Untitled Part 30
The story of Fred and George's flight to freedom wasretold so often over the next few days that Harry could tellit would soon become the stuff of Hogwarts legend. Within aweek, even those who had been eyewitnesses were halfconvinced that they had seen the twins dive-bombUmbridge on their brooms, pelting her with Dungbombsbefore zooming out of the doors. In the immediateaftermath of their departure there was a great wave of talkabout copying them, so that Harry frequently heardstudents saying things like, "Honestly, some days I just feellike jumping on my broom and leaving this place," or else,"One more lesson like that and I might just do a Weasley...."
Fred and George had made sure that nobody was likely toforget them very soon. For one thing, they had not leftinstructions on how to remove the swamp that now filledthe corridor on the fifth floor of the east wing. Umbridgeand Filch had been observed trying different means ofremoving it but without success. Eventually the area wasroped off and Filch, gnashing his teeth furiously, was giventhe task of punting students across it to their classrooms.Harry was certain that teachers like McGonagall or Flitwickcould have removed the swamp in an instant, but just as inthe case of Fred and George's Wildfire Whiz-Bangs, theyseemed to prefer to watch Umbridge struggle.
Then there were the two large broom-shaped holes inUmbridge's office door, through which Fred and George'sCleansweeps had smashed to rejoin their masters. Filchfitted a new door and removed Harry's Firebolt to thedungeons where, it was rumored, Umbridge had set anarmed security troll to guard it. However, her troubles werefar from over.
Inspired by Fred and George's example, a great numberof students were now vying for the newly vacant positions ofTroublemakers-in-Chief. In spite of the new door, somebodymanaged to slip a hairy-snouted niffler into Umbridge'soffice, which promptly tore the place apart in its search forshiny objects, leapt on Umbridge on her re-entrance, andtried to gnaw the rings off her stubby fingers. Dungbombsand Stinkpellets were dropped so frequently in thecorridors that it became the new fashion for students toperform Bubble-Head Charms on themselves before leavinglessons, which ensured them a supply of fresh clean air,even though it gave them all the peculiar appearance ofwearing upside-down goldfish bowls on their heads.
Filch prowled the corridors with a horsewhip ready in hishands, desperate to catch miscreants, but the problem wasthat there were now so many of them that he did not knowwhich way to turn. The Inquisitorial Squad were attemptingto help him, but odd things kept happening to its members.Warrington of the Slytherin Quidditch team reported to thehospital wing with a horrible skin complaint that made himlook as though he had been coated in cornflakes. PansyParkinson, to Hermione's delight, missed all her lessons thefollowing day, as she had sprouted antlers.
Meanwhile it became clear just how many SkivingSnackboxes Fred and George had managed to sell beforeleaving Hogwarts. Umbridge only had to enter herclassroom for the students assembled there to faint, vomit,develop dangerous fevers, or else spout blood from bothnostrils. Shrieking with rage and frustration she attemptedto trace the mysterious symptoms to their source, but thestudents told her stubbornly they were suffering"Umbridge-itis." After putting four successive classes indetention and failing to discover their secret she was forcedto give up and allow the bleeding, swooning, sweating, andvomiting students to leave her classes in droves.
But not even the users of the Snackboxes could competewith that master of chaos, Peeves, who seemed to havetaken Fred's parting words deeply to heart. Cackling madly,he soared through the school, upending tables, bursting outof blackboards, and toppling statues and vases. Twice heshut Mrs. Norris inside suits of armor, from which she wasrescued, yowling loudly, by the furious caretaker. Hesmashed lanterns and snuffed out candles, juggled burningtorches over the heads of screaming students, causedneatly stacked piles of parchment to topple into fires or outof windows, flooded the second floor when he pulled off allthe taps in the bathrooms, dropped a bag of tarantulas inthe middle of the Great Hall during breakfast and,whenever he fancied a break, spent hours at a time floatingalong after Umbridge and blowing loud raspberries everytime she spoke.
None of the staff but Filch seemed to be stirringthemselves to help her. Indeed, a week after Fred andGeorge's departure Harry witnessed Professor McGonagallwalking right past Peeves, who was determinedly looseninga crystal chandelier, and could have sworn he heard her tellthe poltergeist out of the corner of her mouth, "It unscrewsthe other way."
To cap matters, Montague had still not recovered from hissojourn in the toilet. He remained confused anddisorientated and his parents were to be observed oneTuesday morning striding up the front drive, lookingextremely angry.
"Should we say something?" said Hermione in a worriedvoice, pressing her cheek against the Charms window sothat she could see Mr. and Mrs. Montague marching inside."About what happened to him? In case it helps MadamPomfrey cure him?"
" 'Course not, he'll recover," said Ron indifferently.
"Anyway, more trouble for Umbridge, isn't it?" said Harryin a satisfied voice.
He and Ron both tapped the teacups they were supposedto be charming with their wands. Harry's spouted four veryshort legs that would not reach the desk and wriggledpointlessly in midair. Ron's grew four very thin spindly legsthat hoisted the cup off the desk with great difficulty,trembled for a few seconds, then folded, causing the cup tocrack into two.
"Reparo!" said Hermione quickly, mending Ron's cup witha wave of her wand. "That's all very well, but what ifMontague's permanently injured?"
"Who cares?" said Ron irritably, while his teacup stooddrunkenly again, trembling violently at the knees."Montague shouldn't have tried to take all those pointsfrom Gryffindor, should he? If you want to worry aboutanyone, Hermione, worry about me!"
"You?" she said, catching her teacup as it scamperedhappily away across the desk on four sturdy little willowpatterned legs and replacing it in front of her. "Why shouldI be worried about you?"
"When Mum's next letter finally gets through Umbridge'sscreening process," said Ron bitterly, now holding his cupup while its frail legs tried feebly to support its weight, "I'mgoing to be in deep trouble. I wouldn't be surprised if she'ssent a Howler again."
"But —"
"It'll be my fault Fred and George left, you wait," said Rondarkly. "She'll say I should've stopped them leaving, Ishould've grabbed the ends of their brooms and hung on orsomething. ... Yeah, it'll be all my fault. ..."
"Well, if she does say that it'll be very unfair, you couldn'thave done anything! But I'm sure she won't, I mean, if it'sreally true they've got premises in Diagon Alley now, theymust have been planning this for ages. ..."
"Yeah, but that's another thing, how did they getpremises?" said Ron, hitting his teacup so hard with hiswand that its legs collapsed again and it lay twitchingbefore him. "It's a bit dodgy, isn't it? They'll need loads ofGalleons to afford the rent on a place in Diagon Alley, she'llwant to know what they've been up to, to get their hands onthat sort of gold. ..."
"Well, yes, that occurred to me too," said Hermione,allowing her teacup to jog in neat little circles aroundHarry's, whose stubby little legs were still unable to touchthe desktop. "I've been wondering whether Mundungus haspersuaded them to sell stolen goods or something awful. ..."
"He hasn't," said Harry curtly.
"How do you know?" said Ron and Hermione together.
"Because —" Harry hesitated, but the moment to confessfinally seemed to have come. There was no good to begained in keeping silent if it meant anyone suspected thatFred and George were criminals. "Because they got thegold from me. I gave them my Triwizard winnings lastJune."
There was a shocked silence, then Hermione's teacupjogged right over the edge of the desk and smashed on thefloor.
"Oh, Harry, you didn't!" she said.
"Yes, I did," said Harry mutinously. "And I don't regret iteither — I didn't need the gold, and they'll be great at ajoke shop. ..."
"But this is excellent!" said Ron, looking thrilled. "It's allyour fault, Harry — Mum can't blame me at all! Can I tellher?"
"Yeah, I suppose you'd better," said Harry dully. "'Specially if she thinks they're receiving stolen cauldrons orsomething. ..."
Hermione said nothing at all for the rest of the lesson, butHarry had a shrewd suspicion that her self-restraint wasbound to crack before long. Sure enough, once they had leftthe castle for break and were standing around in the weakMay sunshine, she fixed Harry with a beady eye and openedher mouth with a determined air.
Harry interrupted her before she had even started.
"It's no good nagging me, it's done," he said firmly. "Fredand George have got the gold — spent a good bit of it too,by the sounds of it — and I can't get it back from them and Idon't want to. So save your breath, Hermione."
"I wasn't going to say anything about Fred and George!"she said in an injured voice.
Ron snorted disbelievingly and Hermione threw him avery dirty look.
"No, I wasn't!" she said angrily. "As a matter of fact, I wasgoing to ask Harry when he's going to go back to Snapeand ask for Occlumency lessons again!"
Harry's heart sank. Once they had exhausted the subjectof Fred and George's dramatic departure, which admittedlyhad taken many hours, Ron and Hermione had wanted tohear news of Sirius. As Harry had not confided in them thereason he had wanted to talk to Sirius in the first place, ithad been hard to think of things to tell them. He had endedup saying to them truthfully that Sirius wanted Harry toresume Occlumency lessons. He had been regretting thisever since; Hermione would not let the subject drop andkept reverting to it when Harry least expected it.
"You can't tell me you've stopped having funny dreams,"Hermione said now, "because Ron told me last night youwere muttering in your sleep again. ..."
Harry threw Ron a furious look. Ron had the grace to lookashamed of himself.
"You were only muttering a bit," he mumbledapologetically. "Something about 'just a bit farther.' ""I dreamed I was watching you lot play Quidditch," Harrylied brutally. "I was trying to get you to stretch out a bitfarther to grab the Quaffle."<
Ron's ears went red. Harry felt a kind of vindictivepleasure: He had not, of course, dreamed anything of thesort.
Last night he had once again made the journey along theDepartment of Mysteries corridor. He had passed throughthe circular room, then the room full of clicking anddancing light, until he found himself again inside thatcavernous room full of shelves on which were ranged dustyglass spheres. ...
He had hurried straight toward row number ninety-seven,turned left, and ran along it. ... It had probably been thenthat he had spoken aloud. ... Just a bit farther ... for hecould feel his conscious self struggling to wake ... andbefore he had reached the end of the row, he had foundhimself lying in bed again, gazing up at the canopy of hisfour-poster.
"You are trying to block your mind, aren't you?" saidHermione, looking beadily at Harry. "You are keeping goingwith your Occlumency?"
"Of course I am," said Harry, trying to sound as thoughthis question was insulting, but not quite meeting her eye.The truth was that he was so intensely curious about whatwas hidden in that room full of dusty orbs that he was quitekeen for the dreams to continue.
The problem was that with just under a month to go untilthe exams and every free moment devoted to studying, hismind seemed saturated with information when he went tobed so that he found it very difficult to get to sleep at all.When he did, his overwrought brain presented him mostnights with stupid dreams about the exams. He alsosuspected that part of his mind — the part that often spokein Hermione's voice — now felt guilty on the occasions itstrayed down that corridor ending in the black door, andsought to wake him before he could reach journey's end.
"You know," said Ron, whose ears were still flaming red,"if Montague doesn't recover before Slytherin playHufflepuff, we might be in with a chance of winning theCup."
"Yeah, I s'pose so," said Harry, glad of a change of subject.
"I mean, we've won one, lost one — if Slytherin lose toHufflepuff next Saturday —"
"Yeah, that's right," said Harry, losing track of what hewas agreeing to: Cho Chang had just walked across thecourtyard, determinedly not looking at him.
The final match of the Quidditch season, Gryffindor versusRavenclaw, was to take place on the last weekend of May.Although Slytherin had been narrowly defeated byHufflepuff in their last match, Gryffindor was not daring tohope for victory, due mainly (though of course nobody saidit to him) to Ron's abysmal goalkeeping record. He,however, seemed to have found a new optimism.
"I mean, I can't get any worse, can I?" he told Harry andHermione grimly over breakfast on the morning of thematch. "Nothing to lose now, is there?"
"You know," said Hermione, as she and Harry walkeddown to the pitch a little later in the midst of a veryexcitable crowd, "I think Ron might do better without Fredand George around. They never exactly gave him a lot ofconfidence. ..."
Luna Lovegood overtook them with what appeared to bea live eagle perched on top of her head.
"Oh gosh, I forgot!" said Hermione, watching the eagleflapping its wings as Luna walked serenely past a group ofcackling and pointing Slytherins. "Cho will be playing, won'tshe?"
Harry, who had not forgotten this, merely grunted.
They found seats in the topmost row of the stands. It wasa fine, clear day. Ron could not wish for better, and Harryfound himself hoping against hope that Ron would not givethe Slytherins cause for more rousing choruses of "WeasleyIs Our King."
Lee Jordan, who had been very dispirited since Fred andGeorge had left, was commentating as usual. As the teamszoomed out onto the pitches he named the players withsomething less than his usual gusto.
"... Bradley ... Davies ... Chang," he said, and Harry felthis stomach perform, less of a back flip, more a feeble lurchas Cho walked out onto the pitch, her shiny black hairrippling in the slight breeze. He was not sure what hewanted to happen anymore, except that he could not standany more rows. Even the sight of her chatting animatedly toRoger Davies as they prepared to mount their broomscaused him only a slight twinge of jealousy.
"And they're off!" said Lee. "And Davies takes the Quaffleimmediately, Ravenclaw Captain Davies with the Quaffle, hedodges Johnson, he dodges Bell, he dodges Spinnet as well.... He's going straight for goal! He's going to shoot — and —and —" Lee swore very loudly. "And he's scored."
Harry and Hermione groaned with the rest of theGryffindors. Predictably, horribly, the Slytherins on theother side of the stands began to sing:
Weasley cannot save a thing,
He cannot block a single ring ...
"Harry," said a hoarse voice in Harry's ear. "Hermione ..."
Harry looked around and saw Hagrid's enormousbearded face sticking between the seats; apparently he hadsqueezed his way all along the row behind, for the first andsecond years he had just passed had a ruffled, flattenedlook about them. For some reason, Hagrid was bent doubleas though anxious not to be seen, though he was still atleast four feet taller than everybody else.
"Listen," he whispered, "can yeh come with me? Now?While ev'ryone's watchin' the match?"
"Er ... can't it wait, Hagrid?" asked Harry. "Till the match is over"
"No," said Hagrid. "No, Harry, it's gotta be now ... whileev'ryone's lookin' the other way. ... Please?"
Hagrid's nose was gently dripping blood. His eyes wereboth blackened. Harry had not seen him this close up sincehis return to the school; he looked utterly woebegone.
" 'Course," said Harry at once, " 'course we'll come. ..."
He and Hermione edged back along their row of seats,causing much grumbling among the students who had tostand up for them. The people in Hagrid's row were notcomplaining, merely attempting to make themselves assmall as possible.
"I 'ppreciate this, you two, I really do," said Hagrid asthey reached the stairs. He kept looking around nervouslyas they descended toward the lawn below. "I jus' hope shedoesn' notice us goin'. ..."
"You mean Umbridge?" said Harry. "She won't, she's gother whole Inquisitorial Squad sitting with her, didn't yousee? She must be expecting trouble at the match."
"Yeah, well, a bit o' trouble wouldn' hurt," said Hagrid,pausing to peer around the edge of the stands to make surethe stretch of lawn between there and his cabin wasdeserted. "Give us more time ..."
"What is it, Hagrid?" said Hermione, looking up at himwith a concerned expression on her face as they hurriedacross the lawn toward the edge of the forest.
"Yeh — yeh'll see in a mo'," said Hagrid, looking over hisshoulder as a great roar rose from the stands behind them."Hey — did someone jus' score?"
"It'll be Ravenclaw," said Harry heavily.
"Good ... good ..." said Hagrid distractedly. "Tha's good...."
They had to jog to keep up with him as he strode acrossthe lawn, looking around with every other step. When theyreached his cabin, Hermione turned automatically lefttoward the front door; Hagrid, however, walked straightpast it into the shade of the trees on the outermost edge ofthe forest, where he picked up a crossbow that was leaningagainst a tree. When he realized they were no longer withhim, he turned.
"We're goin' in here," he said, jerking his shaggy headbehind him.
"Into the forest?" said Hermione, perplexed.
"Yeah," said Hagrid. "C'mon now, quick, before we'respotted!"
Harry and Hermione looked at each other, then duckedinto the cover of the trees behind Hagrid, who was alreadystriding away from them into the green gloom, his crossbowover his arm. Harry and Hermione ran to catch up with him.
"Hagrid, why are you armed?" said Harry.
"Jus' a precaution," said Hagrid, shrugging his massiveshoulders.
"You didn't bring your crossbow the day you showed usthe thestrals," said Hermione timidly.
"Nah, well, we weren' goin' in so far then," said Hagrid."An' anyway, tha' was before Firenze left the forest, wasn'it?"
"Why does Firenze leaving make a difference?" askedHermione curiously.
" 'Cause the other centaurs are good an' riled at me, tha'swhy," said Hagrid quietly, glancing around. "They used terbe — well, yeh couldn' call 'em friendly — but we got on allrigh'. Kept 'emselves to 'emselves, bu' always turned up if Iwanted a word. Not anymore ..."
He sighed deeply.
"Firenze said that they're angry because he went to workfor Dumbledore?" Harry asked, tripping on a protrudingroot because he was busy watching Hagrid's profile.
"Yeah," said Hagrid heavily. "Well, angry doesn' cover it.Ruddy livid. If I hadn' stepped in, I reckon they'd've kickedFirenze ter death —"
"They attacked him?" said Hermione, sounding shocked.
"Yep," said Hagrid gruffly, forcing his way through severallow-hanging branches. "He had half the herd onto him —"
"And you stopped it?" said Harry, amazed and impressed."By yourself?"
" 'Course I did, couldn't stand by an' watch 'em kill him,could I?" said Hagrid. "Lucky I was passin', really ... an'I'd've thought Firenze mighta remembered tha' before hestarted sendin' me stupid warnin's!" he added hotly andunexpectedly.
Harry and Hermione looked at each other, startled, butHagrid, scowling, did not elaborate.
"Anyway," he said, breathing a little more heavily thanusual, "since then the other centaurs've bin livid with mean' the trouble is, they've got a lot of influence in the forest.... Cleverest creatures in here ..."
"Is that why we're here, Hagrid?" asked Hermione. "Thecentaurs?"
"Ah no," said Hagrid, shaking his head dismissively, "no,it's not them. ... Well, o' course, they could complicate theproblem, yeah. ... But yeh'll see what I mean in a bit. ..."
On this incomprehensible note he fell silent and forged alittle ahead, taking one stride for every three of theirs, sothat they had great trouble keeping up with him.
The path was becoming increasingly overgrown and thetrees grew so closely together as they walked farther andfarther into the forest that it was as dark as dusk. Theywere soon a long way past the clearing where Hagrid hadshown them the thestrals, but Harry felt no sense of uneaseuntil Hagrid stepped unexpectedly off the path and beganwending his way in and out of trees toward the dark heartof the forest.
"Hagrid?" said Harry, fighting his way through thicklyknotted brambles over which Hagrid had stepped easilyand remembering very vividly what had happened to himon the other occasions he had stepped off the forest path."Where are we going?"
"Bit further," said Hagrid over his shoulder. "C'mon,Harry. ... We need ter keep together now. ..."
It was a great struggle to keep up with Hagrid, what withbranches and thickets of thorn through which Hagridmarched as easily as though they were cobwebs, but whichsnagged Harry and Hermione's robes, frequentlyentangling them so severely that they had to stop forminutes at a time to free themselves. Harry's arms and legswere soon covered in small cuts and scratches. They wereso deep in the forest now that sometimes all Harry couldsee of Hagrid in the gloom was a massive dark shape aheadof him. Any sound seemed threatening in the muffledsilence. The breaking of a twig echoed loudly and the tiniestrustle of movement, though it might have been made by aninnocent sparrow, caused Harry to peer through the gloomfor a culprit. It occurred to him that he had never managedto get this far into the forest without meeting some kind ofcreature — their absence struck him as rather ominous.
"Hagrid, would it be all right if we lit our wands?" saidHermione quietly.
"Er ... all righ'," Hagrid whispered back. "In fact ..."
He stopped suddenly and turned around; Hermionewalked right into him and was knocked over backward.Harry caught her just before she hit the forest floor.
"Maybe we bes' jus' stop fer a momen', so I can ... fill yehin," said Hagrid. "Before we ge' there, like."
"Good!" said Hermione, as Harry set her back on her feet.They both murmured "Lumos!" and their wand tips ignited.Hagrid's face swam through the gloom by the light of thetwo wavering beams and Harry saw that he looked nervousand sad again.
"Righ," said Hagrid. "Well ... see ... the thing is ..."
He took a great breath.
"Well, there's a good chance I'm goin' ter be gettin' thesack any day now," he said.
Harry and Hermione looked at each other, then back athim.
"But you've lasted this long —" Hermione said tentatively."What makes you think —"
"Umbridge reckons it was me that put tha' niffler in heroffice."
"And was it?" said Harry, before he could stop himself.
"No, it ruddy well wasn'!" said Hagrid indignantly. "On'yanythin' ter do with magical creatures an' she thinks it's gotsomethin' ter do with me. Yeh know she's bin lookin' fer achance ter get rid of me ever since I got back. I don' wan'ter go, o' course, but if it wasn' fer ... well ... the specialcircumstances I'm abou' ter explain to yeh, I'd leave righnow, before she's go' the chance ter do it in front o' thewhole school, like she did with Trelawney."
Harry and Hermione both made noises of protest, butHagrid overrode them with a wave of one of his enormoushands.
"It's not the end o' the world, I'll be able ter helpDumbledore once I'm outta here, I can be useful ter theOrder. An' you lot'll have Grubbly-Plank, yeh'll — yeh'll getthrough yer exams fine. ..." His voice trembled and broke.
"Don' worry abou' me," he said hastily, as Hermione madeto pat his arm. He pulled his enormous spottedhandkerchief from the pocket of his waistcoat and moppedhis eyes with it. "Look, I wouldn' be tellin' yer this at all if Ididn' have ter. See, if I go ... well, I can' leave withou' ...withou' tellin' someone ... because I'll — I'll need you twoter help me. An' Ron, if he's willin'."
"Of course we'll help you," said Harry at once. "What doyou want us to do?"
Hagrid gave a great sniff and patted Harry wordlessly onthe shoulder with such force that Harry was knockedsideways into a tree.
"I knew yeh'd say yes," said Hagrid into his handkerchief,"but I won' ... never ... forget ... Well ... c'mon ... jus' a littlebit further through here ... Watch yerselves, now, there'snettles. ..."
They walked on in silence for another fifteen minutes.Harry had opened his mouth to ask how much farther theyhad to go when Hagrid threw out his right arm to signalthat they should stop.
"Really easy," he said softly. "Very quiet, now ..."
They crept forward and Harry saw that they were facing alarge, smooth mound of earth nearly as tall as Hagrid thathe thought, with a jolt of dread, was sure to be the lair ofsome enormous animal. Trees had been ripped up at theroots all around the mound, so that it stood on a bare patchof ground surrounded by heaps of trunks and boughs thatformed a kind of fence or barricade, behind which Harry,Hermione, and Hagrid now stood.
"Sleepin'," breathed Hagrid.
Sure enough, Harry could hear a distant, rhythmicrumbling that sounded like a pair of enormous lungs atwork. He glanced sideways at Hermione, who was gazing atthe mound with her mouth slightly open. She looked utterlyterrified.
"Hagrid," she said in a whisper barely audible over thesound of the sleeping creature, "who is he?"
Harry found this an odd question. ... "What is it?" was theone he had been planning on asking.
"Hagrid, you told us," said Hermione, her wand nowshaking in her hand, "you told us none of them wanted tocome!"
Harry looked from her to Hagrid and then, as realizationhit him, he looked back at the mound with a small gasp ofhorror.
The great mound of earth, on which he, Hermione, andHagrid could easily have stood, was moving slowly up anddown in time with the deep, grunting breathing. It was nota mound at all. It was the curved back of what was clearly...
"Well — no — he didn' want ter come," said Hagrid,sounding desperate. "But I had ter bring him, Hermione, Ihad ter!"
"But why?" asked Hermione, who sounded as though shewanted to cry. "Why — what — oh, Hagrid!"
"I knew if I jus' got him back," said Hagrid, sounding closeto tears himself, "an' — an' taught him a few manners — I'dbe able ter take him outside an' show ev'ryone he'sharmless!"
"Harmless!" said Hermione shrilly, and Hagrid madefrantic hushing noises with his hands as the enormouscreature before them grunted loudly and shifted in itssleep. "He's been hurting you all this time, hasn't he? That'swhy you've had all these injuries!"
"He don' know his own strength!" said Hagrid earnestly."An' he's gettin' better, he's not fightin' so much anymore—"
"So this is why it took you two months to get home!" saidHermione distractedly. "Oh Hagrid, why did you bring himback if he didn't want to come, wouldn't he have beenhappier with his own people?"
"They were all bullyin' him, Hermione, 'cause he's sosmall!" said Hagrid.
"Small?" said Hermione. "Small?"
"Hermione, I couldn' leave him," said Hagrid, tears nowtrickling down his bruised face into his beard. "See — he'smy brother!"
Hermione simply stared at him, her mouth open.
"Hagrid, when you say 'brother,' " said Harry slowly, "doyou mean — ?"
"Well — half-brother," amended Hagrid. "Turns out memother took up with another giant when she left me dad,an' she went an' had Grawp here —"
"Grawp?" said Harry.
"Yeah ... well, tha's what it sounds like when he says hisname," said Hagrid anxiously. "He don' speak a lot ofEnglish. ... I've bin tryin' ter teach him. ... Anyway, she don'seem ter have liked him much more'n she liked me. ... See,with giantesses, what counts is producin' good big kids, andhe's always been a bit on the runty side fer a giant — on'ysixteen foot —"
"Oh yes, tiny!" said Hermione, with a kind of hystericalsarcasm. "Absolutely minuscule!"
"He was bein' kicked around by all o' them — I jus'couldn' leave him —"
"Did Madame Maxime want to bring him back?" askedHarry.
"She — well, she could see it was right importan' ter me,"said Hagrid, twisting his enormous hands. "Bu' — bu' shegot a bit tired of him after a while, I must admit ... so wesplit up on the journey home. ... She promised not ter tellanyone though. ..."
"How on earth did you get him back without anyonenoticing?" said Harry.
"Well, tha's why it took so long, see," said Hagrid. "Couldon'y travel by nigh an' through wild country an' stuff.'Course, he covers the ground pretty well when he wantster, but he kep' wantin' ter go back. ..."
"Oh Hagrid, why on earth didn't you let him!" saidHermione, flopping down onto a ripped-up tree and buryingher face in her hands. "What do you think you're going todo with a violent giant who doesn't even want to be here!"
"Well, now — 'violent' — tha's a bit harsh," said Hagrid,still twisting his hands agitatedly. "I'll admit he mightataken a couple o' swings at me when he's bin in a badmood, but he's gettin' better, loads better, settlin' downwell. ..."
"What are those ropes for, then?" Harry asked.
He had just noticed ropes thick as saplings stretchingfrom around the trunks of the largest nearby trees towardthe place where Grawp lay curled on the ground with hisback to them.
"You have to keep him tied up?" said Hermione faintly.
"Well ... yeah ..." said Hagrid, looking anxious.
"See — it'slike I say — he doesn' really know his strength —"Harry understood now why there had been such asuspicious lack of any other living creature in this part ofthe forest.
"So what is it you want Harry and Ron and me to do?"Hermione asked apprehensively.
"Look after him," said Hagrid croakily. "After I'm gone."
Harry and Hermione exchanged miserable looks, Harryuncomfortably aware that he had already promised Hagridthat he would do whatever he asked.
"What — what does that involve, exactly?" Hermioneinquired.
"Not food or anythin'!" said Hagrid eagerly. "He can gethis own food, no problem. Birds an' deer an' stuff ... No, it'scompany he needs. If I jus' knew someone was carryin' ontryin' ter help him a bit ... teachin' him, yeh know ..."
Harry said nothing, but turned to look back at thegigantic form lying asleep on the ground in front of them.Grawp had his back to them. Unlike Hagrid, who simplylooked like a very oversize human, Grawp looked strangelymisshapen. What Harry had taken to be a vast mossyboulder to the left of the great earthen mound he nowrecognized as Grawp's head. It was much larger inproportion to the body than a human head, almost perfectlyround and covered with tightly curling, close-growing hairthe color of bracken. The rim of a single large, fleshy earwas visible on top of the head, which seemed to sit, ratherlike Uncle Vernon's, directly upon the shoulders with littleor no neck in between. The back, under what looked like adirty brownish smock comprised of animal skins sewnroughly together, was very broad, and as Grawp slept, itseemed to strain a little at the rough seams of the skins.The legs were curled up under the body; Harry could seethe soles of enormous, filthy, bare feet, large as sledges,resting one on top of the other on the earthy forest floor.
"You want us to teach him," Harry said in a hollow voice.He now understood what Firenze's warning had meant. Hisattempt is not working. He would do better to abandon it.Of course, the other creatures who lived in the forest wouldhave heard Hagrid's fruitless attempts to teach GrawpEnglish. ...
"Yeah — even if yeh jus' talk ter him a bit," said Hagridhopefully. " 'Cause I reckon, if he can talk ter people, he'llunderstand more that we all like him really, an' want him tostay. ..."
Harry looked at Hermione, who peered back at him frombetween the fingers over her face.
"Kind of makes you wish we had Norbert back, doesn'tit?" he said and she gave a very shaky laugh.
"Yeh'll do it, then?" said Hagrid, who did not seem to havecaught what Harry had just said.
"We'll ..." said Harry, already bound by his promise. "We'lltry, Hagrid. ..."
"I knew I could count on yeh, Harry," Hagrid said,beaming in a very watery way and dabbing at his face withhis handkerchief again. "An' I don' wan' yeh ter put yerselfout too much, like. ... I know yeh've got exams. ... If yehcould jus' nip down here in yer Invisibility Cloak maybeonce a week an' have a little chat with him ... I'll wake himup, then — introduce you —"
"Wha — no!" said Hermione, jumping up, "Hagrid, no,don't wake him, really, we don't need —"
But Hagrid had already stepped over the great trunk infront of them and was proceeding toward Grawp. When hewas around ten feet away, he lifted a long, broken boughfrom the ground, smiled reassuringly over his shoulder atHarry and Hermione, and then poked Grawp hard in themiddle of the back with the end of the bough.
The giant gave a roar that echoed around the silentforest. Birds in the treetops overhead rose twittering fromtheir perches and soared away. In front of Harry andHermione, meanwhile, the gigantic Grawp was rising fromthe ground, which shuddered as he placed an enormoushand upon it to push himself onto his knees and turned hishead to see who and what had disturbed him.
"All righ', Grawpy?" said Hagrid in a would-be cheeryvoice, backing away with the long bough raised, ready topoke Grawp again. "Had a nice sleep, eh?"
Harry and Hermione retreated as far as they could whilestill keeping the giant within their sights. Grawp kneltbetween two trees he had not yet uprooted. They looked upinto his startlingly huge face, which resembled a gray fullmoon swimming in the gloom of the clearing. It was asthough the features had been hewn onto a great stone ball.The nose was stubby and shapeless, the mouth lopsided andfull of misshapen yellow teeth the size of half-bricks. Thesmall eyes were a muddy greenish-brown and just nowwere half gummed together with sleep. Grawp raised dirtyknuckles as big as cricket balls to his eyes, rubbedvigorously, then, without warning, pushed himself to his feetwith surprising speed and agility.
"Oh my ..." Harry heard Hermione squeal, terrified,beside him.
The trees to which the other ends of the ropes aroundGrawp's wrists and ankles were attached creakedominously. He was, as Hagrid had said, at least sixteen feettall. Gazing blearily around, he reached out a hand the sizeof a beach umbrella, seized a bird's nest from the upperbranches of a towering pine and turned it upside down witha roar of apparent displeasure that there was no bird in it— eggs fell like grenades toward the ground and Hagridthrew his arms over his head to protect himself.
"Anyway, Grawpy," shouted Hagrid, looking upapprehensively in case of further falling eggs, "I've broughtsome friends ter meet yeh. Remember, I told yeh I might?Remember, when I said I might have ter go on a little tripan' leave them ter look after yeh fer a bit? Remember that,Grawpy?"
But Grawp merely gave another low roar; it was hard tosay whether he was listening to Hagrid or whether he evenrecognized the sounds Hagrid was making as speech. Hehad now seized the top of the pine tree and was pulling ittoward him, evidently for the simple pleasure of seeing howfar it would spring back when he let go.
"Now, Grawpy, don' do that!" shouted Hagrid. "Tha's howyou ended up pullin' up the others —"
And sure enough, Harry could see the earth around thetree's roots beginning to crack.
"I got company fer yeh!" Hagrid shouted. "Company, see!Look down, yeh big buffoon, I brought yeh some friends!"
"Oh Hagrid, don't," moaned Hermione, but Hagrid hadalready raised the bough again and gave Grawp's knee asharp poke.
The giant let go of the top of the pine tree, which swayedmenacingly and deluged Hagrid with a rain of needles, andlooked down.
"This," said Hagrid, hastening over to where Harry andHermione stood, "is Harry, Grawp! Harry Potter! He migh'be comin' ter visit yeh if I have ter go away, understand?"
The giant had only just realized that Harry and Hermionewere there. They watched, in great trepidation, as helowered his huge boulder of a head so that he could peerblearily at them.
"An' this is Hermione, see? Her —" Hagrid hesitated.Turning to Hermione he said, "Would yeh mind if he calledyeh Hermy, Hermione? On'y it's a difficult name fer him terremember. ..."
"No, not at all," squeaked Hermione.
"This is Hermy, Grawp! An' she's gonna be comin' an' all!Is'n tha' nice? Eh? Two friends fer yeh ter — GRAWPY, NO!"
Grawp's hand had shot out of nowhere toward Hermione— Harry seized her and pulled her backward behind thetree, so that Grawp's fist scraped the trunk but closed onthin air.
"BAD BOY, GRAWPY!" Harry heard Hagrid yelling, asHermione clung to Harry behind the tree, shaking andwhimpering. "VERY BAD BOY! YEH DON' GRAB — OUCH!"
Harry poked his head out from around the trunk and sawHagrid lying on his back, his hand over his nose. Grawp,apparently losing interest, had straightened up again andwas again engaged in pulling back the pine as far as itwould go.
"Righ'," said Hagrid thickly, getting up with one handpinching his bleeding nose and the other grasping hiscrossbow. "Well ... there yeh are. ... Yeh've met him an' —an' now he'll know yeh when yeh come back. Yeah ... well..."
He looked up at Grawp, who was now pulling back thepine with an expression of detached pleasure on hisboulderish face; the roots were creaking as he ripped themaway from the ground. ...
"Well, I reckon tha's enough fer one day," said Hagrid."We'll — er — we'll go back now, shall we?"
Harry and Hermione nodded. Hagrid shouldered hiscrossbow again and, still pinching his nose, led the wayback into the trees.
Nobody spoke for a while, not even when they heard thedistant crash that meant Grawp had pulled over the pinetree at last. Hermione's face was pale and set. Harry couldnot think of a single thing to say. What on earth was goingto happen when somebody found out that Hagrid hadhidden Grawp in the forest? And he had promised that he,Ron, and Hermione would continue Hagrid's totallypointless attempts to civilize the giant. ... How couldHagrid, even with his immense capacity to delude himselfthat fanged monsters were lovably harmless, fool himselfthat Grawp would ever be fit to mix with humans?
"Hold it," said Hagrid abruptly, just as Harry andHermione were struggling through a patch of thickknotgrass behind him. He pulled an arrow out of the quiverover his shoulder and fitted it into the crossbow. Harry andHermione raised their wands; now that they had stoppedwalking, they too could hear movement close by.
"Oh blimey," said Hagrid quietly.
"I thought that we told you, Hagrid," said a deep malevoice, "that you are no longer welcome here?"
A man's naked torso seemed for an instant to be floatingtoward them through the dappled green half-light. Thenthey saw that his waist joined smoothly with a horse'schestnut body. This centaur had a proud, high-cheekbonedface and long black hair. Like Hagrid, he was armed: Aquiverful of arrows and a long bow were slung over hisshoulders.
"How are yeh, Magorian?" said Hagrid warily.
The trees behind the centaur rustled and four or fivemore emerged behind him. Harry recognized the blackbodied and bearded Bane, whom he had met nearly fouryears ago on the same night he had met Firenze. Bane gaveno sign that he had ever seen Harry before.
"So," he said, with a nasty inflection in his voice, beforeturning immediately to Magorian. "We agreed, I think, whatwe would do if this human showed his face in the forestagain?"
" 'This human' now, am I?" said Hagrid testily. "Jus' ferstoppin' all of yeh committin' murder?"
"You ought not to have meddled, Hagrid," said Magorian."Our ways are not yours, nor are our laws. Firenze hasbetrayed and dishonored us."
"I dunno how yeh work that out," said Hagrid impatiently."He's done nothin' except help Albus Dumbledore —"
"Firenze has entered into servitude to humans," said agray centaur with a hard, deeply lined face.
"Servitude!" said Hagrid scathingly. "He's doin'Dumbledore a favor is all —"
"He is peddling our knowledge and secrets amonghumans," said Magorian quietly. "There can be no returnfrom such disgrace."
"If yeh say so," said Hagrid, shrugging, "but personally Ithink yeh're makin' a big mistake —"
"As are you, human," said Bane, "coming back into ourforest when we warned you —"
"Now, you listen ter me," said Hagrid angrily. "I'll haveless of the 'our' forest, if it's all the same ter you. It's not upter you who comes an' goes in here —"
"No more is it up to you, Hagrid," said Magorian smoothly."I shall let you pass today because you are accompanied byyour young —"
"They're not his!" interrupted Bane contemptuously."Students, Magorian, from up at the school! They haveprobably already profited from the traitor Firenze'steachings. ..."
"Nevertheless," said Magorian calmly, "the slaughter offoals is a terrible crime. ... We do not touch the innocent.Today, Hagrid, you pass. Henceforth, stay away from thisplace. You forfeited the friendship of the centaurs when youhelped the traitor Firenze escape us."
"I won' be kept outta the fores' by a bunch of mules likeyou!" said Hagrid loudly.
"Hagrid," said Hermione in a high-pitched and terrifiedvoice, as both Bane and the gray centaur pawed at theground, "let's go, please lets go!"
Hagrid moved forward, but his crossbow was still raisedand his eyes were still fixed threateningly upon Magorian.
"We know what you are keeping in the forest, Hagrid!"Magorian called after them, as the centaurs slipped out ofsight. "And our tolerance is waning!"
Hagrid turned and gave every appearance of wanting towalk straight back to Magorian again.
"You'll tolerate him as long as he's here, it's as much hisforest as yours!" he yelled, while Harry and Hermione bothpushed with all their might against Hagrid's moleskinwaistcoat in an effort to keep him moving forward. Stillscowling, he looked down; his expression changed to mildsurprise at the sight of them both pushing him. He seemednot to have felt it.
"Calm down, you two," he said, turning to walk on whilethey panted along behind him. "Ruddy old nags though,eh?"
"Hagrid," said Hermione breathlessly, skirting the patchof nettles they had passed on their way there, "if thecentaurs don't want humans in the forest, it doesn't reallylook as though Harry and I will be able —"
"Ah, you heard what they said," said Hagrid dismissively"They wouldn't hurt foals — I mean, kids. Anyway, we can'let ourselves be pushed around by that lot. ..."
"Nice try," Harry murmured to Hermione, who lookedcrestfallen.
At last they rejoined the path and after another tenminutes, the trees began to thin. They were able to seepatches of clear blue sky again and hear, in the distance,the definite sounds of cheering and shouting.
"Was that another goal?" asked Hagrid, pausing in theshelter of the trees as the Quidditch stadium came intoview. "Or d'you reckon the match is over?"
"I don't know," said Hermione miserably. Harry saw thatshe looked much the worse for wear; her hair was full ofbits of twig and leaves, her robes were ripped in severalplaces and there were numerous scratches on her face andarms. He knew he could look little better.
"I reckon it's over, yeh know!" said Hagrid, still squintingtoward the stadium. "Look — there's people comin' outalready — if you two hurry yeh'll be able ter blend in withthe crowd an' no one'll know you weren't there!""Good idea," said Harry. "Well ... see you later, then,Hagrid. ..."
"I don't believe him," said Hermione in a very unsteadyvoice, the moment they were out of earshot of Hagrid. "Idon't believe him. I really don't believe him. ..."
"Calm down," said Harry.
"Calm down!" she said feverishly. "A giant! A giant in theforest! And we're supposed to give him English lessons!Always assuming, of course, we can get past the herd ofmurderous centaurs on the way in and out! I — don't —believe — him!"
"We haven't got to do anything yet!" Harry tried toreassure her in a quiet voice, as they joined a stream ofjabbering Hufflepuffs heading back toward the castle. "He'snot asking us to do anything unless he gets chucked out andthat might not even happen —"
"Oh come off it, Harry!" said Hermione angrily, stoppingdead in her tracks so that the people behind her had toswerve to avoid her. "Of course he's going to be chuckedout and to be perfectly honest, after what we've just seen,who can blame Umbridge?"
There was a pause in which Harry glared at her, and hereyes filled slowly with tears.
"You didn't mean that," said Harry quietly.
"No ... well ... all right ... I didn't," she said, wiping hereyes angrily. "But why does he have to make life so difficultfor himself — for us?"
"I dunno —"
Weasley is our King,
Weasley is our King,
He didn't let the Quaffle in,
Weasley is our King ...
"And I wish they'd stop singing that stupid song," saidHermione miserably, "haven't they gloated enough?"
A great tide of students was moving up the sloping lawnsfrom the pitch.
"Oh, let's get in before we have to meet the Slytherins,"said Hermione.
Weasley can save anything,
He never leaves a single ring
That's why Gryffindors all sing:
Weasley is our King.
"Hermione ..." said Harry slowly.
The song was growing louder, but it was issuing not froma crowd of green-and-silver-clad Slytherins, but from amass of red and gold moving slowly toward the castle,which was bearing a solitary figure upon its manyshoulders. ...
Weasley is our King,
Weasley is our King,
He didn't let the Quaffle in,
Weasley is our King ...
"No!" said Hermione in a hushed voice.
"YES!" said Harry loudly.
"HARRY! HERMIONE!" yelled Ron, waving the silverQuidditch Cup in the air and looking quite beside himself."WE DID IT! WE WON!"
They beamed up at him as he passed; there was a scrumat the door of the castle and Ron's head got rather badlybumped on the lintel, but nobody seemed to want to puthim down. Still singing, the crowd squeezed itself into theentrance hall and out of sight. Harry and Hermionewatched them go, beaming, until the last echoing strains of"Weasley Is Our King" died away. Then they turned to eachother, their smiles fading.
"We'll save our news till tomorrow, shall we?" said Harry.
"Yes, all right," said Hermione wearily. "I'm not in anyhurry. ..."
They climbed the steps together. At the front doors bothinstinctively looked back at the Forbidden Forest. Harrywas not sure whether it was his imagination or not, but herather thought he saw a small cloud of birds erupting intothe air over the treetops in the distance, almost as thoughthe tree in which they had been nesting had just beenpulled up by the roots.
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