AUTHORS NOTE :P
Well, my friend has moved, but we're still talking everyday so it's fine :)
How are you guys? I'm so depressed that the summer is going so fast! I don't want to go back to school! I'm doing my Junior Cert this year, which I'm not looking forward too, so updating won't be as often when I go back because I'll be studying and all that boring stupid stuff...
Now I shall answer some reviews...
blazeice9967: thanks a million :) and to answer your review from chapter 11, which I'm only seeing now, sorry, it's not American or English football, it's Irish :) you know, gaelic football? Thanks :D
ChopSuzi: haha thanks :)
SevLoverKat: Maybe, maybe not...
Arkell26: Oh really? How did that happen? I hope you're alright, and get better soon :)That must of been hard, and annoying :/ I really want to go to America haha :) have you been to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter?
Max artemis potter: Thanks :) Oh, and I'm guessing by your name that you like the Artemis Fowl series? If you do, have you read the last one? I haven't gotten it yet and I want to know if it's good :)
AnikaandAj: haha that's fine! The second task is in three chapters, including this one :)
Quail Sandwich: Thanks :) I know, it won't be the same but it's better then not talking to her at all so I'm happy enough :) Thanks for the virtual hug and I shall give you a virtual hug back for the advice :D thanks :)
Pyro and Darnet co: Yeah I know, she really hates having to move and she's so much more depressed then we are :( we spent everyday with her before she moved. Yeah, it will be hard and we're always telling her how depressed we are haha :) we're like twins too so it will take a while to get over it. Thanks a lot for the review, it did help :)
Shan Shan Liang: thanks :)
Thanks to everyone who gave me advice about my friend, it actually did help me a lot. I love you guys :)
Anyone who had read the Mortal Instruments, what do you think of the cast for the movie? I think it's great so far!
Oh, and who has read the LAST EVER Maximum Ride book? If you have, please no spoilers, because my sisters boyfriend ordered it for me on amazon and I got it today but I haven't read it yet... NO SPOILERS! But I just want to know if it's good?
Now, on with the chapter!
Enjoy!
-Rach ;)
Max's POV
We all slept in late on Boxing Day, me later then the others because during the night I was kept awake by strange, terrifying nightmares of a graveyard, a man with red eyes and I saw Harry there, screaming and twitching on the ground like the spider from Professor Moody's class. Over and over I had this dream and I didn't know what to think of it.
The Gryffindor common room was so much more quieter then it had been lately, many yawns filling the room along with lazy conversation. Hermione's hair was bushy again; she said it was too much bother to use the potion thing in her hair everyday.
Ron and Hermione seemed to have come to an unspoken agreement not to mention their argument. They were being perfectly friendly with eachother, but also awkwardly formal. We waisted no time in telling Hermione about the conversation we had overheard between Hagrid and Maxime, but Hermione didn't seem to find the news that Hagrid was half-giant as shocking as the rest of us did. Now that I think about, how I never guessed it before made me feel quite stupid.
"Well, I thought he might be," she said, shrugging. "I knew he couldn't be pure giant, because they're about twenty feet tall. But honestly, all this fuss about giants. They can't be all horrible... it's the same kind of prejudice people have towards werewolves... It's just bigotry, isn't it?"
Ron looked like he wanted to argue with what she said, but not wanting another fight, he just shook his head disbelievingly when she wasn't looking. I kicked his leg under the table, giving him a stern look. He just shrugged.
It was once again time to think about the homework that we had neglected during the first week of the holidays. Everyone seemed to be feeling rather flat now that Christmas was over- everyone, I think, except for Harry, who was starting to get nervous again, although I think I was the only person that noticed. I kept reminding him what Cedric had said about taking the egg and having a bath, and every time I reminded him, he'd tell me that he hadn't forgotten and that he was doing his best to figure it out on his own. Which I kinda doubted, but don't tell him that.
I didn't say this to Harry, but I'm guessing he was thinking it himself, but if Cedric really wanted to tell Harry how to figure it out, he wouldn't of been all mysterious about it. He would of said it straight out, what he had to do. Harry didn't beat around the bush when he told Cedric about the dragons, so why did Cedric have to now?
The snow was still thick on the grounds on the first day of term, and the windows of the greenhouse were covered in condensation was so thick that we couldn't see out of them in Herbology. Nobody was looking forward to Care of Magical Creatures, though as Iggy said, the skrewts would warm us up in no time, either by chasing us, or blasting off so forcefully that Hagrid's cabin would catch fire.
When we got to Hagrid's cabin, though, it wasn't Hagrid that was there. We found an elderly witch with close cropped grey hair and a very prominent chin standing before his door.
"Hurry up now, the bell rang five minutes ago!" she barked as we struggled towards her in the snow.
"Who're you?" Iggy asked. "Where's Hagrid?"
"My name is Professor Grubbly-Plank," she said briskly. "I am your temporary Care of Magical Creatures teacher."
"Where's Hagrid?" I repeated loudly.
"He is indisposed," Grubbly-Plank said.
Soft and unpleasant laughter reached my ears. I turned around, the others following my lead; Malfoy and the rest of the Slytherins were joining the class. All of them looked gleeful, and none of them looked surprised to see Grubbly-Plank.
"This way, please," Grubbly-Plank, and she strode off around the paddock where the Beauxbatons horses were shivering. The six of us followed her, looking back over our shoulders at Hagrid's cabin. All the curtains were closed, and there were no lights on. Was Hagrid in there, alone and sick?
"What's wrong with Hagrid?" I asked, hurrying to catch up with Grubbly-Plank.
"Never you mind," she said, as if she thought I was being nosy.
"We do mind, though," Fang said, coming up beside me. "What's up with him?"
But she acted as if she couldn't hear him. She led us past the paddock, where the Beauxbatons horses were huddling against the cold, and toward a tree on the edge of the forest, where a large and beautiful unicorn was tethered.
Many of the girls, "Oooooohed!" Me and Hermione just stared at it, grinning.
"Oh, it's so beautiful!" whispered Lavender. "But how did she get it? They're supposed to be really hard to catch."
The unicorn was so brightly white that it made the snow seem grey. It was pawing the ground nervously with it's golden hooves and throwing back it's horned head.
"Boys keep back!" Grubbly-Plank barked, throwing an arm out and hitting Fang in the chest. He stared at her with raised eyebrows, but she was ignoring him. "They prefer the woman's touch, unicorns. Girls to the front, and approach with care, easy does it..."
I glanced back at the boys, who were staring at Grubbly-Plank with annoyed expressions. I sighed and followed the other girls over to the unicorn. I wasn't listening to what Grubbly-Plank was saying about the unicorn, I was thinking too much about Hagrid... Was he hurt? Or sick? Or something much worse then that? I turned around and saw that all the boys in the class were crowded together, and Harry was reading a copy of the Daily Prophet aloud, but I couldn't hear him. He lifted his head, and looked at Ron, Fang and Iggy. They talked, and then Malfoy was talking, but I still couldn't hear what they were saying, but it seemed like they were arguing. No surprises there.
"Are you paying attention over there?"
I turned around, but Grubbly-Plant was looking at the boys, not me. They stopped arguing, but Harry, Ron, Iggy and Fang still looked furious and the Slytherins were looking gleeful.
When the lesson ended, Hermione and I joined the boys, but before I could ask them what Malfoy wanted, we heard Parvati say, "I hope she stays, that woman. That's more what I thought Care of Magical Creatures would be like... proper creatures, like unicorns, not monsters..."
"What about Hagrid?" Harry said angrily as we went up the steps.
"What about him? He can still be gamekeeper, can't he?" Parvati said in a hard voice.
Parvati had been very cold toward Harry since the ball. Maybe he should of paid more attention to her, but she still had a good time all the same. She was certainly telling anyone with ears that she had made plans to meet the boy from Beauxbatons in Hogsmeade on the next weekend trip.
"That was a really good lesson," Hermione said as we entered the Great Hall for lunch. "I didn't know half of the things Professor Grubbly-Plank told us about uni-"
"Look at this!" Harry hissed, shoving the Daily Prophet over to me and Hermione.
DUMBLEDORE'S GIANT MISTAKE
Albus Dumbledore, eccentric Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, has never been afraid to make controversial staff appointments, writes Rita Skeeter, Special Correspondent. In September of this year, he hired Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody, the notoriously jinx-happy ex-Auror, to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts, a decision that caused many raised eyebrows at the Ministry of Magic, given Moody's well-known habit of attacking anybody who makes a sudden movement in his presence. Mad-Eye Moody, however, looks responsible and kindly when set beside the part-human Dumbledore employs to teach Care of Magical Creatures.
Rubeus Hagrid, who admits to being expelled from Hogwarts in his third year, has enjoyed the position of gamekeeper at the school ever since, a job secured for him by Dumbledore. Last year, however, Hagrid used his mysterious influence over the headmaster to secure the additional post of Care of Magical Creatures teacher, over the heads of many better-qualified candidates.
An alarmingly large and ferocious-looking man, Hagrid has been using his newfound authority to terrify the students in his care with a succession of horrific creatures. While Dumbledore turns a blind eye, Hagrid has maimed several pupils during a series of lessons that many admit to being "very frightening."
'I was attacked by a hippogriff, and my friend Vincent Crabbe got a bad bite off a flobberworm," says Draco Malfoy, a fourth-year student. "We all hate Hagrid, but we're just too scared to say anything."
Hagrid has no intention of ceasing his campaign of intimidation, however. In conversation with a Daily Prophet reporter last month, he admitted breeding creatures he has dubbed "Blast-Ended Skrewts," highly dangerous crosses between manti-cores and fire-crabs. The creation of new breeds of magical creature is, of course, an activity usually closely observed by the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. Hagrid, however, considers himself to be above such petty restrictions.
"I was just having some fun," he says, before hastily changing the subject.
As if this were not enough, the Daily Prophet has now unearthed evidence that Hagrid is not - as he has always pretended - a pure-blood wizard. He is not, in fact, even pure human. His mother, we can exclusively reveal, is none other than the giantess Fridwulfa, whose whereabouts are currently unknown.
Bloodthirsty and brutal, the giants brought themselves to the point of extinction by warring amongst themselves during the last century. The handful that remained joined the ranks of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, and were responsible for some of the worst mass Muggle killings of his reign of terror.
While many of the giants who served He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named were killed by Aurors working against the Dark Side, Fridwulfa was not among them. It is possible she escaped to one of the giant communities still existing in foreign mountain ranges. If his antics during Care of Magical Creatures lessons are any guide, however, Fridwulfa's son appears to have inherited her brutal nature.
In a bizarre twist, Hagrid is reputed to have developed a close friendship with the boy who brought around You-Know-Who's fall from power - thereby driving Hagrid's own mother, like the rest of You-Know-Who's supporters, into hiding- and the strange winged children at Hogwarts. Perhaps Harry Potter and Maximum Ride (the oldest, and leader, of the `flock') is unaware of the unpleasant truth about their large friend - but Albus Dumbledore surely has a duty to ensure that Harry Potter, along with his fellow students, is warned about the dangers of associating with part-giants.
My mouth dropped open when I finished reading. "What the bloody hell is this?" I snapped. "How did she find out?"
"You don't think Hagrid told her?" Hermione asked, her eyes wide.
"No," Harry said, leading the way over to the Gryffindor table and throwing himself down into a seat beside Nudge, furious. "He never even told us did he? I reckon she was so mad that he didn't give her loads of horrible stuff about me that, she went rooting around to get him back."
"Are you talking about the thing in the Prophet about Hagrid? I just read it before you guys came in. How did Skeeter find out? I didn't say anything to anyone, anyway, but I don't think Hagrid would of told her. I don't think he would of told anyone, actually, if Madame Maxime hadn't shown up. How do you-?"
"Maybe she heard him telling Maxime at the ball?" I said, interrupting Nudge. She didn't seem that bothered.
"We'd have seen her in the garden!" Ron said. "Anyway, she's not meant to come into the grounds any more. Hagrid said that Dumbledore banned her."
"Maybe she has an Invisibility Cloak," Iggy said. "Sort of thing she'd do, isn't? Hide in bushes, listening to people?"
"Like what you all did?" Hermione asked.
"We weren't trying to hear them!" Fang said. "We didn't have a choice."
"The stupid prat, talking about his giantess mother where anyone can hear him," Ron muttered, shaking his head.
I looked back at the article, and read out, "And my friend Vincent Crabbe got a bad bite off a flobberworm." I looked up at the others. "Flobberworms don't even have any teeth! This is all a load of sh-"
"We've got to go and see him," I said. "This evening, after Divination. Tell him we want him back...you do want him back, don't you?" I asked Hermione.
"I- well, I'm not going to pretend it didn't make a nice change, having a proper Care of Magical Creatures lesson for once- but I do want Hagrid back, of course I do!" she added hastily under Harry furious stare.
So that evening after dinner, the six of us left the castle and went down through the frozen grounds to Hagrid's cabin. We knocked, and Fang the dogs booming barks answered.
"Hagrid! It's us!" I shouted, banging on the door. "Let us in!"
Hagrid didn't answer. We could hear Fang the dog scratching at the door, whining, but it didn't open. We hammered on it for ten minutes, shouting that we didn't care about what he was, and Ron and Iggy even knocked on the windows, but there was no response.
"What's he avoiding us for?" Hermione asked when we had finally given up and were walking back to the school. "He surely doesn't think we'd care about him being a half-giant?"
But apparently, Hagrid cared a lot. We didn't see a sign of him all week. He didn't show up at the staff table for dinner or breakfast, we didn't see him doing his usual gamekeepers duties on the grounds, and Grubbly-Plank was was still taking his Care fo Magical Creatures classes. Malfoy, being his usual annoying, jerk self, was gloating about this every time he could.
"Missing your half-breed pal?" he kept whispering to us whenever there was a teacher around, so that he was always safe from getting kicked into the middle of August. The presence the teachers wouldn't have actually stopped me from beating Malfoy up, but Harry always took my hand in his whenever Malfoy was around, and that seemed to calm me down. "Missing the elephant-man?"
There was a Hogsmeade visit halfway through January, and Hermione seemed very surprised when Harry said that he'd go.
"I just thought you'd want to take advantage of the common room being so quiet," she said. "Really get to work on that egg."
"Oh I- I reckon I've got it pretty much figured out now," Harry said, but I could tell he was lying.
"Have you really?" Hermione asked, looking impressed, and even proud, "Well done!"
I stared at him as Hermione and Iggy started a conversation, and he just shrugged.
The seven of us (Nudge came with us) left the castle on Saturday and set off through the cold, wet ground towards the gates. I kept yawning because for the last few nights, I've been having the same nightmare of the graveyard, and every night it was a different person being tortured, but mostly it was between me and Harry. I few times I've tried asking the Voice what the dreams meant, but I got no answer, like always. As we passed the Durmstrang ship moored in the lake, we saw Viktor Krum emerge onto the deck, dressed in nothing but swimming trunks. He was very skinny, but still had muscles, and he definitely proved that he was tougher then he looked because he climbed up onto the side of the ship, stretched out his arms and dived right into the lake.
"He's insane!" Iggy said, staring at Krum's dark head as it bobbed out in the middle of the lake. "It must be freezing! It's January!"
"It's a lot colder where he comes form. I'd say it's quite warm for him," Hermione said.
"Yeah, but there's still the giant squad," Ron said. He didn't sound anxious- if anything, he sounded hopeful. Hermione noticed the tone of his voice and frowned.
"He's really nice, you know," Hermione said. "He's not at all like you'd think, coming from Durmstrang. He likes it much better here, he told me."
Ron didn't say anything. He hadn't mentioned Krum since the ball, but Fang told me that he had found a miniature arm under his bed on Boxing Day, and it had looked a lot like the arm from Ron's figure of Krum.
I kept my eyes wide open for a sign of Hagrid all the way down the slushy High Street, but didn't see him. Harry suggested going to the Three Broomsticks, and I knew that he was hoping to bump into Hagrid just like I was.
The pub was as crowded as ever, but a quick look around at the tables told me that Hagrid wasn't there. I sighed and went up to the bar with the others, ordered seven butterbeers, and the flock got food, from Madame Rosmerta, and we found a table and sat down.
"Does he ever actually work?" Nudge whispered suddenly. "Look!"
She pointed into the mirror behind the bar, and we saw Ludo Bagman reflected there, sitting in a shadowy corner of the pub with a bunch of goblins. I frowned. What was he doing with goblins? Bagman was talking very fast in a low voice to the goblins, and all of them had their arms crossed and were looking menacing.
It was weird, that he was here when there was no Triwizard tournament or event. I watched Bagman in the mirror. He was looking strained again, like on the night the Dark Mark had appeared. But just then, Bagman looked up at the bar, saw us in the mirror and stood up.
"In a moment, in a moment," I heard him say sternly to the goblins, and Bagman hurried through the pub towards our table, his boyish grin back in place.
"Harry!" he said. "How are you? Been hoping to run into you! Everything alright?"
"Fine, thanks," Harry said.
Then Bagman looked at me, Fang, Iggy and Nudge. "I never got the opportunity to talk to you four at the Yule Ball. I'm so sorry about everything that's happened to you, but I must say, your wings are quite something. I'd be proud to be so different from everyone else from something so beautiful." That had to be one of the wisest thing I've ever heard Bagman say.
"We are proud. We're not afraid to hide who we are anymore," I said, and just to prove the point, I spread my wings out a tiny bit, because there wasn't that much space.
Bagman smiled, then turned back to Harry. "Wonder if I could have a quick word, Harry?" he said eagerly. Then he looked at the rest of us. "Wouldn't mind giving us a minute, you lot?"
"I do mind actu-" I started, but Nudge elbowed me in the ribs and said, "Er- okay," and stood up. The other's stood up after her, and after a few seconds I stood up with them, raising my eyebrows at him. He just shrugged and I followed the others over to the bar. We stood by the bar, watching Bagman talk to Harry.
"What do you think he wants?" Ron asked.
"No idea," Iggy said.
"What was he doing with the goblins?" I asked, frowning.
"Who knows? He's a strange man and they're strange creatures," Fang said.
"There definitely is something strange about Bagman. He's been quite jumpy since the World Cup, hasn't he?" Hermione said.
We watched Harry and Bagman talking for another few minutes, and then Fred and George went over to them. Bagman started looking uneasy as soon as he saw them. Bagman started shaking his head, then he just walked quickly out of the pub. The goblins slid off their chairs and followed him. We walked over to Harry, who was looking very confused.
"What did he want?" Ron asked as we sat down.
"He offered me help with the golden egg," Harry said.
"He shouldn't be doing that!" Hermione said, looking very shocked. "He's one of the judges! Anyway, you have it figured out already, don't you Harry?"
"Er- nearly," Harry said, lying again. He avoided looking at me.
"Well, I don't think Dumbledore would like it very much if he found out that Bagman was trying to persuade you to cheat," Hermione said, still looking very disapproving. "I hope he's offered Cedric the same."
"He's not, I asked," Harry said.
"Who cares if Diggory's getting help?" Ron asked.
"The goblins didn't look very friendly," Nudge said, sipping at her butterbeer, "What were they doing here?"
"Looking for Crouch according to Bagman," Harry said. "He's still ill. Hasn't been to work."
"Maybe Percy poisoned him," I said. "Wouldn't surprise me if he did. Probably thinks that if Crouch dies, he'll become head of the department of International Magical Cooperation."
Hermione gave me a don't-joke-about-things-like-that look while the others chuckled. Hermione said, "Funny, those goblins looking for Crouch... They'll normally deal with the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures."
"Crouch can speak loads of different languages though," Fang said. "Maybe they need an interpreter."
"Worrying about poor little goblins, now are you?" Ron said to Hermione. "Going to start S.P.U.G now, or something? Society for the Protection of Ugly Goblins?"
"Ha ha ha," Hermione said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "Goblins don't need protection, Ronald. Haven't you been listening to a word of what Professor Binn's said about the goblin rebellions?"
"No," the rest of us said together. "Hermione, you should know by now that you're the only person that pays attention in History of Magic," Iggy said.
"No, I'm not! Max pays attention," Hermione said.
"No I don't. I'm just able to sleep with my eyes open," I said, grinning. Hermione shook her head and said, "Well, they're very capable of taking care of themselves and dealing with wizards. They're very clever. Not like house-elves, who never stick up for themselves."
"Uh-oh," Iggy said, staring at the door.
Rita Skeeter had just walked in through the door, wearing banana-yellow robes; her nails were painted a shocking pink and Nudge looked as if someone threw Crabbe's smelly socks in her face. Skeeter, as always, was joined by her paunchy photographer. She brought drinks, and she and the photographer made their way through the crowd to sit at a table nearby. The seven of us glared at her as she approached. She was talking very fast and seemed to be very pleased about something.
"...didn't seem very interested in talking to us, did he Bozo? Now, why would that be, do you think? And what's he doing with all those goblins trailing after him? Showing them the sights...what nonsense...he was always a bad liar. Reckon somethings up? Think we should do a bit of digging? `Disgraced Ex-Head of Magical Games and Sports, Ludo Bagman...' Snappy start to a sentence, Bozo- we just need a story to fit it-"
"Planning on ruining someone else's life then? How lovely," I said loudly and sarcastically.
A few people turned around. Skeeter's eyes widened behind her jeweled spectacles when she saw us.
"Maximum! Harry!" she said, beaming. "Why don't you join-"
"I wouldn't go near you with a ten foot broomstick," Harry said furiously. "What did you do that to Hagrid for, eh?"
Skeeter raised her heavily pencilled eyebrows.
"Our readers have to know the truth, Harry. I am merely doing my-"
"Who cares if he's half-giant!" I shouted. "There's nothing wrong with him! And half of what you wrote was a load of crap!"
The whole pub had gone quiet. Madam Rosmerta was staring over from behind the bar, oblivious to the fact that the flagon she was filling with mead was overflowing.
Skeeter's smile flickered very slightly, but she hitched it back straight away; she snapped open her crocodile-skin handbag, pulled out her Quick-Quotes Quill and said, "How about the two of you give me an interview about the Hagrid you know? The man behind the muscles? Your unlikely friendship and the reasons behind it. Would he seem like a father substitute for the two of you, seeing as your father, Harry is dead, and Max, your father is a murderer. Did Hagrid give you the father figure you've always wanted?"
My blood was pounding in my veins and my face was red with anger. I went to move closer to Skeeter, close enough to hit her, but Fang grabbed my hand and pulled me back. But then something happened that surprised everyone.
Hermione stood up very abruptly, her fists clenched tightly at her sides.
"You horrible woman," she said through gritted teeth, "you don't care, do you? Anything for a story, and anyone will do, won't they? Six kids who had a terrible past, you had to get everyone talking about that, and then someone as harmless as Hagrid and now Ludo Bagman-"
"Sit down, you silly girl, and don't talk about things you can't understand," Skeeter said coldly, her eyes hardening as they fell on Hermione. "I know things about Ludo Bagman that would make your hair curl... not that it needs it-" she added, eyeing Hermione's bushy hair.
"Hermione is much, much smarter then you, Skeeter. She could take your job in a week without even trying," I snarled.
"You better learn to keep that temper of your in check, missy," Skeeter snapped. "It could cause you trouble in the future."
"Well, actually it's Max's temper that saves us, most of the time," Iggy said, standing up beside me. Skeeter glared at us but before she could say anything, Hermione said, "C'mon, let's go."
We left, with many people staring at us as we walked out. I glanced over my shoulder as we reached the door. Skeeter's Quite Quotes Quill was out, moving back and forth over a piece of parchment on the table.
"She'll be after you next, Hermione. And she's probably going to try and find something else about you, Max," Ron said.
"Let her try!" Hermione said furiously; she was actually shaking with rage. "I'll show her! Silly little girl, am I? I'll get her back for this. First Harry, then the flock, then Hagrid-"
"You don't want to go upsetting Skeeter," Nudge said nervously. "Seriously Hermione, she'll dig up something on you, and it will be bad and embarrassing-"
"My parents don't read the Daily Prophet. She can't scare me into hiding!" Hermione said, now striding so fast that we were jogging to keep up her. The last time I had seen Hermione this mad was when she punched Malfoy. "And Hagrid isn't hiding anymore! He should never have let that excuse for a human being upset him! Come on!"
Breaking into a run, she led us all the way back up the road, through the gates flanked by winged boars and up through the grounds towards Hagrid's cabin.
The curtains were still drawn and we could hear Fang the dog barking as we approached. Hermione looked at me, knowing that I agreed with her completely about this, and I nodded. The two of us ran to the door and started banging on it. "Hagrid!" we shouted.
"Hagrid, that's enough! We know you're in there!" Hermione shouted.
"No one gives a crap that your mum was a giantess, Hagrid! You can't let that cow Skeeter get to you!" I shouted, banging on the door harder then before.
"You're being ridiculous, Hagrid! Open the door!" Hermione shouted.
The door opened. I said, "About ti-" but stopped when I saw who had opened the door. It wasn't Hagrid, it was Professor Dumbledore.
"Good afternoon," he said cheerfully, smiling down at us.
"We came to see Hagrid," I said.
"Yes, I gathered as much," Dumbledore said, his eyes twinkling. "Why don't you come in?"
"Oh...um, okay," Hermione said.
The seven of us piled into the cabin. Fang the dog launched himself at Harry the moment he entered, barking madly and trying to lick his ears.
Hagrid was sitting at the table, where there were two large cups of tea. He looked a real mess. His face was blotchy, his eyes read and swollen and his hair looked a wig of tangled wire.
"Hi Hagrid," I said, sitting in the chair beside him.
He looked up.
"`Lo," he said in a hoarse voice.
"More tea, I think," Dumbledore said, closing the door behind us and drawing his wand. He waved it and a revolving tea tray appeared in midair along with a plate of cakes. Dumbledore magicked the tray onto the table, and the rest of them sat down. There was a slight pause and then Dumbledore said, "Did you by any chance hear what Miss Granger and Miss Ride was shouting, Hagrid?"
Hermione blushed and my cheeks went pink, but Dumbledore smiled at us and continued. "Harry, Ron, Hermione, Max, Fang, Iggy and Nudge still want to know you, Hagrid, judging by the way they were trying to break down the door."
"Of course we still want to know you!" Iggy said, staring at Hagrid. "You don't think anything that Skeeter cow- er, sorry Professor," he added quickly, looking at Dumbledore.
"I have temporarily gone deaf and I have no idea what you said Iggy," Dumbledore said, twiddling his thumbs and staring at the ceiling. I chocked into my tea, coughing and spluttering. Fang patted me on the back, trying not to laugh at me. I glared at him.
"Er, right," Harry said, looking at Dumbledore. "But what Iggy was trying to say was, how could you think that we care about what that- that woman wrote about you?"
Two fat tears leaked out of Hagrid's beetle-black eyes and fell slowly into his tangled beard.
"Living proof of what I've been telling you, Hagrid," Dumbledore said, still looking carefully up at the ceiling. "I have shown you the letters from the countless parents that remember you from their time here, telling me that if I sacked you, they would have something to say about it-"
"Not all of 'em," Hagrid said hoarsely. "Not all of 'em wan' me ter stay."
"Really Hagrid, if you are holding out for universal popularity, you'll be in this cabin for a long time," Dumbledore said, now peering sternly over his half-moon spectacles. "Not a week has passed since the day I became headmaster of this school when I haven't had at least one owl complaining about the way I run it. But what should I do? Barricade myself inside my office and refuse to talk to anyone?"
"Yeh- yeh're not half-giant!" Hagrid said croakily.
"Look at what I have for relatives, Hagrid!" Harry said furiously. "Look at the Dursleys!"
"An excellent point," Dumbledore said. "My own brother, Aberforth, was prosecuted for practising inappropriate charms on a goat. It was all over the papers, but did Aberforth hide? No, he did not! He held his head high and went about his business as usual! Of course, I'm not entirely sure he can read, so that may not have been bravery... And the flock never hid for a single second when their secret was revealed, which is true bravery in my eyes."
We smiled at him.
"Please come back, Hagrid," Hermione said quietly. "Come back and teach, we really miss you."
Hagrid gulped and more tears leaked out down his cheeks and into his tangled beard.
Dumbledore stood up. "I refuse to accept your resignation, Hagrid, and I expect you back to work on Monday," he said. "You will join me for breakfast in the Great Hall at eight-thirty. No excuses. Good afternoon to you all."
Dumbledore left the cabin, pausing only to scratch Fang the dog's ears. When the door shut behind him, Hagrid began to sob into his dustbin-lid-sized hands. I moved closer to Hagrid and rubbed his arm comfortingly, and Hermione was patting his back, and at last, Hagrid looked up and his eyes were very red and puffy, and he said, "Great man, Dumbledore...great man..."
"Yeah he is," Ron said. "Can I have one of these cakes, Hagrid?"
"Help yerself," Hagrid said, wiping his eyes on the back of his hand. "Ar, he's right o' course- yeh're all righ'...I bin stupid... my ol' dad woulda bin ashamed o' the way I've bin behavin'..." more tears fell from his eyes, but he wiped them away and said, "Never shown you a picture of my old dad, have I? Here..."
Hagrid got up, went over to his dresser, opened a drawer and pulled out a picture of a short wizard with Hagrid's crinkled black eyes, beaming as he sat on top of Hagrid's shoulder. Hagrid was a good seven or eight feet tall, judging by the apple tree beside them, but his face was beardless, young, round and smooth- he looked hardly older then eleven.
"Tha was taken jus' after I got into Hogwarts," Hagrid croaked. "Dad was dead chuffed... thought I migh' not be a wizard, see, `cos me mum...well anyway. `Course, I never was great shakes at magic, really...but at least he never saw me expelled. Died, see, in me second year...
"Dumbledore was the one who stuck up for me after Dad died. Got me the gamekeeper job...trusts people, he does... Gives 'em second chances...tha's what sets him apar' from the other heads, see. He'll accept anyone at Hogwarts, s'long as they've got the talent. Knows people can turn out okay, even if their families weren'...well...all tha' respectable. But some don' understand that. There's some who'd always hold it against yeh... there's some who'd even pretend they just had big bones rather then stand up an' say- I am what I am, an' I'm not ashamed. `Never be ashamed' my ol' dad used ter say, `there's some who'd hold it against yeh, but they're not worth bothering with.' An' he was right, I've bin an idiot. I'm not botherin' with her no more, I promise yeh that... Big bones...I'll give her big bones..."
We looked at each other nervously. I would rather take on fifty Erasers and fifty Skrewts at the same time rather then admit to Hagrid that we overheard him and Maxime talking at the Yule Ball, but Hagrid was still talking as if he hadn't noticed that he had said anything odd.
"Yeh know wha', Harry?" he said, looking up from the picture of his father, his eyes bright. "when I firs' met you, you reminded me o' me a bit. Mum an' Dad gone, an' you was feelin' like you wouldn' fit in at Hogwarts, remember? Not sure yeh were really up to it... an' look at yeh now Harry! School champion!"
He looked at Harry very seriously for a minute, then said, "Yeh know what I'd love, Harry? I'd love yeh ter win, I really would. It'd shown 'em all...yeh don't have ter be pureblood ter do it. Yeh don't have ter be ashamed of what yeh are. It'd show 'em Dumbledore's the one who's got it righ', lettin' anyone in as long as they can do magic. How you doin' with that egg, Harry?"
I stared at Harry and forced a smile. "Yeah, Harry. Have you figured it out yet?"
"Er, yeah. I've got it figured out," Harry said. I shot him a look but he ignored me.
Hagrid's miserable face broke into a proud smile, his eyes tearing again, but this time they were tears of happiness. "That's my boy...you show 'em, Harry. Beat 'em all."
Harry stared down at his lap, obviously feeling guilty that he had just lied to Hagrid. Well he should feel guilty for lying to not only Hagrid, but to all of us. I just hope he sucks up his pride soon and see what Cedric's hint meant.
And here is the chapter! Hope everyone enjoyed reading it and I'm sorry it took a while :/
I don't know when the next chapter will be up because I'm back to school on the 28th but it shouldn't be too long I hope :P
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-Rach ;)