Author's Note: I wish I owned everything because then I'd be one of the richest women in England.
Chapter 16 Tension Between Houses Heightens
Alex and Ginny began Quidditch practices every evening. It gave Alex an outlet that she never had before. Now she could let out all her anger on the Bludger without hurting others by jinxing them into the next century. This was great seeing as Draco had taken to either following her around or trying to start up conversations. Thank Merlin for Hermione during Arithmancy, who would always give Draco the death stare when he opened his mouth.
One evening, practice was cut short because Angelina said they were doing a great job. Alex was throwing on her jeans and sweatshirt when Ginny came back in.
"Hey Alex," Ginny said with a deep frown on her face, "There's a pile of dragon-droppings outside who wants to talk to you. Shall I tell him to piss off and to mind his own business?"
"You mean Draco?" asked Alex and Ginny nodded, "Just tell him I'm showering and I'll be out in a half an hour."
"So you want to talk with him?" Ginny asked.
"Who said I'd talk to him?" said Alex with raised eyebrows and Ginny nodded with understanding, smirking slightly.
So Ginny left and Alex went into the main locker room to hang her robes in the locker. She saw Brian folding his padding into his locker. He looked up and she smiled.
"Hey, you're really good out there," she said.
"Thanks," he said, "I've been training with my father since I was able to walk. Where did you learn how to fly?"
"Well, my mother was a really good Beater in her day," said Alex, "But I never learned how to fly until I came here. My guardian works in the Magical Games and Sports Department in the Ministry, so I learned all the rules from him."
They talked about their favorite Quidditch teams until they were ready to leave. Brian offered to walk up with her but Alex said no, but thanks.
"I just have to finish up a little in here."
"I'll wait for you if you want me to," Brian said.
"Oh…really, it's fine," said Alex, feeling her face go warm, "I'm good."
Shrugging, Brian left and Alex waited a few seconds. Then she turned the knob on her locket to the right and became invisible. Quietly, she opened the locker room door and went out into the cold winter air. It was already the middle of November and the ground was frozen solid with frost on the grass. She tried to walk as quietly as she could, because she had a feeling that Draco would be waiting for her somewhere. She didn't want to talk to him about what had happened at the match. She knew it wasn't his fault that Harry and the Weasley twins had been banned, but she felt he had contributed with the song.
She felt a hand on her back and started, turning on her heel in alarm with her wand raised. Draco was right behind her, staring just to the left of her face. He looked weary and sorrowful.
"Alex," he whispered, "Please talk to me."
He looked so lost and confused that Alex felt sorry for him. Sighing and cursing her weak conscience, she turned the locket knob to the left and appeared out of thin air before the Slytherin.
"How did you know where I was?" she asked suspiciously.
"I saw where the grass bent underneath your feet," said Draco with a small smile, "You may be light, but not light enough to walk on air, Alex."
"Fine then, what do you want?"
"Why have you been ignoring me?" Draco asked, "Why didn't you come to our last Potions' evening? Did I do something to you that made you angry?"
"Nothing to me, no," said Alex stiffly.
"Then what's wrong?"
"Three of our players are banned from the Quidditch team because of your stupid song and you're asking me what's wrong?" Alex asked angrily, "Which part did you come up with, Draco? Was it the one about Ron not saving any goals? About him making sure Slytherin wins the match? Or maybe it was the part about him being born in a bin? Those people are my friends! You may not like the Weasleys but you could at least respect them because of their relationship with me. What you wrote was heartless and low, lower than I ever expected from you, Draco Malfoy."
"Alex, I didn't write any of that! It was all Montague and Maggie and Pansy!"
"Not according to your snot-nosed girlfriend!" said Alex furiously, "She said you helped write it!"
"Yeah, the last part you could say I wrote, but I only copied what the others said above," said Draco desperately, "Look Alex, it wasn't my idea for the song, all right? Don't make me be accountable for what my Housemates come up with because I'm not like them! Didn't you notice how I didn't say anything when the others were jeering at the Weasley's family? I didn't even fight back when one of them punched me in the jaw! Trust me, that didn't go over very well when we got back to the common room!"
"I'm surprised your little leech of a girlfriend didn't try to defend you," Alex muttered darkly, looking at her feet.
"Even she turned on me. But Alex, listen to me closely," he said slowly and deliberately as he put his hands on her shoulders, "Pansy…is NOT…my girlfriend. She may think she is, but she's not even close. So don't get so jealous every time she comes up in the conversation."
"Jealous?" said Alex, her eyes flashing dangerously as her head snapped up, "Why would I be jealous of that pig-faced, pot-bellied, daughter of a squid?"
"Oh yes," said Draco sarcastically with a chuckle, moving his arms down to take her hands, "You're not jealous at all."
Alex tried to keep a straight face but broke down into a laugh. Draco grinned as well until Alex's laughter died and she shook her head.
"I'm not jealous, I just can't stand people who have no respect for others," said Alex, "I'm sorry that I treated you so badly over the last week or so. It's just that the Weasleys and Hermione are practically my family and hearing those Slytherins say those things made me so angry. I grouped you in with them and it wasn't fair."
"You had every right to be angry with me," replied Draco calmly, "I may not have said anything that they didn't already say but I also didn't stop them. You're my friend and they were hurting you. I should have said something-"
"And what? Have Umbridge get suspicious? No Draco, you need to act like the git that they think you are. Now I know that no matter what the others say or do, you're always on my side."
Draco looked like he was going to argue but merely sighed and nodded. Alex grinned and put an arm around his shoulder as they walked up to the castle together. About half way there, Draco stopped and turned to face Alex with a look of sudden realization.
"It was you that made the ground tremble, wasn't it?" he asked in a hushed whisper, "You were so angry that you lost control!"
"Well...yeah," said Alex, "Wasn't it kind of obvious? What did you think happened?"
"We figured that we had imagined the tremors. It was so slight that we just brushed it off. But if you did that..." Draco said but stopped as his voice died away. After a moment, he continued, "Mostly when magic isn't controlled, things will fly around or shatter into pieces. I've never heard of someone making the ground shake. You must have been really angry."
Alex was about to deny that and blame her powers for it but she stopped herself. The less people who knew about her gifts, the better off things were, even if that meant lying to her best friend. So instead, she said, "Like I said, they're practically my family. And being a Gryffindor, I'm fiercely loyal to those I care about."
"I'm so sorry, Alex," he said quietly, "I promise to make it up to you, I swear."
"Tell you what, Draco. If you treat me to hot chocolate in the kitchens, we can call it a deal," said Alex with a sly grin. Draco nodded with a grin and slung an arm over Alex's shoulder as they continued their walk, laughing and talking the entire way and both glad that everything was back to the way it should be.
...
Because of Alex's Quidditch practices, she had to cancel her lessons with Snape on Thursday evenings and reschedule them for the weekend. She chose Sunday afternoons because she didn't want to ruin her weekend with the lessons. Snape was not very willing to move but eventually gave in. Alex believed McGonagall had something to say because just before Alex arrived into his office one evening, the Head of Gryffindor was coming out looking satisfied with something.
Seeing as her schedule was already full, she had no idea how she managed to get all her work done. But she did and was still doing very well in all her subjects. However, finding time for the D.A meetings was another story. Hermione was in charge of the scheduling and was getting rather annoyed with all the Quidditch practices.
"Oh honestly," she said one evening as she slammed a time table onto the desk, "Which is more important: a sport that takes practically no skill whatsoever, or learning how to fight what's outside these very walls?"
"Um…can you give us a minute to think about it?" asked Ron, looking up from his book, Quidditch Through the Ages, that Harry had lent him. Hermione gave him a glower and he mumbled, "Sorry, just kidding," and returned to his book.
But however Hermione managed it, they were having meetings at least four times a month. Alex watched with pride as everyone was improving on their spells. Even Neville could stun people without causing harm to himself or those within the general vicinity. Alex noticed that Stevie and Neville had become good friends and she was glad. Neville was a good person and had been unfortunate when it came to having friends. And it seemed that Stevie was glad to be rid of Parvati and Lavender because the American was always with the Gryffindor boy whenever Alex saw her. Neville introduced Stevie to more of the Gryffindors and Alex was glad to see the usually shy girl interacting with others.
One evening, Alex, Hermione, Harry, and Ron got back from a D.A meeting just as the curfew bell tolled.
"Made it!" said Ron happily.
"Just by the skin on our teeth though," said Hermione.
"I didn't know there was skin on our teeth," said Ron, rubbing a finger over his front teeth.
While Hermione was trying to explain to Ron it was just an expression, something outside caught Alex's eye.
"So why do you say it if it isn't really there?" Ron asked, looking extremely confused.
"Because Ron," said Hermione with forced calm, "It's only a-"
"Hagrid's back!" said Alex suddenly, a huge grin across her face.
"WHAT?"
The other three ran to the window and looked out. The lights were on in Hagrid's cabin, which had been dark since they arrived a little less than three months ago, as the first flakes of winter snow began to fall. The boys ran to their dormitory while the girls waited, pulling out their Invisibility Necklaces. Once the boys were under the cloak, they set off quickly and quietly. They reached Hagrid's door and Alex knocked. She heard Hagrid's boarhound Fang calling out.
"MEAT! I smell chicken…and lamb…and beef…and pork…and-"
But someone opened the door and Alex opened her mouth in horror. Hermione let out a small scream while the boys backed away.
"Shh!" the tall, broad man said, "Keep it down! Is tha' you four?"
Alex knew it was Hagrid's voice, but the gigantic man before them didn't look like their Hagrid at all. Sure, he had the wild, uncombed black hair and beard that their friend had, but his face was so bruised and cut that there were no normal skin tones on him. His hands had scratches all over them as Hagrid's black eyes shone with happiness.
"Hagrid?" Hermione whispered, "What-?"
"Come inside and I'll tell yeh everythin'. I should'a known yeh'd 'ave come ta see me. I've only just got back so sorry 'bout the mess."
Alex saw Hagrid's multi-fur jacket hanging on the back of a chair, but that was the only indication he had just arrived. In fact, the place was cleaner than Alex had seen in a long time. The four Gryffindors sat at the table while Hagrid put on a kettle. Once everyone had a nice, steaming mug of tea and a rock cake (which no one wanted to eat but did so out of politeness), they looked at their large friend eagerly.
"Where were you, Hagrid?" Alex asked, "Merlin did we miss you so much!"
"How did you get those awful bruises?" Hermione asked worriedly.
"It's nuthin'," said Hagrid as he grabbed a piece of steak, that was bleeding green liquid, and slapped it to his face. He let out a sigh of content and continued, "And if it was, I wouldn't tell yeh."
"Why not?" Ron asked, "Come on Hagrid, something must've attacked you! You know we'll find out what it is anyway, so just make it easier and tell us!"
"Hagrid," Hermione said quietly, "Did giants attack you?"
The steak fell out of Hagrid's hands and onto his lap where Fang ate it up eagerly. Hagrid didn't seem to notice and was spluttering incoherently.
"She guessed Hagrid," said Alex with raised eyebrows, "I mean, who else is big enough and strong enough to have done that to you? It couldn't have been any human anyway."
"Look, you can tell us about the giant attacks," said Ron, "And Harry'll tell you about the dementor attacks and Alex about someone attacking her owl."
Hagrid, who was taking a sip of his tea, sprayed it all over them.
"Dementors? Monty's hurt? What the bloody hell's been happenin' while I've been gone?"
"We'll tell you our stories if you tell us yours," said Alex as she wiped the tea off of her face.
Hagrid sighed and grabbed another steak, seeing as Fang had eaten his other one in less than a second.
"Well, we were travelin' ta the mountains, that's where they live yeh know," said Hagrid.
"We?" Ron asked.
"Olympe an' me," said Hagrid and a dreamy sort of smile came across his face. Alex knew immediately who he was talking about. Madame Maxime was the only woman Alex had ever known to make Hagrid forget where he was or what he was doing.
"Hagrid!" Harry said, snapping the half-giant back to reality, "You were going to the mountains…"
"Ah righ'" said Hagrid, his face flushing under his already colorful bruises, "It took us a couple o' months because we was bein' followed."
"By who?" Harry asked.
"Why the Ministry o' course!" said Hagrid, "They've been keepin' an eye on Dumbledore an' they know I'm real close ta him. So we couldn't use magic, otherwise they would'a known what we were up ta. An' I didn't because I'm not supposed ta be usin' it anyway an' they'd be lookin' for a reason ta bring me back an' interrogate me."
Alex let out a stream of quiet swear words that caused Hermione to give her a warning look. The Ministry was too busy watching Dumbledore to realize that Voldemort was growing stronger right under their noses.
"We traveled an' eventually managed ta shake the Ministry off. We chanced a bit o' magic an' got ta the mountains where they live. After tha' we couldn't use any more magic, partly because giants are scared of it an' partly because Dumbledore thought You-Know-Who would be tryin' ta get the giants on his side."
"No!" Hermione whispered, "Would he really?"
"Sure!" said Hagrid, "He did last time. But anyway, we found 'em an', when there was daylight, we went down ta see 'em."
"You mean, that was it?" Alex asked with raised eyebrows, sounding awestruck, "You just went down to where ten foot giants were all willy-nilly even though they could've crushed you?"
"They're twenty feet actually," said Hagrid, "But Dumbledore told us how ta approach 'em by givin' the chief, the Gurg, a gift. He was the biggest one there, must've been 'bout twenty-five feet tall. So we held the gift up high an' went into the valley an' presented 'im with a branch o' Gubraithian fire. He didn't speak English so he got someone to translate. Once he knew what it was, he loved it!"
"What's a branch of-?" Ron started.
"It's everlasting fire," said Alex exasperatedly, "Come on Ron, you and Harry wrote an essay on this last week."
"After he saw what it was," said Hagrid over Ron's retort, "He listened ta what we had ta say. He seemed int'rested because he had heard o' Dumbledore an' how he worked against those who wanted ta kill the last giants. We promised ta come back the next day with another gift."
"Hagrid," said Hermione interestedly, "How many giants are there?"
"Oh…'bout seventy or eighty," said Hagrid with a sigh, "Wizards helped o' course, but giants aren't meant ta be livin' in groups like they are now. They start killin' each other. But I'll get to tha' later. The next day, we presented the Gurg with a goblin-made battle helmet and talked to 'im. He listened and seemed ta like what we were sayin'. We thought we was makin' real progress but…tha' evenin', it went bad fer us."
"What do you mean, Hagrid?" Hermione asked, looking worried.
"Well, I told yeh how giants aren't meant ta be livin' in groups," said Hagrid with a sigh, "That evenin', there was a brawl. Went on fer hours it did, the noise was horrible! When the sun came up, the snow was scarlet an' the ol' Gurg's head was on a spike."
Alex's face went pale. Ron looked like he was going to throw up and Hermione's hands went up to her mouth. Harry took a deep breath.
"So…so you had to go to the other Gurg, right?" he asked, his lips dry.
"Yeah," said Hagrid heavily, "We went with another gift but he had his men hangin' me upside-down within seconds."
"Oh no," said Hermione, horrified, "How did you get out of that?"
"Olympe did some of the fastest wand-work I've ever seen," said Hagrid, "She hit 'em both an' they dropped me quick, but we was in trouble then 'cause we used magic against 'em. We ran back ta our mountain hide-out an' had ta think, 'cause we hadn't expected this at all. An' what with the Death Eaters 'round, we had to be careful."
"Death Eaters!" Alex said quickly, "Who? Which ones?" She had remembered all of those who had been there that evening in the graveyard.
"McNair," said Hagrid darkly, "The bloke who tried ta get Buckbeak killed. Anyway, we found some giants hidin' out in the caves 'cause they didn't like the new Gurg. We had 'bout six or seven convinced after we fixed up their wounds."
"That's awesome!" said Harry eagerly, "So, when are they coming? Are they going to help us fight Voldemort?"
Hagrid and Ron shuddered but Alex was frowning.
"What did you mean you "had" them convinced?" she asked slowly.
"The caves were raided," said Hagrid heavily, "The new Gurg didn't want nuthin' gettin' in his way. The ones who survived didn' want nuthin' more ta do with us. So none'll be with us in the fight, but we sent the message like Dumbledore told us ta do. Maybe, when a new Gurg comes, he'll remember our message and join our side."
Silence fell for a while and Alex looked outside. Snow was still falling, though harder now. Fang was drooling all over Harry's robes, but Harry didn't seem to notice.
"Hagrid," he asked carefully, "While you were there, did you…I mean was your…did you see your mother there?"
Alex looked warily at Hagrid. She remembered when Rita Skeeter wrote that article about his mother being a giant and his father a wizard. It had really affected him.
"No, she died years ago," he grunted, "They told me."
"I'm sorry, Hagrid," said Alex, putting a hand on his large arm.
"No need ta be," said Hagrid stiffly, "Don' remember her much, she left so long ago. Wasn' a great mother, was she?"
Silence fell again and Alex looked at the boys, jerking her head at Hagrid so they would change the subject.
"But Hagrid," Ron asked swiftly, "You didn't tell us how you got those bruises and cuts. They look pretty recent."
"Or why you're so late," said Harry, "I mean, if it took you about two months to get there, you stayed there about a month, and it took two months to get back, you should've been back around October. It's the beginning of December!"
"Did something attack you along the way, Hagrid?" Ron asked.
"Nuthin' attacked me!" said Hagrid irritably as he set down his cup with a loud thud, "I-"
But he was cut off by a sudden loud rapping at his door. Alex closed her eyes and used her animal powers to see through a couple sparrows flying to their nest in the thatching of Hagrid's roof. She saw a short, squat woman in pink with a clipboard.
"It's her!" hissed Alex quietly, "Quick boys, take the mugs and go under the cloak. Hermione, come over here with me. Hagrid, we weren't here, got it?"
Hagrid nodded as Fang's barking got louder and more ferocious. He could sense Alex's unease and fear. Hermione and Alex became invisible and hid in a corner with the boys. Hagrid pushed Fang away from the door with his legs and opened the door.
Author's Note: I know that the end of this chapter wasn't too new and exciting, but what about the beginning? Who liked that Draco apologized? How long do you think he'll be able to keep the charade up? Any thoughts as to what will happen next? Once these questions have been answered, go on and read the next chapter! This is a mega update so at the end, I will attempt to explain myself and hopefully give you all some good news!