Disclaimer - I do not own Percy Jackson or Harry Potter.
Harry's POV
By the time we were climbing the steps out of the dungeon, my mind was racing and my spirits were low. I'd lost two points for Gryffindor in my very first week and Snape really hated me. Why me? What did I do? He was acting like he had some sort of grudge against me, and so I was just glad to be out of his presence. Apparently my despair was obvious, as Nico kept shooting me glances that were vaguely sympathetic and Ron had started to attempt to lift my spirits.
"Cheer up," he said. "Snape's always taking points off Fred and George. Can I come and meet Hagrid with you?" Of course I agreed and at five to three, we left the castle and made our way across the grounds, dragging Nico along with us. 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. I knocked at the door and we heard a frantic scrabbling from inside and several booming barks. Ron looked momentarily alarmed, until 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 us in, struggling to keep hold of 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 eyed Nico warily, before bounding straight at Ron and started licking his ears. Like Hagrid, Fang was clearly not as fierce as he looked.
"This is Nico, and that's Ron," I told Hagrid, pointing to each of my friends in turn. Hagrid began pouring boiling water into a large teapot and putting rock cakes on to a plate.
"Another Weasley, eh?" said Hagrid, glancing at Ron's freckles. "I spent half me life chasin' yer twin brothers away from the Forest." The rock cakes almost broke our teeth, but Ron and I pretended to be enjoying them as we told Hagrid all about our first lessons. Nico, however, wrinkled his nose and put the cake aside, much to Hagrid's disappointment. Fang rested his head on my knee and drooled all over my robes. All of us 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 sometime. 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." I told Hagrid about Snape's lesson. Hagrid, like Ron, told me not to worry about it, that Snape liked hardly any of the students.
"But he seemed to really hate me." I argued.
"Rubbish!" Hagrid said. "Why should he?" Yet I couldn't help but think about the way he didn't quite meet my eyes when he said that. "How's yer brother Charlie?" Hagrid asked Ron. "I liked him quite a lot- great with animals." I wondered if Hagrid had changed the subject on purpose. Ron started to tell Hagrid all about Charlie's work with dragons, and Nico looked over, a little worriedly. I wonder what that's about. A piece of paper lying on the table under the tea cosy caught my eye and I picked it up. 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 what was in there, so keep your noses out if you know what's good for you." said a Gringotts spokesgoblin this afternoon.
I remembered Ron telling me on the train that someone had tried to rob Gringotts, but he hadn't mentioned the date. "Hagrid!" I said. "That Gringotts break-in happened on my birthday! It might've been happening while we were there!" There was no doubt about it, Hagrid definitely didn't meet my eyes this time. Instead, he grunted and offered me another rock cake. I read the story again. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied that same day. Hagrid had emptied vault seven hundred and thirteen, if you could call it emptying, taking out that grubby little package. Had that been what the thieves were looking for? As Nico, Ron and I walked back to the castle for dinner, our pockets weighed down with rock cakes (Ron and I were too polite to refuse, we made Nico take some too), I thought about how none of the lessons I'd had so far had given me as much to think about as tea with Hagrid. Had Hagrid collected that package just in time? Where was it now? Did Hagrid know something about Snape that he didn't want to tell me?
A/N:
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-GazelleRLG