilemma. While she was efficient in steadily keeping Snape out of her mind, and her mental blocks were becoming well-established, she was still having her dreams. And she didn't necessarily want them to stop.

She knew it was a bad idea to keep her mind open to these dreams, but her curiosity was overpowering. She was getting a bit further with each dream that passed. Last night, she made into the room filled with dusty glass spheres and maneuvered through the shelves. She had made it past row number ninety-seven before she woke up.

It wasn't that she wasn't trying to block her mind. With all her studying for exams and homework and classes, she ended up being too tired to calm her emotions and close her mind before falling asleep.

She allowed herself a break from chaos-wreaking, studying and speculating when the final match of the Quidditch season came up. Gryffindor and Ravenclaw made it to the match for the Quidditch Cup, and none of the Slytherins bothered to show up. Their tactics against Ron had stopped working long ago.

"Charlie, Hermione, Harry."

The whispered voice came from behind Charlie, Hermione and Harry at the beginning of the match. The trio turned around in unison, but it was Charlie who spoke. "Hey, Hagrid," she greeted. "What's up?"

"Can yeh lot come with me?" he asked softly, looking around anxiously to see if anyone was listening. "While everyone is distracted with the match?"

Charlie studied Hagrid's face, which was gently dripping with blood, and she could clearly see some new scratches and bruises. He also looked extremely nervous and a bit desperate, which caused alarm to flood through her. "Sure, Hagrid," she agreed.

"But…what about the match?" asked Harry in dismay. Hermione frowned and elbowed him sharply, and he hastily added, "Which we don't need to see. We'll get a recap later."

"Thanks," said Hagrid gratefully.

They made their way out of the stands and went down the stairs. Hagrid kept shooting glances at Umbridge, whose eyes were riveted on the game. "Hope she doesn' notice that we're gone."

"She shouldn't, not with this many people," muttered Charlie, glancing at the woman, who was sitting with the Inquisitorial Squad. "She's probably expecting trouble to happen during the match, anyway."

"Some trouble would be good," said Hagrid, checking to make sure the stretch of lawn between the pitch and his hut was deserted. "Keep 'em distracted."

The trio had to rush after Hagrid as he strode across the grass. "What's the matter?" panted Harry as they tried to keep up. "What's with the secrecy?"

"Yeh'll see," said Hagrid as they reached the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Harry paled when the man picked up a crossbow leaning against one of the tree trunks.

"Wait," he protested frantically. "What's that for?"

"Just a precaution. Come on, now, before we're spotted."

A sense of apprehension growing within her, Charlie nonetheless grabbed a reluctant Harry by the arm and dragged him into the cover of the trees, which shadowed over them, blocking out the sunlight in a shady green landscape.

"What's with the crossbow?" insisted Harry. "You didn't need it when you brought us here to see the Thestrals."

"Well, we didn' go teh far in that day, did we?" asked Hagrid. "An' it was before Firenze got kicked from the herd."

"What does that have to do with anything?" asked Hermione in confusion.

"When Firenze accepted the job fer Dumbledore, the centaurs were livid. They attacked Firenze an' nearly kicked him teh death. I interfered, an' they're right riled at me because o' it. They used teh be civil, but now they get aggressive if anyone comes onto what they call their territory."

"You stopped an entire herd?" asked Harry in awe.

"Certainly gave it my best shot," replied Hagrid. "Lucky fer Firenze I was passin' by. Couldn' stand around an' do nothin', could I? Yeh think he might o' remembered what I did an' not given me unnecessary warnin's."

Charlie immediately thought back to the message Firenze had her relay to Hagrid a while ago, and this did not diminish her nervousness and apprehension of what Hagrid wanted from them.

"Hagrid…what exactly are we doing here?"

"Yeh'll see in a bit."

"I'm not liking this," whispered Harry nervously as they moved further into the forest, the path becoming difficult to navigate due to overgrown roots and grass.

"What on earth is he bringing us this far in for?" asked Hermione in confusion. "And why is he so secretive about it?"

Charlie did not have an answer. She kept her eyes peeled for any agitated centaurs or other creatures of the Forbidden Forest, but there was nothing but silence, which struck her odd. There was always some creature around any time they'd been so far out in the Forbidden Forest, so where had everyone gone?

"We should stop here fer a sec," Hagrid spoke suddenly, coming to a halt. "I ought teh fill yeh in on a few things first."

Charlie could not see Hagrid through the shadows of the trees so she removed her wand and whispered, "Lumos."

Hagrid's bearded face came into focus, and she frowned at the nervous expression he wore. The man took a deep breath and started speaking. "I expect teh get the sack any day now. That Niffler that got into her office—she thinks I did it."

"But it wasn't you!" protested Hermione.

"That doesn't matter. She'll use anythin' teh fire me," said Hagrid grimly. "Yeh know how she feels about half-breeds an' the like. But I can handle it. Least I'd be able teh help Dumbledore that way. The only reason I haven' left yet is because…well, I s'pose it would be best teh show yeh."

They continued walking, and after fifteen minutes they appeared at a rather destroyed section of the forest. Trees had been uprooted all around, and there were piles of trunks and boughs that made up a crude fence.

Charlie's eyes zeroed in on the massive lump curled up in the middle of the forest floor, a rumbling snoring filling the air. Hermione gasped in horror and Harry looked around wildly. "What?" he asked frantically. "What is it?"

"Hagrid," moaned Charlie, her wand falling lower as her arm went limp with despair. "You didn't!"

"You said none of them wanted to come!" said Hermione hysterically.

"He didn', really," said Hagrid, sounding a bit helpless. "But I couldn' just leave him there!"

Harry realized what his friends were talking about and he clasped his hands to his face in horror. "Oh, no! This is worse than Norberta!"

"Why did you do it?" asked Hermione, sounding on the verge of tears. "Why?"

"Because I had teh," said Hagrid desperately, sounding close to tears himself. "I thought if I brought him here an' tried teachin' him, I could show everyone how harmless he is!"

"Okay, okay, everyone calm down!" hissed Charlie. She took a deep breath and stared at Hagrid. "He's the reason you've had all those injuries."

"He's bin gettin' better," said Hagrid earnestly. "He just doesn' know his own strength, is all."

"Why did you bring him here?"

"Well, yeh see, he's my brother. Half-brother, anyway. After my dad, my mother went with another giant an' had Grawp here."

"Grawp," repeated Charlie, feeling an odd bubble of hysteria rising within her. She pushed it down and kept her voice level. "You were two months late coming back because you brought Grawp with you."

"He was bein' bullied by the others fer bein' teh small. I couldn' leave him there alone!"

"Small," said Harry with a slightly crazed laugh. "Small!"

"What did Madame Maxime say?" asked Hermione, staring at the sleeping creature with a pained expression.

"She put up with it fer a bit, but she got tired o' him an' we split off. But she promised not teh tell anyone, an' she knew how important it was teh me. It took so long teh get back here 'cause we had teh travel by night an' go through the country."

Charlie wearily eyed the thick ropes securing Grawp to the nearest trees. Well. Least I know why it's empty around here. All the creatures high-tailed it.

"What do you want us to do?"

"Just teach him a bit o' English," said Hagrid hopefully. "He knows some, but I would like someone teh keep it up on the chance that I'm gone. I think that if he learns teh understand English an' speak it, he'll see that we want him here. I know yeh have exams an' all, an' yeh just have teh pop out once a week an' have a conversation with him. He gets his own food an' all, so yeh don' have teh worry about that."

"Wonderful," said Charlie dryly.

"Will yeh do it?" asked Hagrid desperately.

Charlie glanced at her friends. Harry looked utterly terrified and Hermione already looked resigned. She glanced at the giant, with his large head, curled hair, broad back and massive feet. She was insane for even thinking about teaching a giant the English language.

"Fine," she said, causing Harry to moan softly and Hagrid to beam. "But we can't promise results, Hagrid."

"I know," said Hagrid, tears trailing down his cheeks. "I knew I could count on yeh teh help! Here, I'll introduce yeh!"

"No!" yelped Harry. "Please don't!"

But Hagrid was already moving towards Grawp. He picked up a stick and nudged the giant's foot with it, and after a couple of prods he started to wake. With a growling yawn, he stood up, and Charlie craned her neck upwards to stare up at him, mouth slightly agape.

The trees Grawp was tied to creaked with his every move, and he knelt down to stare at them, green-brown eyes wide. Harry clung to Charlie, face white. Hermione let out a squeak, her hands trembling at her sides.

"I'd like yeh teh meet our friends, Grawpy," said Hagrid cheerfully. "I told yeh I might have teh go away on a trip. Remember that?"

Grawp gave a roar, which Charlie found hard to interpret. She really didn't think Grawp was listening, or even understanding, what Hagrid was saying. He was currently playing with the top of a massive pine tree, its roots starting to break through the soil.

"Stop that, that's how yeh wrecked the other ones!" admonished Hagrid, giving Grawp another poke. Grawp stared back down, and for the first time seemed to register the new arrivals. He stared blearily down at them, his face blank.

"This is Charlie Potter," introduced Hagrid. "An' this is Harry Lupin, an' Hermy Granger." At Hermione's bemused look, he whispered, "I think yer full name might be hard fer him teh say."

"Fine," said Hermione in a small voice.

Grawp continued to stare, and after a moment suddenly reached out to grab at them. Charlie flung her arms out and shoved her friends away from the giant's curious grasp. "No, Grawpy!" shouted Hagrid. "Bad boy!"

Grumbling lowly, Grawp quickly lost interest and went back to playing with the tree. Hagrid glanced at the three teens, who were pale and looked rather shell-shocked. "I think that's enough fer today," he said tiredly. "Come on, lets head back. "Bye, Grawpy. I'll see yeh soon."

The four made their way back through the forest, Hagrid shouldering his crossbow. Charlie stared at the forest floor, moving numbly and staring at the glow emitting from her wand. Of all the creatures Hagrid had to bring back, of course it had to be a giant, and his half-brother, no less.

Fluffy. Buckbeak. Norberta. Aragog. Skrewts. Thestrals. And now Grawp. Oh well. It's not like I didn't have enough excitement in my life anyway.

Hagrid suddenly tensed and threw his arm out, causing the teens to stop. "Damn," he whispered as the bushes to their left began to rustle. He prepared his crossbow and held it tightly in his hands. "Didn' make it."

A centaur with a chestnut body and black hair emerged, and he did not look pleased. "We told you what would happen if you came into our forest again, Hagrid."

Hermione whimpered as more centaurs came out from the thicket, surrounding them. Harry flinched at the icy glares that were directed at Hagrid. Charlie recognized two of them; Bane and Ronan, both of which she had met in her first year.

"I don' recall it just bein' yer forest," said Hagrid testily.

"There is also the matter of your interference in our affairs," said Bane nastily. "We have our laws, and you meddled with them."

"I stopped yeh from committin' murder," said Hagrid hotly.

"He betrayed us!" roared Bane.

"He did a favour fer Dumbledore!" countered Hagrid.

"He's sharing our secrets and knowledge amongst humans," snarled Bane. "And he shall never be forgiven for that. And neither will we forgive you for your interference, or your trespass onto our territory."

"Yer territory—" began Hagrid, outraged.

Charlie set a restraining hand on his arm. "Don't," she said softly. Hagrid quieted, though she could feel his fury. She turned to the centaurs and bowed her head slightly. "I'm sorry for our intrusion. But please, may we go back to the castle?"

Bane's eyes narrowed. "Well, Magorian?"

The one called Magorian stared at her for a moment. Closing his eyes briefly, he gave a nod. "The only reason you are able to continue, Hagrid, is because we do not harm innocents. But henceforth you are forbidden from coming here. Your friendship with us was lost when you helped the traitor Firenze escape."

Gritting his teeth, Hagrid jerked his head, and the three teens scurried after him. As the group made their way towards the exit of the forest, Bane called, "Our tolerance for what you're keeping in the forest is waning, Hagrid!"

"Yeh'll tolerate him fer as long as he's here!" hollered Hagrid. "It's his home as much as it is yers!"

They finally made it out of the forest, and the three teens waved Hagrid on so that they could talk. "I can't believe this!" said Harry frantically. "He brought a giant here and he wants us to teach him!"

"Well, we agreed, didn't we?" said Hermione tiredly. "Though I don't know how we're going to do it with the centaurs being so territorial."

"They said they don't hurt innocents, so on the chance we get caught, we should be fine," returned Charlie.

"You don't think this is crazy?" asked Harry in bafflement.

"Of course I think it's crazy! But we don't have to do anything unless Hagrid gets fired by Umbridge. So for now, we just leave it."

Harry snorted and crossed his arms. "Geez. Wait until Ron hears this one."