Oh hai Reader, welcome to the next chapter of Cruel Angel Thesis. Sorry for the lack of updates to this story, but all my Harry Potter story focus was on PAKC lately.
I was also writing a four part Harry Potter story for Valentines day, but I thought it deserved it's own story. And then I was thinking about two other stories, but more on that another time.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I had writing it and now on to the reviews.
girani4: While Flitwick's age hasn't been made canon, I did found the time he should have been around and with a bit of math found out that he could have been 44.
And no, Charles isn't a pedophile. At worst it would fall on him being a Ephebophile, but Fleur is 18 so... Meh, she's legal.
And holy shit! That theory about Voldemort and Charles being friends sounds way cooler than what I am planning. Except that Charles isn't THAT old!
Flame Wolfe: Sorry for the lack of updates, here's the next chapter.
And now story time.
The morning came too soon, sunlight streamed through the window of Charles's office. The Combat Professor had fallen sleep on the sofa, the Beauxbatons Champion still in her Yule Ball dress resting next to him.
They had spend the night curled up together under a blue blanket, Fleur's head dug into his chest and her warm breath against him. She slowly wakes up, opening her blue eyes to see Charles taking slow breaths in his sleep. She sat up watching him sleep for seconds, before watching him opening his eyes.
"Morning." he mumbled, waving a hand through his hair, "How did you sleep?"
"I slept well... All things considered..." Fleur said, hiding her yawn behind her hand, "What about you?"
"I haven't had such a peaceful sleep since I was twenty one..." Charles admitted, rubbing the front of his head, "...Without needing to drink or smoke the nightmares away before hand."
"I wish we could stay like this forever." she said, resting her head on his shoulder as he wrapped an arm around her.
"Wish it could last forever too." Charles admitted.
"I have been thinking..." she said, looking up at him, "What should I call you?"
"Just call me what you have been calling me in public. But when we are alone..." he said, looking down at her, "As a matter of fact... Would you mind calling me... By my real name? Come on, let me hear how it sounds." he added that last part with a blush on his pale face.
"Alright..." she said, leaning in close, whispered in his ear, the sides of his mouth turning into a smile, "My beloved..."
The entire castle got up late on Boxing Day. The Gryffindor common room was much quieter than it had been lately, many yawns punctuating the lazy conversations.
Hermione's hair was bushy again; she confessed to Alex that she had used liberal amounts of Sleekeazy's Hair Potion on it for the ball, "but it's way too much bother to do every day," she said matter-of-factly, scratching a purring Crookshanks behind the ears.
Ron and Hermione seemed to have reached an unspoken agreement not to discuss their argument. They were being quite friendly to each other, though oddly formal.
Harry and Claire wasted no time in telling Hermione about the conversation they had overheard between Madame Maxime and Hagrid, but Hermione didn't seem to find the news that Hagrid was a half-giant nearly as shocking as Alex, Ron or Neville did.
"Shock but, come on." Alex said, "He couldn't have been a pure giant, because they're about twenty feet tall."
"But honestly, all this hysteria about giants." Hermione said shrugging, "They can't all be horrible... It's the same sort of prejudice that people have toward werewolves... It's just bigotry, isn't it?"
Ron looked as though he would have liked to reply scathingly, but perhaps he didn't want another row, because he contented himself with shaking his head disbelievingly while Hermione wasn't looking.
It was time now to think of the homework they had neglected during the first week of the holidays. Everybody seemed to be feeling rather flat now that Christmas was over – everybody except Harry, that is, who was starting once again to feel slightly nervous.
The nerves where only given a back-seat during Extra Combat Class. This time it was Harry and Claire, using the new spells they had learned from Jeager against him.
The worked perfectly well together, when one defended the other attacked. But Jeager darted around them, bombarding them with his own jets of bright light from behind his pulsing blue barrier.
This went back and forth in rapid succession, one of the duelists would sent a jet of light, the opponent would throw up a barrier, before trying to land an attack of their own. They did something that surprised Jeager, the two turned their wands on each other, their spells colliding in mid-air forming some sort of magical sphere.
Moving in sync, the duo send it towards Jeager, which shattered his barrier and make him slam against the desk behind him.
"Excellent!" Jeager applauded the two, as the session came to an end and they moved to the sitting room, "A rather unique maneuver."
"It was all Claire's idea." Harry said, sitting on a chair.
"You where the one that inspired me." she said back with a smile.
Jeager had to suppress a smile at the young affection they shared. Leaning forward on the couch, "So how far are you two with the egg?"
"Oh I–I reckon I've got a pretty good idea what it's about now." Harry lied.
"Have you really? Well done!" Jeager said dryly, "Is it weird that I don't believe you Harry?"
"N-No it's not..." he admitted.
"Alright, then explain to me what happens when you open the egg." Jeager said, leaning back in the couch.
Snow was still thick upon the grounds, and the greenhouse windows were covered in condensation so thick that they couldn't see out of them in Herbology.
Nobody was looking forward to Care of Magical Creatures much in this weather, though as Ron said, the skrewts would probably warm them up nicely, either by chasing them, or blasting off so forcefully that Hagrid's cabin would catch fire.
When they arrived at Hagrid's cabin, however, they found an elderly witch with closely cropped gray hair and a very prominent chin standing before his front door.
"Hurry up, now, the bell rang five minutes ago." she barked at them as they struggled toward her through the snow.
"Who the feck are you?" Alex said, staring at her, "More importantly where the feck is Hagrid?"
"My name is Professor Grubbly-Plank." she said briskly, "I am your temporary Care of Magical Creatures teacher."
"That doesn't answer my second question!" Alex said.
"He is indisposed." Professor Grubbly-Plank said shortly.
Soft and unpleasant laughter as Draco Malfoy and the rest of the Slytherins were joining the class. All of them looked gleeful, and none of them looked surprised to see Professor Grubbly-Plank.
"This way, please." Professor Grubbly-Plank said, and she strode off around the paddock where the Beauxbatons horses were shivering.
Harry, Claire, Alex, Ron, Neville and Hermione followed her, looking back over their shoulders at Hagrid's cabin. All the curtains were closed. Was Hagrid in there, alone and ill?
"What's wrong with Hagrid?" Harry said, hurrying to catch up with Professor Grubbly-Plank.
"Never you mind." she said as though she thought he was being nosy.
"I do mind, though." Harry said hotly, "What's up with him?"
Professor Grubbly-Plank acted as though she couldn't hear him. She led them past the paddock where the huge Beauxbatons horses were standing, huddled 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 "ooooohed!" at the sight of the unicorn.
"Oh it's so beautiful!" Lavender whispered, "How did she get it? They're supposed to be really hard to catch!"
The unicorn was so brightly white it made the snow all around look gray. It was pawing the ground nervously with its golden hooves and throwing back its horned head.
"Boys keep back!" Professor Grubbly-Plank barked, throwing out an arm and catching Harry hard in the chest, "They prefer the woman's touch, unicorns. Girls to the front, and approach with care, come on, easy does it..."
She and the girls walked slowly forward toward the unicorn, leaving the boys standing near the paddock fence, watching. The moment Professor Grubbly-Plank was out of earshot. Harry turned to Alex, Ron and Neville.
"What d'you reckons wrong with him? You don't think a skrewt?..."
"Oh he hasn't been attacked, Potter, if that's what you're thinking." said Malfoy softly, "No, he's just too ashamed to show his big, ugly face."
Malfoy put his hand inside the pocket of his robes and pulled out a folded page of newsprint, "Hate to break it to you. Potter..."
He smirked as Harry snatched the page, unfolded it, and read it, with Alex, Ron, Neville, Seamus and Dean looking over his shoulder. It was an article topped with a picture of Hagrid looking extremely shifty.
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 class mate of mine was hurt by a hippogriff when it tried to attack me, 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, Frid-wulfa'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. Perhaps Harry Potter is unaware of the unpleasant truth about his 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.
"What do you mean, 'we all hate Hagrid'?" Alex said to Malfoy, once he was done reading, "I don't hate Hagrid."
"You don't seem to hate anyone, Kent... But, I think this should put an end to the oaf's teaching career." Malfoy said, his eyes glinting, "Half-giant... and there was me thinking he'd just swallowed a bottle of Skele-Gro when he was young... None of the mummies and daddies are going to like this at all... They'll be worried he'll eat their kids, ha, ha..."
"I don't get it." Alex said with a raised eyebrow, "Hagrid is not a cannibal..."
"What?... I didn't mean..." Malfoy said confused, "There is something wrong with you, Kent."
"I know." Alex said with a smirk, "But that is the part you like about me."
"Are you paying attention over there?"
Professor Grubbly-Planks voice carried over to the boys; the girls were all clustered around the unicorn now, stroking it.
"No!" Alex shouted back as he turned to stare unseeingly at the unicorn, whose many magical properties Professor Grubbly-Plank was now enumerating in a loud voice, so that the boys could hear too.
"I hope she stays, that woman!" Parvati said when the lesson had ended and they were all heading back to the castle for lunch, "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 they went up the steps.
"What about him?" Parvati said in a hard voice, "He can still be gamekeeper, can't he?"
"But Hagrid shows us cool monster!" Alex said.
"That was a really good lesson." Hermione said as they entered the Great Hall, "I didn't know half the things Professor Grubbly-Plank told us about unicorns..."
"Look at this!" Harry snarled, and he shoved the Daily Prophet article under Hermione's nose.
Claire read the artical with Hermione. Her reaction was exactly the same as Ron's.
"How did that horrible Skeeter woman find out? You don't think Hagrid told her?"
"No." Harry said, leading the way over to the Gryffindor table and throwing himself into a chair, furious, "He never even told us, did he? I reckon she was so mad he wouldn't give her loads of horrible stuff about me, she went ferreting around to get him back. "
"Maybe she heard him telling Madame Maxime at the ball." Neville said quietly.
"We'd have seen her in the garden!" Claire said, "Anyway, she's not supposed to come into school anymore, Hagrid said Dumbledore banned her..."
"Maybe she's got an Invisibility Cloak." Harry said, ladling chicken casserole onto his plate and splashing it everywhere in his anger, "Sort of thing she'd do, isn't it, hide in bushes listening to people."
"Like what you and Claire did." Alex pointed out.
"We weren't trying to hear him! We didn't have any choice!" Claire said indignantly. "Anyways, we've got to see him. Tis evening, after Divination. Tell him we want him back."
So that evening after dinner, the six of them left the castle once more and went down through the frozen grounds to Hagrid's cabin. They knocked, and Fang's booming barks answered.
"Hagrid, it's us!" Harry shouted, pounding on the door, "Open up!"
Hagrid didn't answer. They could hear Fang scratching at the door, whining, but it didn't open. They hammered on it for ten more minutes; Ron even went and banged on one of the windows, but there was no response.
"What's he avoiding us for?" Hermione said when they had finally given up and were walking back to the school, "He surely doesn't think we'd care about him being half-giant?"
But it seemed that Hagrid did care. They didn't see a sign of him all week. He didn't appear at the staff table at mealtimes, they didn't see him going about his gamekeeper duties on the grounds, and Professor Grubbly-Plank continued to take the Care of Magical Creatures classes. Malfoy was gloating at every possible opportunity.
"Blimey, tis is heavy." Jeager said, holding up Harry's golden egg one Friday evening while they where in his office, and weighing it in his hands. "They make the same noise right? Go on Claire, let's hear it."
Claire dug her fingernails into the groove that ran all the way around it and prised it open.
It was hollow and completely empty – but the moment she opened it, the most horrible noise, a loud and screechy wailing, filled the room.
"Enough! Shut it!" Jeager bellowed, dropping Harry's egg and covering his ears.
Claire shut it and the sound immediately stopped, "Okay, I think you should put it into water." Jeager said, taking out his wand and conjuring two tubs.
He then filled them with water from the tip of his wand. Once they where nearly full, he turned to Harry and Claire, who where holding their eggs, "Go on, then... open it under the water."
Claire lowered the egg beneath the clear surface and opened it... and this time, it did not wail. A gurgling song was coming out of it, a song whose words she couldn't distinguish through the water.
The same was true for Harry.
"You need to put your head under too." Jeager said, laying down on his sofa.
Harry and Claire took a great breath and pushed their faces under the surface...
And now, as the cold feeling of the water waved over her face, she heard a chorus of eerie voices singing to her from the open egg at the bottom of the tub:
"Come seek us where our voices sound,
We cannot sing above the ground,
And while you re searching, ponder this:
Wove taken what you'll sorely miss,
An hour long you'll have to look,
And to recover what we took,
But past an hour– the prospect's black,
Too late, it's gone, it wont come back"
Claire stood back up, shaking her hair out of her eyes.
"Hear it?" Jeager said, having lit up one of his strangely smelling cigarettes.
"Yeah... we've got to go and look for people who can't use their voices above the ground..." Harry said slowly, "Er... who could that be?"
"Underwater..." Claire said slowly, "What lives in the lake, apart from the giant squid?"
"Oh all sorts." Jeager said, taking a puff.
"Professor." She said, "There aren't merpeople in there, are there?"
"Very good." the professor said, blowing a smoky circle.
"Thats it, isn't it?" Harry said excitedly, "The second task's to go and find the merpeople in the lake and... how am I supposed to breathe?"
"I know a few spells and things that could help." Jeager said, blowing more smoke circles out of his mouth, "I wanted to teach you two Occlumency..."
"Occlumency?" Harry said.
"That can wait." Jeager said, sitting up, "We got some swimming to do."
There was a Hogsmeade visit halfway through January. Hermione was very surprised that Harry and Claire where going to go.
"I just thought you'd want to take advantage of the common room being quiet." she said.
"So we can work on the egg?" Claire said, "We got a pretty good idea what to do."
The six left the castle together on Saturday and set off through the cold, wet grounds toward the gates. As they passed the Durmstrang ship moored in the lake, they saw Viktor Krum emerge onto the deck, dressed in nothing but swimming trunks. He was very skinny indeed, but apparently a lot tougher than he looked, because he climbed up onto the side of the ship, stretched out his arms, and dived, right into the lake.
"He's mad!" Harry said, staring at Krum's dark head as it bobbed out into the middle of the lake, "It must be freezing, it's January!"
"It's a lot colder where he comes from." Alex said, "I suppose it feels quite warm to him."
"How do you know?" Neville said.
"Because Viktor and I chatted over our mutual love for Quidditch. He's really nice, you know. He's not at all like you'd think, coming from Durmstrang. He likes it much better here, he told me." Alex told them simply, "Why are you people always so surprised when I befriend new people? I am a people person!"
"I think you have a lot more fun when we are not around..." Neville mumbled.
They kept his eyes skinned for a sign of Hagrid all the way down the slushy High Street, and suggested a visit to the Three Broomsticks once they had ascertained that Hagrid was not in any of the shops.
The pub was as crowded as ever, but one quick look around at all the tables told them that Hagrid wasn't there. They where hailed by Adri and Amelie sitting at a nearby table as Alex went up to the bar to order them butterbeers from Madam Rosmerta.
"How are two of my three favorite French witches going?" Alex said once he he sat down carrying six bottles, "Where is number three actually?"
"We are doing fine, Alex." Adri said, "And where Fleur is?..."
"Probably stalking Jeager." Amelie said bluntly.
"Doesn't he ever go into the office?" Hermione whispered suddenly.
She pointed into the mirror behind the bar, and Ludo Bagman was reflected there, sitting in a shadowy corner with a bunch of goblins. Bagman was talking very fast in a low voice to the goblins, all of whom had their arms crossed and were looking rather menacing.
It was indeed odd. Harry thought, that Bagman was here at the Three Broomsticks on a weekend when there was no Triwizard event, and therefore no judging to be done.
He was looking strained again, quite as strained as he had that night in the forest before the Dark Mark had appeared. But just then Bagman glanced over at their table, saw Harry, and stood up.
"In a moment, in a moment!" he said brusquely to the goblins, and Bagman hurried through the pub toward Harry, his boyish grin back in place.
"Harry!" he said, "How are you? Been hoping to run into you! Everything going all right?"
"Fine, thanks." Harry said.
"Wonder if I could have a quick, private word, Harry?" Bagman said eagerly. he led Harry away from their table, along the bar to the end furthest from Madam Rosmerta.
As he did so, Ron let out an "Uh-oh.", staring at the door.
Claire spotted Rita Skeeter who had just entered. She was wearing banana-yellow robes today, her long nails were painted shocking pink, and she was accompanied by her paunchy photographer.
She bought drinks, and she and the photographer made their way through the crowds to a table.
"Trying to ruin someone else's life?", Claire said loudly. A few people looked around.
Skeeter's eyes widened behind her jeweled spectacles as she saw who had spoken. "Claire Kent!" she said, beaming, "How lovely! Why don't you come and join?..."
"I wouldn't come near you with a ten-foot broomstick." Claire said furiously, "What did you do that to Hagrid for!?"
Skeeter raised her heavily penciled eyebrows. "Our readers have a right to the truth, Claire. I am merely doing my..."
"Who cares if he's half-giant?", Claire shouted, "There's nothing wrong with him!"
The whole pub had gone very quiet, Madam Rosmerta was staring over from behind the bar, apparently 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 almost at once, she snapped open her crocodile-skin handbag, pulled out her Quick-Quotes Quill, and said, "How about giving me an interview about the Hagrid you know. Claire? The man behind the muscles? Your unlikely friendship and the reasons behind it. Would you call him a father substitute?"
"You horrible woman." Hermione said, through gritted teeth as she stood next to Claire, "You don't care, do you, anything for a story, and anyone will do, wont they?"
"Sit down, you silly little girl, and don't talk about things you don't understand." Skeeter said coldly, her eyes hardening as they fell on Hermione.
Skeeter was suddenly startled by Claire slamming both hands on the table, "Don't you dare talk to her that way!", she shouted.
Skeeter looked amused at this, "Why not? Is this bushy haired girl your girlfriend?"
"What if she is!?" Claire shouted.
It was just then that Harry came back and the six Gryffindor's left, many people were staring at them as they went. Claire glanced back as they reached the door. Skeeter's Quick-Quotes Quill was out, it was zooming backward and forward over a piece of parchment on the table.
"She'll be after you next, Claire!" Ron said in a low and worried voice as they walked quickly back up the street.
"I say bring it!" Claire said, "I'll have my aunt sue her for slander!"
"No you wouldn't." Alex said, earning him a glare from his cousin, "Because Skeeter would be writing it, that means it's libel."
"Damn it Alex." Hermione muttered.
Breaking into a run, Claire led them all the way back up the road, through the gates flanked by winged boars, and up through the grounds to Hagrid's cabin.
The curtains were still drawn, and they could hear Fang barking as they approached.
"Hagrid! Hagrid that's enough!" Claire shouted, pounding on his front door, "We know you're in there! Nobody cares if your mother was a giantess, Hagrid! You can't let that foul Skeeter woman do tis to you! Hagrid, get out here, or I'll blast..."
The door opened followed by an painful groan. Claire stopped bagging on the door, because she had found herself face-to-face, not with Hagrid, but with Charles Jeager, which she had hit in the face.
"Good afternoon..." he said pleasantly, his eyes closed as he rub the bridge of his nose.
"She punched Professor Jeager in the face..." Alex whispered in a soft terrified voice.
"We... we wanted to see Hagrid." Claire said in a rather small voice.
"I figured as much..." Jeager said, tears leaking out of his eyes, "Come on."
Harry, Claire, Alex, Ron, Neville and Hermione went into the cabin; Fang launched himself upon Harry the moment he entered, barking madly and trying to lick his ears. Harry fended off Fang and looked around.
Hagrid was sitting at his table, where there were three large mugs of tea and across from him sat none other than Albus Dumbledore.
Hagrid looked a real mess. His face was blotchy, his eyes swollen, and he had gone to the other extreme where his hair was concerned; far from trying to make it behave, it now looked like a wig of tangled wire.
"Hi, Hagrid." Harry said.
Hagrid looked up, "'Lo," he said in a very hoarse voice.
"More tea, I think." Dumbledore said, drawing out his wand, and twiddling it; a revolving tea tray appeared in midair along with a plate of cakes.
Dumbledore magicked the tray onto the table, and everybody sat down. There was a slight pause, and then Jeager said, "Did you by any chance hear what Miss Kent was shouting, Hagrid?"
Claire went slightly pink, but Dumbledore smiled at her and continued, "Harry, Claire, Alex, Ron, Neville and Hermione still seem to want to know you." Jeager said, sitting down, "Judging by the way they were attempting to break down the door."
"Of course we still want to know you!" Harry said, staring at Hagrid, "You don't think anything that Skeeter cow... sorry, Professor's," he added quickly, looking at Dumbledore and Jeager.
"I have gone temporarily deaf and haven't any idea what you said. Harry," Dumbledore said, twiddling his thumbs and staring at the ceiling.
"Er-right," Harry said sheepishly, "I just meant... Hagrid, how could you think we'd care what 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 we've been telling you, Hagrid!" Jeager said, throwing his arms up.
"I have shown you the letters from the countless parents who remember you from their own days here." Dumbledore said, still looking carefully up at the ceiling, "Telling me in no uncertain terms 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. "
"Hagrid, if your holding out for everyone to like you..." Jeager said, "I'm sorry to inform you, but you will be in your house for a very, very, very long time."
"Not a week has passed since I became headmaster of this school when I haven't had at least one owl complaining about the way I run it." Dumbledore said, now peering sternly over his half-moon spectacles, "But what should I do? Barricade myself in my study and refuse to talk to anybody?"
"Yeh... yeh're not half-giant!" said Hagrid croakily.
"Hagrid, look what I've got for relatives!" Harry said furiously, "Look at the Dursleys!"
"That's a good point." Jeager said, "The Dursleys are horrible.:
"My own brother, Aberforth, was prosecuted for practicing inappropriate charms on a goat." Dumbledore said, "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..."
"Come back and teach, Hagrid." Hermione said quietly, "Please come back, we really miss you."
Hagrid gulped. More tears leaked out down his cheeks and into his tangled beard.
At his Jeager and Dumbledore stood up. "I refuse to accept your resignation, Hagrid, and I expect you back at work on Monday," he said. "You will join me for breakfast at eight-thirty in the Great Hall. No excuses. Good afternoon to you all. "
"See you kids later." Jeager said as he and the headmaster left the cabin, "Seriously, Al. Charms on a goat!? What kind of charms are those!?"
When the door had shut behind him, Hagrid began to sob into his dustbin-lid-sized hands. Hermione kept patting his arm, and at last, Hagrid looked up, his eyes very red indeed.
That evening, in a large room filled with nine people, sitting around a large and ornate round table with twelve seats. Illumination came from a roaring fire beneath a handsome marble mantelpiece surmounted by a gilded mirror.
"Forgive me for interrupting any prior engagements you had planned tis evening." Sephylon spoke, "But we have some matters of the utmost importance to discuss."
The interest around the table sharpened palpably: Some stiffened, others fidgeted, all gazing at Sephylon.
"First off, I would like to introduce two new members into the Knights of Sephylon." he said, gesturing to his left, "Please join me in welcoming our newest members Gabrion and the new Zaphion into the fold."
Greetings to the new masked people, before turning back to their leader. "I also wanted to welcome back Michion from a long time of absent."
Michion raised his hand, "Hey guys. Great to be back." he said.
Greetings and welcome back's, all heads turned once again to Sephylon, "Now, on to the business at hand. Many of you should have noticed the sighs, the disappearance of Bertha Jerkins, the attack on the Quidditch World Cup, and Harry Potter's entrance as the seventh champion in the Triwizard Tournament..."
"We have Sephylon." the Knight named Raphion spoke with a deep booming voice, "You have detailed it in the Book."
The heads turned to the large black leather bound book, the one those in the Knights of Sephylon had came to call the Book of Prophecy.
Written by Sephylon himself, everything that had been predicted in the last thirty years had come true.
"Yes... I have." Sephylon admitted, "Soon we will be reaching a crossroad... And I would like all your opinions on how to proceed forward. Before the end of the summer, Voldemort will return. We can put a stop to it before but the Book will be useless from that point on. Or we can allow the return, and then step in..."
Murmor's was filled the room as they discussed the their options but then the new Zaphion spoke up.
"You mean you want to use Harry Potter as bait." she said, a hint of anger in her voice.
"Voldemort will want to use Harry's blood in his resurrection ritual. Believing it will make him immune to the protection put on him by his mother." Sephylon said, turning to her, "...I already regret having to use him in tis tournament."
The company around the table watched Sephylon apprehensively, however, Sephylon seemed to be speaking more to himself than to any of them, "Yes I have been careless, and it cost us too much in my attempts to stop Voldemort before his first fall... The best-laid plans thwarted by bad luck and chance..."
"Sephylon... We understand how it weights on you." the small Sadion said, looking around, "But you need to also understand that your not alone in this."
"We all committed to this cause and we believe in you Sephylon. We will follow you down the path you will think is best to the bitter end." Sandaion said, looking at his leader, "...Though we might complain."
A round of laughter followed went around the table.
"That's what I want." Sephylon chuckled, feeling an immense wave of appreciation coming over him from their words, "I need people like you all, speaking their minds so I do not go astray, so I don't become like the monsters we fight."
End of the chapter, hope you enjoyed it.
Many thanks to everyone who read, review, favorite or follows this story as usual.
For now I wish you all a fantastic day, if you enjoyed my work don't forget to leave a review and I hope to see you ladies and gents next time.
Mischief Managed.