Chapter warnings: Mild adult language

Author's Notes: The beginning of this chapter is brand new material. I felt that I needed to add in an element of a fight between Draco and Hermione. These two have had too much history for their relationship to just go smoothly, even if the actual blowout is with Ron. Also, this chapter and the next were originally meant to be one chapter, but I decided to split it up into two because it was the length of two of my chapters anyway. However, since I haven't updated in so long, I am going to try to get that one up as soon as possible as well. So without further ado, please enjoy…

Chapter 6: A Giant and a Mountain Goat

"You always have to take someone else's side don't you Ronald? Even if that someone else is Draco Malfoy!"

Draco froze before he could push the door in, wincing back as if he had been burned by touching it. He did an almost hop backwards as he lifted his hand from the wood and rose on his toes, rolling his body backwards away from the screaming on the other side of the door. He turned to Blaise, asking him without words what was going on and why Hermione was screaming that apparently they were on opposite sides of an argument and apparently Ron was taking his side.

"At least she's talking to someone mate" Blaise put in, not helpfully. Hermione had not been talking to either of the Slytherins for the past few days, not since they had gotten back from the trip on Halloween to Malfoy Manor. Blaise cautiously opened the door and snuck into the hall. Neither Hermione nor Ron was facing the door and they seemed to be completely engrossed in their argument. Blaise gestured to Draco and they snuck into the hall and sat as close to the door as they could at the Slytherin table, ready to make a run for it if they had to.

"I have no idea what you're on about Hermione." Ron said "What have I taken Malfoy's side on again?"

"House elves" Hermione shot back.

"What about house elves?" Ron asked confused and angry.

"You approve of them" Hermione accused.

"Of course I approve of them. They make life easier, they like working for wizards, and they are a part of wizarding culture, and you can try to change that but they aren't going to be happier Hermione, no one is but you."

"You know they beat house elves don't you?"

"Not everybody beats house elves"

"Oh, you're right, they make the house elves beat themselves"

"That's just programmed into their nature already. If they disobey their masters they are supposed to be punished. It's like how a child misbehaves and gets punished."

"Children do not get punished by being beaten"

"Maybe not you, but I'm seventeen years old and a foot taller than my mother and she still threatens to bend me over her knee and paddle my behind with a wooden spoon."

"House elves get a lot harsher punishment than that"

"No, you don't get it Hermione, they really don't. Yeah, some people punish their house elves harder, but really most people don't treat them badly. Didn't you see how Malfoy was acting around his? And don't you see how the house elves act around here? You've met some of them. And you saw how upset Winky was when Crouch let her go. Let me spell it out for you. They. Like. Working. For. Wizards."

"They are slaves! You treat them like you own them!"

"People do own them, Hermione, they are property! Just like Crookshanks is your property, and Pig is my property, house elves are property."

"They are not pets. You don't make pets work like that and then beat them and ignore them."

"You're right they're not pets, they're like work animals. Like how farmers use horses and asses"

"You're an arse!"

"Oh very clever response Hermione"

Hermione made a frustrated noise. "I can't argue with you, Ronald," she said, and stormed out of the Great Hall, never once taking notice that the real target of her aggression was sitting in the room. Draco turned to Blaise, who looked as confused as he felt. They both glanced at Ron and then back at each other. "What just happened?" Draco asked. Blaise just shrugged.

"So how do we get into that, whatever is behind the door?"

"Draco, you've been asking that for the past three weeks." Blaise sighed. "We don't even know if it is a door. It could just be decoration for all we know."

"Who would put a big stone slab with a snake on it in their dungeon for decoration?" Draco asked skeptically.

"Lucius Malfoy," Blaise countered, "or his father or grandfather or any of the lot of them. The Malfoy line has always been very Slytherin-centric. Even you Draco."

"I have an excuse" Draco said, indicating to Blaise that he meant that he had Slytherin blood in him. Blaise rolled his eyes and took a bite of his toast. Draco pushed his cereal around in the bowl with his spoon. Draco hadn't been eating very much since his mother had been arrested. He wasn't worried about himself, but he made an effort to not let Blaise or anyone else notice.

Draco barely looked up when Demetri brought him his copy of the Daily Prophet. It was when another owl, a large tawny, landed next to him that he bothered to take notice. The owl had a napkin in its beak. Someone must have written him a note just now and had their owl deliver it when it came to give them their morning mail. He took the napkin from the owl and was greeted with Hermione's handwriting. Blaise leaned over his shoulder to see the note and asked, "Has she decided to talk to you again mate?" Draco shrugged.

The note said 'Hagrid wants us to help him with Grawp today. Meet us at his hut after breakfast.'

"What's a Grawp?" Blaise asked.

"I don't know" Draco said, "and I'm not sure I want to find out."

"So what exactly is a Grawp?" Blaise asked Hermione as they walked down to Hagrid's hut after breakfast.

"Not what, who," Harry corrected.

"Okay, then who is Grawp?" Blaise amended.

"Hagrid's little brother" Harry told him.

"There's nothing little about Grawp" Ron said.

"Wait, why do we have to help with a person?" Draco asked.

"It's his half-brother" Harry said, as if this explained everything.

"I still don't see why we have to…" Draco had a sudden revelation, "Grawp is a giant, isn't he?"

"Yes" Harry said.

"We're going to help with a giant?" Blaise asked nervously. "What are we going to help with?"

"Hagrid's trying to teach him to incorporate into human society" Harry said.

"Bloody bonkers if you ask me," said Ron.

Draco, Blaise, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville reached Hagrid's hut, outside of which Hagrid was standing next to several crates of watermelons and pumpkins.

"'Ello everybody" Hagrid greeted. "'Ermione, I didn't know you were bringin' so many people. Ah well, it'll be good for Grawp ta be around a lotta people. 'E usually only gets ta be 'round a few humans at once. Now can ya grab some o' these crates? We're takin' Grawp some food. 'E needs summat more'n meat ter eat."

Draco gave Hagrid a look. It was weird for the large man to be concerned about his giant brother's nutrition. Besides, Hagrid was like, sixty-five or seventy years old so his brother couldn't be that much younger. Did giants really need to be babied at that age? Shouldn't he know what to eat?

"Can you get these crates and carry 'em with ya?" Hagrid asked them.

Ron shrugged, then bent down and tried to pick up a crate of watermelons. He groaned as he did so, but the crate was too heavy to heave into his arms. Draco rolled his eyes and pulled out his wand. He pointed it at one of the crates and said "Wingardium Leviosa." The crate levitated. Draco smirked.

"Or that could work." Ron said, standing up and repeating Draco's spell. The others also each levitated a crate while Hagrid picked up two of them and held one under each arm.

"Okay," Hagrid said, "We're goin; up ta the mountains"

"I thought Grawp was in the forest" Hermione said.

"I had ter move 'im." Hagrid explained, "The centaurs were getting restless with 'im in there, 'specially with 'im tearin' up the trees. They told me a few times they wanted 'im out a the forest an' I figured I should get 'im outta their home. I know 'e can't help it, but Grawp needed ta stop tearin' up their trees. Sos I moved 'im up ta the mountains. It's a little ways of a walk up there though. Anyways, we better be off." He started walking out towards Hogsmeade. The others followed him up to the village and throught it to the mountains in the distance. They came out to the mouth of a cae and Hagrid stopped.

"Grawp" Hagrid called. Draco set down his crate of pumpkins. Something moved inside the cave. From its depths emerged the giant. It, or Draco supposed it was a he, was sixteen feet tall at least and about three times as broad as Hagrid, who was himself three times as broad as a normal man.

"Th…that's Grawp?" Blaise asked, seeming frightened. "H-he's s-s-so big." Blaise tried to hide behind Draco, but Draco was shorter and leaner than Blaise and it wasn't working very well.

"Well you knew he was a giant Blaise" Draco said.

"Yeah, but I didn't know he'd be this big. I had more in mind someone who looks like Hagrid." Blaise defended himself.

"Hagrid's only half-giant" Draco said "of course a full giant would be bigger than him"

"Hello, Hermy, Harry, Ron, Hagger" the giant spoke, sounding like a little kid who was just learning how to talk.

"Hermy?" Draco asked amused

"It's hard for him to say and remember my whole name" Hermioen answered

"'Ello Grawp" Hagrid said.

"Who these people?" Grawp asked, motioning to the boys he didn't know.

"Grawp, this is Neville," Neville waved when Hagrid introduced him, "and Draco and Blaise." Blaise again ducked down and hid behind Draco. Draco was not amused by this. He stepped aside so that Blaise was revealed. Blaise ducked behind Draco again. Draco stepped back to his original position. Balise followed. The blond sighed and gave up.

"Grawp, we brought ya some food" Hagird said setting down his crates. Draco noticed that the rest of the party had already set theirs down. Grawp picked up a crate in his hand, which was roughly the size of a rubbish bin lid, and smelled it. Then he took out one of the pumpkins in the crate and ate the whole thing in one bite. A smile came across the giant's face. "Good" the giant said.

"That's called pumpkin" Hagrid said, "and this is called watermelon" he held up one of the watermelons. Grawp took the watermelon from Hagrid and ate that too. "That good too" Grawp said. Then he seemed to remember something. He stood up very straight and said "Thank you"

Draco thought that it was almost cute seeing the giant act like a little kid. He briefly wondered how old Grawp was. He couldn't be that young, what with how old Hagird was. Then Draco wondered what giant culture was like. Were giants as stupid as people made them out to be? Or was it just that their culture wasn't as advanced as that of humans?

Blaise backed away from the giant, apparently still afraid. He wasn't looking where he was going. All of a sudden Blaise was tumbling back down the mountain. Draco turned and ran to the edge of the ledge, yelling for Blaise. Blaise landed after a short distance.

Blaise stood and brushed himself out, wincing a little as he did so. He didn't seem to have any serious injuries. Blaise turned around and seemed to see it just when Draco did. There was a mountain goat looking at Blaise, getting ready to charge him. Blaise looked at the goat for a minute, then turned and ran in the opposite direction. The goat ran after him. Blaise ran in circles on the ledge below them and the goat chased close behind him. Blaise was screaming. All Draco could think was that they had to somehow get Blaise away from the goat before it did any damage to him.

Just them, Grawp stepped past Draco, down onto the lower ledge. He used both hands to pick up Blaise gently and place him back on the upper ledge. The goat seemed stunned. It stopped running and looked up at Grawp.

"Bad goat" Grawp scolded. "Don't hurt friend."

"And then I was chased by a giant killer mountain goat" Blaise panned for sympathy from Pansy Parkinson and Daphne Green grass.

"Blaise, it was not a giant goat. It was just a regular sized goat." Draco said, trying to be patient.

"It was big Draco. That thing was huge." Blaise countered.

"Blaise, you don't even know how big mountain goats are supposed to be." Draco said.

"Well that's not my fault." Blaise defended. "I don't live in the mountains."

"You have a ski lodge in the Swiss Alps and a summer home in Santorini, Greece." Draco reminded him, "Not to mention you live nine months out of the year here in a castle in the mountains of Scotland."

"Well yes, but I don't actually live out on the mountains where the goats are." Blaise retorted. Draco rolled his eyes.

"I'm going to go back to my common room." Draco sighed, then got up and walked back up the many staircases it took for him to get to the seventh floor from the dungeons and into his common room. Hermione was sitting by the fire reading her Shakespeare book. Draco sat down next to her. "Hi" he said simply.

She looked up from her book. "Did you want something?" she asked coldly.

"What are you doing tomorrow night?" he asked.

"Why do you care?" So they were back to this. She hadn't been speaking to him at all since they had returned from the trip to his manor. He knew it was because of his house elves and he knew that they would have to talk about the matter sooner rather than later. But first he had to get her to talk to him. "Have dinner with me," he said.

"Draco, I don't think" she started, but he cut her off. "Not in the Great Hall. I want to have dinner on top of this tower. Just the two of us."

She gave him a searching look. "Fine, what time should I be ready?"

"Meet me here at eight" he said "and wear something nice okay?" he grinned.