"Sorry, Aunt Petunia."

Chapter 3: Learning Of James and Lily

"Merlin, mate, you alright?" Ron offered him instead of his usual greeting the next morning. "No one's seen you since Snape held you back! We were all so worried that he murdered you! You weren't even at dinner!"

"I ate in the Hospital Wing," Harry said before his brain had fully woken up, regretting it almost immediately.

"He sent you to the Hospital Wing?!" Neville butted in with a whisper-scream, his mind clearly running straight to the darkest scenario in which he was next.

"He just ordered me to go for a checkup." Harry tried to salvage the situation. "He didn't like how scrawny I looked."

"Can't believe I'm agreeing with the git, but you are kinda scrawny," Seamus said with his back to Harry as he changed his shirt.

"Yeah," Ron nodded, "my mum would freak out and try to feed you something immediately if she saw you."

At any point before coming to Hogwarts, Harry would have immediately taken her up on that offer. But now, the chances of that happening were low: Dumbledore clearly wasn't going to let him leave the Dursleys'.

"So, what're your plans for today?" Dean asked, utilizing the lull in conversation. "I think I'm going to go chill at the Great Lake."

"I was going to try and find the kitchens!" Ron said. "Twins always bragged that they found them in their first year, I wanna beat their record."

"Oh, crap!" Harry face-palmed. "I completely forgot about the tea with Hagrid yesterday! I've gotta go apologize to him!"

Not waiting for any response, he grabbed a change of clothes and ran to the bathroom.

"Have you noticed that he never really changes out in the open?" Seamus pointed out. "Ya think he's ashamed of his scrawniness?"

"I think it might be more than scrawniness." Neville stared at his bed sheet, Charms textbook clutched in his hands.

"What do you mean?" Dean looked up from tying his shoes.

But Neville had already made a decision, and that decision was to stop talking and leave the room.

A moment later, Harry left the bathroom, but he simply threw his clothes onto the bed and ran out of the dormitory, ignoring the boys' calls.

"I just hope he's alright," Ron said, to the murmurs of agreement from the other two.

***

Harry ran the entire way to Hagrid's hut.

It was only when he was knocking on the door that he realized that he had no plan for what to say.

"Down, Fang!" sounded from behind the door, and then it swung open, revealing the overwhelming form of Hagrid. "Hullo, Harry."

"Hi!" Harry breathed out, still trying to catch his breath. "I'm so sorry I didn't come yesterday! Professor Snape kept me after class, and then he took me to Madam Pomfrey, and-"

"It's okay, Harry." Hagrid smiled at him gently. "I'm happy you're here now. Wanna step in for a cuppa?"

"Sure!"

The inside of Hagrid's hut looked just as homey as the outside suggested.

Motioning for the boy to sit at the table, Hagrid bustled around while preparing the tea.

Harry had to sit on his hands just to stop himself from going over and trying to do the preparations for the man.

The rock cakes kind of reminded him of the cakes Mrs. Figg had always served him: opposite in consistency, as the name suggested, but equally inedible.