Disclaimer: all characters and the wider wizarding world belong to J. K. Rowling.
Hermione and Theo spent most of Saturday morning studying.
Her argument with Ron was still too fresh for her to spend too much time in the common room, and Draco had taken the Slytherin Quidditch Team out to train, so they had both retreated to the familiarity of the library and taken up their usual seats.
Harry found Hermione at her usual spot in the library. Her hair was escaping in all directions and she had a spot of ink on her lip where she'd been chewing a quill. By all rights, she should have looked like a disaster.
She was whispering animatedly with Theo about something or other, a half-finished runic translation and a dozen reference volumes abandoned on the table between them. She laughed loud enough to attract Madam Pince's attention as Theo threw a quill at her in defeat.
Harry couldn't help but smile. In all the madness happening around them, she looked to be having a normal argument with a friend. She was like the sister he never had, he wanted only the best for her.
Hermione looked up as he approached their table.
"Harry!" she exclaimed; the happiness apparent in her face. "Theo and I were just talking about runic etymology of names, and he thought he might try to teach me a thing or two about ancient Greek history."
"Oh Nott, you didn't," Harry sighed. "She's literally named after a character in Greek history – Helen is her mum's middle name. She could probably take Professor Binns to school on this subject."
Theo scowled, but there was a hint of a smirk in it.
"Well, I know that now, thanks Potter."
"Just be glad you didn't start talking about the treatment of magical creatures…"
Hermione tried to silence Harry with a glare, but it only caused the two boys to snigger.
"Speaking of magical creatures, I thought you might like to join me for lunch at Hagrid's? He invited all of us, but I can't seem to find Ron anywhere."
Hermione frowned.
"I thought he was playing chess with you in the common room?"
Harry shrugged.
"I thought that was the plan, but he said he had something to do just after breakfast."
Hermione quickly dismissed the fleeting thoughts of passionate rendezvous and secret liaisons her ex might be having, and began packing her things.
"That sounds lovely, Harry. Theo, would you care to join us? I'm sure Hagrid won't mind if you're on your best behaviour. He quite likes snakes and other reptiles."
Theo recognised a test when he saw one and smirked. Perhaps she wouldn't have done so badly in Slytherin, if not for the pesky matter of her blood status.
"I would love to join you for lunch with our groundskeeper and former teacher, Hermione. Potter, I assume you have no objection?"
Harry simply smiled and shook his head.
When they arrived at Hagrid's hut, the usually welcomingly open door was closed, and they could hear raised voices. Harry and Hermione shared a look and withdrew their wands before heading around the side, where a window in the enormously sized hut was just low enough for them to peer through.
Theo followed, at a respectful distance. He wasn't about to abandon his new friend and her best mate to face any danger alone, but he also wasn't about to put himself in the firing line with a half-giant who wasn't overly fond of Slytherins.
Hagrid was sitting in his oversized armchair, nursing a huge cup of what could be tea but, knowing him, was almost certainly spiked with something. He was entertaining someone, but they couldn't make out who from this angle.
"Well, wha' did you expec'?" roared Hagrid at the other occupant. "Years o' abuse at the hands of people who are s'posed to be family, bein' told one thing over an' over, and findin' out it's complete codswallop, havin' to fight in a war not of your choosin' – no wonder 'arry can forgive Malfoy."
"But-"
"I'm not sayin' he wasn't a righ' toe-rag, 'cause he was, make no mistake. And 'arry's a saint when it comes to forgiveness – gives it far too easily, if you ask me. He even forgave tha' great, brutish muggle he calls a cousin.
"But I wish I'd known wha' kind of trouble Malfoy was in at home. I remember Lucius, o' course, and not many people know this, but I was at school with Abraxas. Nasty pieces o' work, the both of 'em. I might not 'ave been so tough on the little skrewt if I'd known, 'specially las' year."
"But it's Malfoy – wait, what happened last year, Hagrid?"
Hermione and Harry recognised Ron's voice. A quick look to Theo confirmed even he could recognise the voice.
"Found 'im, didn' I? Feeding the thestrals, he was," Hagrid answered, and began busying himself with making more tea. "Confronted him, o' course. Reckoned I startled him, shoutin' and well, maybe throwing some – ahem - spells. Nothin' dangerous, you understand, and I'd missed 'im anyways, not like I can aim the magic well enough.
"Well, anyways, I caught him doin' it a few more times. I though' he was tryin' somethin' with them beautiful creatures – terribly misunderstood, thestrals are. Creeps people out that most folks can't see 'em – not that that applies so much anymore, with the war an' all.
"So I watched 'im – figured I could catch 'im in the act. Course, I'd've had to take 'im to Minerva for punishment – Horace wouldn' done nothin' to 'im, on accoun' of his Mark. Too scared o' Snape, by tha' point – not, tha' Snape was really a bad-un, o' course."
Hagrid served the fresh batch of tea with a healthy splash of firewhiskey in his own cup.
"I wish I'd known – many a night I spent cursin' his name with Horace and Pomona, drinkin' until the early hours and avoidin' them Carrows. I mean, I know Dumbledore told 'im to keep undercover – an' he were a grea' man, Dumbledore, grea' man, such a loss, an' I'm not meanin' to question 'im – but tha' were a tough ask on Snape, for sure."
"What about Malfoy, Hagrid," Ron asked, trying to get the half-giant back on-topic, as he retrieved an enormous hankie and dabbed at his watery eyes.
"Righ'. Well, like I said, I watched 'im. Came down, regular as clockwork once a week. thestrals are smart animals – they can feed themselves jus' fine, but between Luna an' me they always got a little somethin' extra, 'specially the little'uns. So here's Draco Malfoy, lookin' more than a little grey 'cause he can see 'em now, all skin an' bones he was, feedin' the Merlin-damned thestrals!"
Hagrid blew his nose so loudly he woke Fang, who barked loudly just below the window, causing Harry, Hermione, and Theo to flinch.
"Oh be quiet you hairy great beast. Anyways, I didn' think much of it, got a bit distracted with the war an' all. It were only this year when I bumped into Luna in the forest and she said she was glad Draco 'ad looked after 'em when she was away."
"Away?" Ron spluttered. "Hagrid, she was locked in the dungeon in Malfoy Manor, for crying out loud, not on bloody holiday!"
"Keep yer 'air on, Ron, they were 'er words, and it's not like he was the one keepin' 'er prisoner, was he? Anyway, I reckon that's why he did it, heard from Luna one day, sayin' she hoped the thestrals would get fed and he went and did it."
"So Malfoy, chief Slytherin and pureblood arsehole, felt sorry for someone held prisoner in his house so he just decided to feed the creepy death horsies, did he?" Ron scoffed. "Everyone's saying he's changed but I can't see him changing that much. He nearly killed me the year before – are you really saying he went from cursing and poisoning people to hug-a-Thestral in a year?"
"Not sure about huggin' 'em – he weren' too keen on being able to see 'em at all, actually – but he made sure they were fed, an' that's not to be sniffed at.
"Not like he could do much else, the Carrows breathin' down 'is neck all the time. Think they disliked him almost as much as poor Neville. I reckon they'd had enough o' Lucius lordin' it over everyone for years, and when he was down, took it out on 'is son."
Hermione had heard enough.
She pulled Harry and Theo away from the side of the hut and into the pumpkin patch beyond.
"Is it true?" she asked Theo. He didn't pretend not to understand and simply nodded. Hermione's heart did a little flip. Draco had been changing even before the war ended, he was just trapped on the wrong side, surrounded by people who would have killed him for so much as a sign of weakness.
If anything, it made her more determined than ever to help him shrug off the past if he'd let her. She made a note to speak to McGonagall about securing a room for Patronus lessons as soon as she got back to the castle.
"Ron's been having some sessions with a mind healer." Harry felt a bit bad for letting Ron's secret out in front of Theo Nott, but Hermione deserved to know, and it would probably come out eventually. "He floo calls her from Bill's rooms and I think it's really helping him. She suggested he speak to people who seemed to have forgiven what happened to them in the war."
"Why didn't he come and speak to me?" Hermione asked, but Harry's wince said it all.
"He's angry about you especially – she suggested he speak to other people. He spoke to Bill and he tried speaking to Luna, although he said that wasn't all that helpful, so I suggested Hagrid. It's why I arranged lunch – I figured when has Ron ever done anything without being nudged in the right direction?"
Hermione was stunned. Certainly, she'd heard from the discussion that Ron was finally facing his demons and trying to process everything that happened last year, but to hear that he was actually getting professional help – and engaging with the process – was overwhelming.
She was so caught up in her realisation that Ron really was maturing, and for good, that she almost missed Harry asking if she was ok. She launched herself at him and held him tight.
"You're a good friend, Harry. Thanks for telling me. We should get inside before Hagrid comes to find us."
Hermione fell in step with Theo behind Harry as they made their way back to the front door.
"Not a word of this to anyone, Theo," Hermione whispered.
"Oh Princess, I'm wounded. I wouldn't betray your confidence in such a way!" he replied, then grinned cheekily. "Potter or Weasley, sure, but seeing as it's you asking…"
She hit his shoulder as they were suddenly greeted by the booming voice of Hagrid answering the door to Harry.
"Got room for one more, Hagrid? I was studying with Theo in the library, and we couldn't find Ron…"
"Any friend of Harry and Hermione's is a friend of mine," Hagrid beamed, although he remembered this particular boy from his lessons with the Slytherins, he'd never been any particular trouble, so he stood aside and let them all in. "Ron beat you all here, we were just enjoying some tea."
Hagrid bustled around the hut, re-lighting the dwindling fire with his pink umbrella in order to put on another enormous pot of water to boil for tea.
Nott was slightly taken aback.
"Did he just light the fire with an umbrella?" he whispered to Hermione, causing her to stifle a giggle.
"Hagrid was the victim of a slight misunderstanding involving an Acromantula and a young Tom Riddle when he was at Hogwarts."
The usually impassive Theo Nott paled and his eyes widened.
"An Acromantula and To- The Dark Lord?"
Hermione punched him on the arm.
"Fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself, isn't that right, Harry?"
Harry simply nodded and grinned as Theo rubbed feeling back into his arm.
"Be that as it may," Theo groused. "That does not explain why he's lighting the fire with a pink umbrella."
Although Hagrid was busying himself with tea cups and slices of cake the size of dinner plates, Harry leaned in conspiratorially so he wouldn't overhear.
"Well, he had his wand snapped - another victim in Riddle's wake - and he may or may not have kept the pieces..."
Nott smirked, which made Ron feel very uncomfortable. He shifted in his seat and pulled Harry back, giving him a look warning him not to share anything more with the Slytherin at the table.
"Oh, relax, Weasel," Nott admonished. "I'm not really in the business of sharing deep, dark secrets with authorities or the press. Besides, it's not like you're not aware of one of mine - or did you think I hadn't noticed how you no longer see me as a threat to your beloved Gryffindor Princess?"
Nott sat back, the satisfaction plain on his face, as Ron opened and closed his mouth a few times in silence.
"We're not all as clumsy in our machinations as Draco, for Salazar's sake. What's the muggle saying about people in glass houses?"
"Theo..." Hermione warned, and he smiled as he threw his hands up in obvious surrender. She supposed he had been provoked, and he hadn't overtly insulted anyone so she let it go. She couldn't help but chuckle at Ron's confused look, as Harry took pity on him and explained.
Hagrid interrupted the growing animosity between them with cakes and tea and they settled into small talk about the grounds, the creatures Hagrid was caring for, and preparation for their N.E.W.T.s.
Hermione had to be stopped mid-flow on the importance of revising each lesson rather than leaving it to the end of the year with a well-timed piece of cake Theo charmed into her mouth. Even Ron had sniggered. He'd been somewhat withdrawn for most of the conversation, his brows drawn together in a look of deep concentration.
"Hagrid, have you never been given your wand privileges back?" Ron asked suddenly, startling everyone to silence. "I mean, it wasn't you or Aragog who killed Myrtle, was it? We proved that in second year, and with Voldemort dead now," Ron ignored Theo's flinch. "I just thought, if you wanted, could you have a wand again?"
Hagrid was reaching for his oversized hanky again.
"Oh bless you kids, always thinkin' of others."
He blew his nose loudly.
"Funny enough, the Headmistress already cleared me name, and asked if I wanted ter finish me schoolin'. I told 'er, I said, I'm probably a little long in the tooth to be writin' essays and learnin' spells and whatnot, but I wouldn' say no if she could convince the Ministry to let me buy a new wand – just for simple things, like.
"She's workin' on it gettin' it signed off with Kingsley, and I'll be gettin' a new wand from Ollivander's jus' as soon as it's official."
He beamed as Harry, Hermione, Ron and even Theo added their congratulations and relief.
"Don' expect I'll be usin' it much, but it'll be nice to know I can put out a fire or freeze somethin' in a lesson if I need to without worryin' one of the students might let slip and bring the 'ole Ministry down on me!"
Hermione launched herself at Ron and enveloped him in an enormous hug.
"That's such great thinking, Ron!" She praised, as his blush reached the tips of his ears.
"Always the tone of surprise."
Ron had spent more time thinking in the last week than he'd ever done before – not even his O.W.L.s had taken this amount of thinking.
Bill had set up his first session with the mind healer, Evelyn Mentis, and he'd been speaking with her every day after classes using Bill's floo. She had given him homework – as if he didn't have enough of that – and he'd been trying really hard to give it his all.
The first assignment had been to speak to someone about losing his brother.
He and Bill had chatted after that session, and both had ended up crying – first because they missed their brother, and then, because they were laughing so hard remembering all Fred and George's jokes from their childhoods. He had gone to sleep that night emotionally drained but unlike every other time he'd thought about Fred before, he'd been happy and dropped off to sleep with a smile on his face.
The second had been to talk to some people who had been in the war but come out of the other side without as much anger. She had expressly forbidden him from talking to Hermione at this point, so he sought out other people he could speak to.
He started with Harry.
He had asked Harry to talk about the war, and how he managed to cope with it all. At first, Harry had been reluctant - Ron had been there for most of it, after all - and he didn't enjoy talking about things he'd rather keep in the past. They had escaped to the Trophy Room and sat and talked over a pile of sugar quills, chocolate frogs and fizzing whizzbees, washed down with some butterbeers, provided by some elves who had disturbed them on their cleaning rounds.
Harry started with the negatives. Finding out he was a horcrux, and how unfair it all seemed. How hard it was to see his parents, and his godfather and Remus, and not be able to run into their arms and hug them. About how he'd been so angry at Dumbledore - first for leaving him with his muggle family, and then for planning this whole thing with his sacrifice at the centre.
He confessed he'd spoken to Ginny a lot - when they'd been sneaking off over the summer, it hadn't all been for what everyone assumed. Ron had punched him on the arm, for good measure.
Harry had opened up to her about how angry he was, at how unfair it was. How even though it was over, he'd have those memories forever - and he couldn't obliviate them because literally his whole life had been building up to that war. Ginny had let him scream and cry in one of the bedrooms at Grimmauld Place, and held him until he'd fallen asleep exhausted.
The following morning, she'd asked Kreacher to prepare a full English, exactly the way he liked it. She'd told him that from then on, he didn't have to face anything alone - they were a team. Even if they didn't work out, he was family.
She'd told him about how she'd been scarred after her experience with Tom Riddle's diary. About how angry she'd been all that summer. Had nobody noticed a horcrux was controlling her, literally sucking the life from her? But it had been exhausting, and in the end, she had let go of her anger. Eventually she had just let Fred and George's jokes roll off her.
They stopped joking when she stopped reacting, anyway.
After that, Harry made an effort to let it all go. It was hard, especially at first, but he found once he'd started, it became easier, and the burden became lighter. One morning, he felt so light, he started thinking about all the other people who were still weighed down by the war, and that's when he decided he should testify for the Malfoys.
Ron had struggled with this the most. Harry understood, but he argued, if he could forgive Snape everything he'd done, and he could forgive Dumbledore for keeping terrible secrets and setting him up to make the ultimate sacrifice, then he could certainly forgive Draco Malfoy for being a bully.
Even Ron couldn't argue with that.
So, Ron started talking to others.
Neville was easy to talk to, in the greenhouses after classes one day. He'd told Ron about how he'd spent quite a lot of his life feeling it just wasn't fair; all-but-losing his parents so young, his own family's fears and expectations, being the butt of everyone's jokes. How the Carrows had targeted him, and how he'd finally found the courage to let it show. How he'd let a lot of that anger out on the battlefield, and how afterwards, once the dust had settled, he'd felt so relieved just to be alive, he didn't have it in him to be angry anymore.
Luna he'd caught on her way to the forest with a bag of fresh meat for the thestrals. She'd invited him to join her, and they chatted as they walked to the clearing. She talked about how she'd always been the outsider, her own housemates hiding things around the castle. How she had been captured - although it hadn't been necessary, she'd have gone willingly for the sake of her father and the dirigible plums - and held at Malfoy Manor. She talked about their nargle infestation and how the gifflewigs had been particularly fond of Draco.
Ron had groused at the mention of Draco, but Luna had ignored him, commenting on how glad she was that the thestrals had been well fed.
When Harry had suggested lunch with Hagrid, Ron had jumped at the opportunity. He had headed down to the hut after breakfast and started talking. He had every intention of starting the conversation and then getting Hagrid to talk about how he'd managed to cope, but once he started, he found he couldn't quite stop.
He talked about the fear, the hunger, the despair he'd felt when he realised they'd been left an impossible task.
He really wanted to go on about how Dumbledore had pinned the hopes of the whole Wizarding World on three teenagers, but he thought better of it, knowing how the half-giant hero-worshipped Dumbledore.
Then he'd got to the splinching and the horcrux. It heightened his pain, his anxiety, his anger. He told Hagrid how he'd regretted leaving almost as soon as he had left, but when he retraced his steps, all he found was Hermione's scarf.
Hagrid had listened intently, made tea, and chimed in with supportive statements every now and again. He seemed to know exactly what Ron needed.
But when Ron started talking about how unfair it was that Draco Malfoy and his cronies were walking about as free men, that's when Hagrid suddenly piped up.
When he'd discussed it with Evelyn later, she'd suggested that perhaps he'd assumed Hagrid would back him up. That subconsciously he'd assumed that the older half-giant wouldn't be quite as forgiving as his intelligent, young peers, who had seen too much hurt and were still young enough to be idealists?
Trying to think about what his subconscious was doing made Ron's head spin.
As much as it hurt to admit it, he might be friends with Hagrid, but he was a half-giant, and they weren't exactly known for their brains, or their emotional stability. And yet, even he'd been able to move on - maybe not forgive, and definitely not forget - but stop living in the past with the anger and the negativity. Evelyn challenged his prejudice in a way that would have had Hermione grinning from ear to ear.
Ron had taken two days to get over the idea that he might be less emotionally intelligent than a half-giant. He hadn't mentioned it to either Harry or Hermione, for fear of what they might think of him. The shame was an uncomfortable feeling.
Evelyn had suggested he start to look for evidence that might contradict his view that everyone who had fought on the other side of the war was evil. He'd scoffed at that, he knew they were evil, but somewhere in the back of his mind a little doubt had appeared.
So he'd looked. He sat in the Great Hall and watched them during homework clubs and meals. He watched them from the courtyard, in the library and in the classroom.
He saw Daphne Greengrass help a second year Ravenclaw girl pick up her books after she'd been tripped up by a Gryffindor, and sent a little stinging jinx his way for good measure.
He saw Theo Nott fetch a better reference book for a sixth year Slytherin who was struggling with arithmancy, and then proceeded to tell her some amusing anecdote. Then he'd heard that same sixth year thank Hermione for the recommended text the next time they'd been in the library at the same time.
He even saw Greg Goyle step in when Hestia and Flora Carrow, who's aunt and uncle had caused havoc in the school the year before, were being tormented by a group of Gryffindors a few years older than them. They'd tearfully thanked him before retreating to the dungeons.
Ron thought back to the beginning of the year when Draco Malfoy strode to the top of the Great Hall to reassure a frightened first year.
He realised, with no small amount of irony, that Hermione had probably been right all along.
Perhaps he had been a little too harsh on them. And maybe, just maybe, he had some making up to do.
