Promptly 6 am the next morning, a bell tolled loudly through the dorm. Elowen, who had not slept well at all and was already awake, used the minutes that the other girls were still stirring to claim a shower for herself.
The bathroom was a large room of white marble, with five red toilet stalls to the left of the door and five red-curtained shower stalls to the right. A wall split the room in the middle with sinks and counters on the toilet side and a long bench, several small shelves and hooks between every shelf on the other. Every metal fixture in the room was gold. Elowen claimed a shelf and hook for her toiletries and towel, and entered a shower stall.
By the time the others had fully awoken, Elowen was already mostly dressed and packing her book bag for the day.
"Good morning," Hermione said, pulling her own bag out. She opened her trunk and started piling books in. "I don't know what classes we'll have today so I'm taking every book I can." She turned a critical eye on Elowen's bag. "Aren't you taking any books?"
Elowen slung her bag over her shoulder and rolled her eyes. "It's the first day, Granger. I highly doubt we'll actually need our books, and if the prefects say we will, I'll just come back."
And she left the room.
Harry and Ron weren't downstairs yet. Elowen shook her head, expecting that her twin, who was slow to wake most mornings, was dragging his feet getting ready. She spotted Neville sitting by himself in a corner of the common room, and walked over, sitting next to him.
"Well met, Heir Longbottom," she said. Neville looked up at her and smiled shyly.
"Um, well met, Heiress… Potter?"
"Black, actually," Elowen said cheerily. "You can just call me Elowen, though."
"Oh, ok," Neville said. "Call me Neville then." He seemed to hesitate for a minute. "What, what classes are you looking forward to?"
"Potions, for sure," Elowen replied. "Professor Snape is the one who took Harry and I to Diagon Alley for our school supplies, and it'll be nice, I think, to know a teacher already. Plus, Potions just sounds like a fun class. What about you?"
"Herbology," Neville said at once. "We have a greenhouse at home and the plants are all really cool."
For the next twenty minutes, Neville talked about the various plants in his family greenhouse. By the time the prefects were standing in front of the gathered first years, Harry was sitting to Elowen's right, and Elowen had learned more from Neville about cool plants than years of Petunia's garden had ever taught her.
An older girl clapped her hands loudly to get their attention. To her left was an older boy, leaning against the wall.
"Alright, firsties, listen up!" She waited until all eyes were on her before smiling and continuing. "Welcome to Gryffindor. We are the house of the brave, the chivalrous, the honorable. There are just a few things you need to know. I'm seventh year Prefect, Emily Thompson, the idiot to my left here is the other seventh year Prefect, Zachary Macmillan. The sixth year Prefects are Paige Murphy and Brian Applewood. The fifth year Prefects, the ones you younger years will have the most direct contact with, are Percy Weasley, who you met last night, and Aster Abernant."
Macmillan pushed off the wall and took over. "We are lions," he said. "We have a reputation to uphold of being the golden house of the school. Don't do anything to lose us points, do your best to get good grades and you'll do fine here. That said… Keep your head on a swivel. The slimy snakes hate us and will take any and every opportunity to hex you or make your life miserable." He stared all of them down. "Don't let them fool you into thinking they're your friends."
The seventh year walked through the crowd of first years and out the common room door. Thompson smiled nervously.
"Don't listen to him about that," she said quickly. "You can make friends with any house. House unity!" And she quickly left as well.
"Alright first-years!" Percy Weasley cried over the rising whispers. "Follow me down to the Great Hall for breakfast now. Single file!"
~~~
The breakfast spread, while not as lavish, was no less impressive than last night's feast. Stacks of freshly buttered or jammed toast sat between great bowls of potatoes and eggs. Platters full of ham, sausages and bacon sat next to platters of pancakes and waffles, bowls of fruit and cereal and tureens of syrup, milk and juices.
Elowen's plate was promptly filled with strawberries. Harry rolled his eyes and placed a few slices of toast on her plate as well.
"You need more than strawberries, El," he scolded as he filled his own plate with toast, bacon and eggs. "Who knows how long till lunch?"
As friendly chatter took over their end of the table, Elowen caught sight of Professor McGonagall making her way towards them, a stack of papers in her hand. She and the two seventh year prefects were handing them out to every student at the Gryffindor table.
"Your schedules, students," McGonagall said as she handed out papers to the first years. "On the back you will find a map detailing the routes from the great hall to your classes. Do try not to lose them, it will not reflect well on you if you are late."
Elowen took her schedule and looked over the folded parchment. It was a packed day, no, week, of classes. They shared several classes with the other houses. The side she was looking at read:
Monday/Wednesday/Friday
Breakfast6am - 8am
Magical Theory (All Houses)8am - 9am
Charms (Gryffindor/Slytherin)9:15am-10am
Magical Biology - double block (Gryffindor/Ravenclaw)10:15am - 11am
Defense (Gryffindor/Slytherin)11:15am - 12pm
Lunch 12pm - 1:30pm
Culture (Gryffindor/Hufflepuff)1:45pm - 2:45pm
Latin (Gryffindor/Ravenclaw) (Mondays and Wednesdays)3pm - 4pm
Dinner6pm - 8pm
curfew - 1st-3rd years9:30pm
Astronomy (Friday, All Houses)11pm - 12am
When she flipped it to the other side, she saw the Tuesday and Thursday classes. With some excitement, she noted that they had Potions for the first time tomorrow with the Slytherins.
Tuesday/Thursday
Breakfast6am - 8am
Magical Theory (All Houses)8am - 9am
Transfiguration (Gryffindor/Hufflepuff)9:15am-10am
Herbology (Gryffindor/Hufflepuff)10:15am - 11am
History of Magic (Gryffindor/Ravenclaw)11:15am - 12pm
lunch12pm - 1:30pm
Potions (Gryffindor/Slytherin)1:45pm - 2:45pm
Potions (Tuesday double block)/Free3pm-4pm
Dinner6pm - 8pm
curfew - 1st-3rd years9:30pm
Unfolding the parchment revealed a complicated map of the school. Elowen shrugged and tucked it in her bag.
"Oh I didn't need half of these books at all!" she heard Hermione cry in dismay. Ron, across from the twins, was scowling at his schedule.
"Three classes we share with Slytherin!" he complained. "Three! Why do we have to share any at all?"
"We share classes with all the houses," Harry pointed out. "It'd be weird if we only didn't have classes with the Slytherins, wouldn't it?"
Ron shoved his schedule into his bag and scowled at his plate full of food. "I guess." He glared across the Hall at the slytherin table. "Just don't expect me to get along with them."
~~~
"There, look."
"Where?"
"Next to the tall kid with the red hair."
"Wearing the glasses?"
"Did you see her face?"
"Did you see his scar?"
Whispers followed the twins from the moment they left the Great Hall that first morning. People queuing outside classrooms stood on tiptoe to get a look at them, or doubled back to pass them in the corridors again, staring. Harry wished they wouldn't, because he was trying to concentrate on finding his way to classes.
There were a hundred and forty-two staircases at Hogwarts: wide, sweeping ones; narrow, rickety ones; some that led somewhere different on a Friday; some with a vanishing step halfway up that you had to remember to jump. Then there were doors that wouldn't open unless you asked politely, or tickled them in exactly the right place, and doors that weren't really doors at all, but solid walls just pretending. It was also very hard to remember where anything was, because it all seemed to move around a lot. The people in the portraits kept going to visit each other and Harry was sure the coats of armour could walk.
The ghosts didn't help, either. It was always a nasty shock when one of them glided suddenly through a door you were trying to open. Percy had informed them on the way to breakfast that Nearly Headless Nick was always happy to point new Gryffindors in the right direction, but Peeves the poltergeist was worth two locked doors and a trick staircase if you met him when you were late for class. He would drop waste-paper baskets on your head, pull rugs from under your feet, pelt you with bits of chalk or sneak up behind you, invisible, grab your nose and yell "GOT YOUR CONK!"
Even worse than Peeves, if that was possible, was the caretaker, Argus Filch. Harry and Ron managed to get on the wrong side of him after their very first class. Filch found them trying to force their way through a door which unluckily turned out to be the entrance to the out-of-bounds corridor on the third floor. He wouldn't believe they were lost, was sure they were trying to break into it on purpose and was threatening to lock them in the dungeons when they were rescued by Professor Quirrell, who was passing.
From her seat next to Draco, Elowen — who had elected to walk to Charms class with Neville after their Theory class — gave Harry a questioning look as he slid into an empty seat across the room, almost late for class. Harry just sighed, resting his head on his bag. There was a lot more to magic, Harry was finding, than waving your wand and saying a few funny words.
Their Theory class, one of the two classes they had with their entire year, was so far the only class that he understood. They'd spent that hour going over the term's course aims, and Harry had been relieved to realize that the aims of basic maths and essay skills was something he already mostly knew. Looking around the room, he'd noticed that most of the students who looked unbothered seemed to be halfbloods or muggleborns, like Seamus, Dean Thomas and Hermione.
Professor Flitwick, the Charms teacher, was a tiny little wizard who had to stand on a pile of books to see over his desk. At the start of the class he took attendance, and when he reached Elowen's name he gave an excited squeak and toppled out of sight. A few seconds later, after he'd climbed back up, he squeaked and toppled again upon reading out Harry's name. Harry groaned and smacked his head into the desk.
Magical biology was a class where they began to learn about their magical cores and the way it affected their bodies. According to the Professor Tonks, next year they would learn basic healing magics, but, as he said, to understand how to heal, they first had to understand how it worked.
Their last class before lunch was the class everyone had really been looking forward to: Defense Against the Dark Arts. Unfortunately, Quirrell's lessons turned out to be a bit of a joke. His classroom smelled strongly of garlic, which everyone said was to ward off a vampire he'd met in Romania and was afraid would be coming back to get him one of these days. His turban, he told them, had been given to him by an African prince as a thank-you for getting rid of a troublesome zombie, but they weren't sure they believed this story. For one thing, when Seamus Finnigan asked eagerly to hear how Quirrell had fought off the zombie, Quirrell went pink and started talking about the weather; for another, they had noticed that a funny smell hung around the turban, and the Weasley twins insisted that it was stuffed full of garlic as well, so that Quirrell was protected wherever he went. Percy Weasley, when prodded about it at lunch, told them that Quirrell had been quite a wonderful Muggle Studies teacher before, but he'd never quite been the same since the whole vampire thing in Romania. Elowen asked why on earth he was teaching Defense if he was scared of his own shadow and on top of that, a Muggle Studies teacher before. Percy did not have an answer for that.
They had to study the night skies through their telescopes every Friday from 11pm to midnight and learn the names of different stars and the movements of the planets. Two times a week they went out to the greenhouses behind the castle to study Herbology, with a short, stout little witch called Professor Sprout, where they learned how to take care of all the strange plants and fungi and found out what they were used for.
Professor McGonagall was again different. Harry had been quite right to think she wasn't a teacher to cross. Strict and clever, she gave them a lecture the moment they had sat down in her first class.
"Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts," she said. "Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned."
Then she changed her desk into a pig and back again. They were all very impressed and couldn't wait to get started, but soon realised they weren't going to be changing the furniture into animals for a long time. After taking pages of complicated notes, they were each given a match and instructed to start trying to turn it into a needle. By the end of the lesson, only Hermione had made any real difference to her match; Professor McGonagall showed the class how it had gone all silver and pointy and gave Hermione a smile. Harry looked down at his match and then his sister's and decided that they were a bit grayer, and that made him feel better. It was relieving to find out that he wasn't miles behind everyone else. Lots of people had come from Muggle families and, like him, hadn't had any idea that they were magical. There was so much to learn that even people like Ron or Draco didn't have much of a head start.
Easily the most boring lesson was History of Magic, which was the only class taught by a ghost. Professor Binns had been very old indeed when he had fallen asleep in front of the staff-room fire and got up next morning to teach, leaving his body behind him. Binns droned on and on while they scribbled down names and dates and got Emeric the Evil and Uric the Oddball mixed up.
Elowen left that class in a huff of disgust. "Well, that's one class that's going to be self study." She raised her head to look at Neville. "I think I'm gonna make a study group. You in?" Neville nodded hesitantly and Elowen smiled brightly. She caught sight of Draco leaving the first year Transfiguration classroom and ran off to catch up with him. "Draco! Join my study group!"
Ron watched her go and turned to Harry. "What are we, chopped liver?"
Harry shook his head exasperatedly. "No, she didn't ask because she knows she can just drag me along either way." He grinned at Ron. "I think she's lumped you in with me."
Hermione, behind them, huffed. They resolutely ignored her.
~~~
Thursday was an important day for Harry and Ron. They finally managed to find their way down to the Great Hall for breakfast without following a prefect, Elowen or Hermione, or getting lost once.
"What have we got today?" Harry asked Ron as he poured quite a bit of sugar on his porridge, ignoring his sister's raised eyebrow at it.
"Double Potions with the Slytherins right after lunch" said Ron. Harry wrinkled his nose. They'd been meant to have their first Potions class on Tuesday, a scheduled double block class, but an older student had somehow caused an explosion, rendering the student Potions lab unusable for the last two days. Rumor had it that Snape was so furious that he had expelled the student from his class entirely, and had tried to get them expelled from the school.
"Snape's Head of Slytherin house", Ron was continuing. "They say he always favours them – we'll be able to see if it's true."
"Wish McGonagall favoured us," said Harry. Professor McGonagall was Head of Gryffindor house, but it hadn't stopped her giving them a huge pile of homework in the first class.
Just then, the post arrived. Harry had gotten used to this by now, but it had given him a bit of a shock on the first morning, when about a hundred owls had suddenly streamed into the Great Hall during breakfast, circling the tables until they saw their owners and dropping letters and packages on to their laps. At the Leaky Cauldron, Hedwig had just come straight to their window if she had mail.
Hedwig hadn't brought the twins anything so far. She sometimes flew in to nibble their ears and have a bit of bacon before going off to sleep in the owlery with the other school owls. This morning, however, she fluttered down between the marmalade and the sugar bowl and dropped a note on to Harry's plate. Harry, with a confused look at Elowen, tore it open at once.
Dear Harry and Elowen, (it said in a very untidy scrawl)
I know you get Friday afternoons off, so would you like to come and have a cup of tea with me around three? You don't know me but I knew your parents and I want to hear all about your first week. Send me an answer back with your owl.
Hagrid
Harry showed the note to Elowen and then to Ron and Neville (who had become fast friends with El and taken to eating with them.)
"Charlie always really liked Hagrid," Ron told them around a mouthful of toast. "Says he knows a lot about creatures."
"It couldn't hurt to hear what he knows about your parents, could it?" said Neville sensibly.
"I suppose," Elowen agreed and pulled out a quill, scribbled 'Yes, please, see you later' on the back of the note and sent Hedwig off again.
It was lucky that Harry had tea with Hagrid to look forward to, because the Potions lesson turned out to be the worst class so far.
At the Sorting banquet, Harry had gotten the idea that Professor Snape disliked him. By the end of the first Potions lesson, he knew he'd been wrong. Snape didn't dislike them — he hated them.
Potions class took place down in one of the dungeons. It was colder here than up in the main castle and would have been quite creepy even without the pickled animals floating in glass jars all around the walls.
Snape, like Flitwick, started the class by taking the register, and like Flitwick, he paused at Harry's name.
"Ah, yes," he said softly, "Henry and Elowen Potter. Our new… celebrities."
Theodore Nott, Crabbe and Goyle — Nott had apparently taken Crabbe and Goyle over as his lackeys — sniggered behind their hands. Snape finished calling the names and looked up at the class. His eyes had none of the fraction of warmth they'd held while escorting the twins around Diagon. They were cold and empty and made Harry think of dark tunnels.
"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making," he began. He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but they caught every word – like Professor McGonagall, Snape had the gift of keeping a class silent without effort. "As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses… I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death – if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."
More silence followed this little speech. Harry and Elowen exchanged looks with raised eyebrows. Ron whispered a barely audible 'blimey' from Harry's left. Neville, to Elowen's right, whimpered a bit. Hermione Granger was on the edge of her seat and looked desperate to start proving that she wasn't a dunderhead.
"Potter!" said Snape suddenly. Both twins snapped to attention. Snape paused. "Potter One" he corrected, looking right at Harry. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"
Powdered root of what to an infusion of what? Harry thought hard, but he couldn't remember reading about that in any of the textbooks he and Elowen had spent days going through. He shook his head.
"I don't know, sir," said Harry.
Snape's lips curled into a sneer.
"A shame."He ignored Hermione's hand. "Potter Two! Where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"
Hermione's hand flew into the air again as the girl stretched her arm as high as it would go without leaving her seat. Ron rolled his eyes and scooted a bit closer to Harry so that Hermione's hand was not in his face.
"The potions cabinet, sir?" Elowen guessed after a moment, with a bewildered look at Harry.
"Technically correct, though not the answer I was hoping for," Snape sighed. "Did you bother to open your books before coming, Potters?"
Harry saw his sister's eyes flash and clamped a tight hand over Elowen's wrist to keep her from snarking back. Snape looked back at him, still ignoring Hermione's hand — now waving back and forth.
"What is the difference, Potter One, between monkshood and wolfsbane?"
At this, Hermione stood up hand stretching as high as possible. Harry ignored her and sat straighter. He'd spent years in the elementary school library reading about gardening in an attempt to keep Petunia happy with his gardening. This was an answer Harry knew.
"They're the same, sir," he said confidently, "a plant called aconite."
Surprise flickered in those dark eyes of Snape's.
"That is correct," he said slowly, begrudgingly. "One point to Gryffindor." He glared at Hermione and snapped, "Sit down! Two points from Gryffindor for such a display!" Hermione sat abruptly, head lowered, to the sound of snickering from the Slytherin side of the room. Snape waved his wand and spindly writing appeared on the board. "For your information, asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death. A bezoar, which yes, is available in my potions cupboard, is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons. As for monkshood and wolfsbane, they are indeed the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite." He glared when he noticed no one taking notes. "Well? Why aren't you all copying that down?"
There was a sudden rummaging as they all pulled out parchment and quills and quickly started copying down the notes.
Things didn't improve for the Gryffindors as the Potions lesson continued. Snape put them all into pairs and set them to mixing up a simple potion to cure boils. He swept around in his long black cloak, watching them weigh dried nettles and crush snake fangs, criticising almost everyone except Draco, whom he seemed to like. He was just telling everyone to look at the perfect way Draco had stewed his horned slugs when clouds of acid green smoke and a loud hissing filled the dungeon. Seamus Finnegan had somehow managed to melt Dean Thomas' cauldron into a twisted blob and their potion was seeping across the stone floor, burning holes in people's shoes. Within seconds, the whole class were standing on their stools while Neville, who had been in front of Dean and Seamus' station and been drenched in the potion when the cauldron collapsed, moaned in pain as angry red boils sprang up all over his arms and legs.
"Idiot boy!" snarled Snape, clearing the spilled potion away with one wave of his wand. "I suppose you added the porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the fire? Two points from Gryffindor."
Neville whimpered as boils started to pop up all over his nose.
"Take him up to the hospital wing," Snape spat at Elowen. Then he rounded on Harry and Ron, who had been working next to Neville.
"You – Potter One – why didn't you warn him to move out of the way? Thought it'd be funny if he got the brunt of it, did you? That's another point you've lost for Gryffindor."
This was so unfair that Harry opened his mouth to argue, but Ron kicked him behind their cauldron.
"Don't push it," he muttered. "I've heard Snape can turn very nasty."
As they climbed the steps out of the dungeon an hour later, Harry's mind was racing and his spirits were low. They'd lost five points for Gryffindor in the very first week – why did Snape hate the lions so much?
"Cheer up," said Ron. "Snape's always taking points off Fred and George. Can I come and meet Hagrid tomorrow with you and El?"
"Sure," Harry said. He stopped as they reached the Great Hall. "Do you think Neville's still in the hospital wing?"
"Probably not," Ron answered, continuing on toward the common room. "Madame Pomfrey can heal anything fast. Charlie once broke his arm trying to surf on his broom and he said that it was healed almost instantly."
"Why was he trying to surf on a broom?"
"He was dared to try it by his best friend," Ron shrugged. "Mum was furious that he'd take the dare and Tonks wasn't allowed round the house for a whole month that summer."
"Tonks?" Harry said, surprised. "Like Professor Tonks?"
"Yeah, she's his daughter," Ron told him. "She's still here, too, a seventh year Hufflepuff. I think Mum is secretly glad that Charlie is away from her influence now, even if he is in Romania."
They entered the common room and sure enough, Neville was sitting at a table with Elowen and oddly enough, Hermione Grnager, papers and books spread out in front of them.
Harry and Ron said hi to El and Neville, ignored Hermione, and claimed a table for themselves nearby.
Ron ran upstairs and was back down before Harry could ask why. He carried a wide, flat wooden box that he waved excitedly. "Have you ever played magical chess, Harry?"
~~~
At five to three the next day, the twins and Ron left the castle and made their way across the grounds. Neville had declined to tag along, saying that he wanted to talk to Sprout about some plant. Harry hadn't been paying much attention.
Hagrid lived in a small wooden house on the edge of the Forbidden Forest. A crossbow and a pair of galoshes were outside the front door. When Harry knocked they heard a frantic scrabbling from inside and several booming barks. Then Hagrid's voice rang out, saying, "Back, Fang – back."
Hagrid's big hairy face appeared in the crack as he pulled the door open.
"Hang on," he said. "Back, Fang."
He let them in, struggling to keep a hold on the collar of an enormous black boarhound. There was only one room inside. Hams and pheasants were hanging from the ceiling, a copper kettle was boiling on the open fire and in a corner stood a massive bed with a patchwork quilt over it.
"Make yerselves at home," said Hagrid, letting go of Fang, who bounded straight at Ron and started licking his ears. Like Hagrid, Fang was clearly not as fierce as he looked.
"This is Ron," Harry told Hagrid, who was pouring boiling water into a large teapot and putting rock cakes on to a plate. "I hope you don't mind that we brought him along."
"No' at all," Hagrid said cheerfully. He glanced over Ron's copper hair and freckles. "Another Weasley, eh? I spent half me life chasin' yer twin brothers away from the Forest."
The rock cakes almost broke their teeth, but they all pretended to be enjoying them as they told Hagrid all about their first lessons. Fang rested his head on Harry's knee and drooled all over his robes. Harry and Ron were delighted to hear Hagrid call Filch 'that old git'.
"An' as fer that cat, Mrs Norris, I'd like ter introduce her to Fang some time. D'yeh know, every time I go up ter the school, she follows me everywhere? Can't get rid of her – Filch puts her up to it."
Harry told Hagrid about Snape's lesson. Hagrid, like Ron, told Harry not to worry about it, that Snape liked hardly any of the students.
"But he seemed to really hate us."
"Oh, Harry, he didn't hate us," Elowen said exasperatedly. "He was nice enough when he picked us up from the Dursleys."
"Rubbish!" agreed Hagrid. "Why should he hate you? He was best friends with yer mum back in their school days!"
"He was?" Elowen blinked.
"He was!" Hagrid said. "Least he was until house divides got between 'em! Snape and yer dad didn't get along at all, and when Lily started going out with James, Snape stopped hanging around her completely!" He laughed a bit. "If ya ask me, Snape wanted Lily fer 'imself and couldn't take the jealousy."
The twins exchanged looks. Professor Snape hadn't told them any of this when telling them about why they were famous. Hagrid caught the looks and cleared his throat, face a bit flushed and not meeting their eyes.
"Course, I probably shouldnae said that," he told them. "Professor Snape's personal business, that is!" He turned his attention to Ron. "How's yer brother Charlie? I liked him a lot – great with animals."
Harry figured Hagrid had changed the subject on purpose. While Ron told Hagrid all about Charlie's work with dragons, Harry picked up a piece of paper that was lying on the table under the tea cosy. It was a cutting from the Daily Prophet:
GRINGOTTS BREAK-IN LATEST
Investigations continue into the break-in at Gringotts on 31 July, widely believed to be the work of dark wizards or witches unknown.
Gringotts' goblins today insisted that nothing had been taken. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied the same day.
'But we're not telling you what was in there, so keep your noses out if you know what's good for you,' said a Gringotts spokesgoblin this afternoon.
Harry remembered Ron telling them on the train that someone had tried to rob Gringotts, but Ron hadn't mentioned the exact date.
"Elowen!" said Harry. "That Gringotts break-in Ron mentioned! It happened on our birthday! You think it was happening while we were in the Alley?"
There was no doubt about it, Hagrid definitely didn't meet their eyes this time. He grunted and offered more rock cakes. Harry read the story again. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied earlier that same day. Eyeing Hagrid's shifty behavior, Harry had to wonder if Hagrid knew what had been stolen.
As they walked back to the castle for dinner, their pockets weighed down with rock cakes they'd been too polite to refuse, Harry thought that none of the lessons they'd had so far had given him as much to think about as tea with Hagrid.