𝐁𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐞 𝐀𝐦𝐞 | 𝐇.𝐏.

𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝟓 - 𝟕

Back at Hogwarts, it was like Chang and Potter had never even known each other. Potter must have said something to her, which I was grateful for, because she only gave me occasional ugly glares when I passed her in the corridor.

The four of us were sitting in the common room, working on our piles of assignments to catch up on from the break, when I noticed something out the window. Hagrid's hut had smoke coming out of the chimney. That could only mean...

I gasped and sprang up from my chair. "Hagrid's back!" I shouted. The three of them looked up at me in surprise.

"How do you know that?" Hermione asked. I pointed out the window and watched it register on each of their faces.

"Bloody hell, Hagrid's back!" Weasley jumped up. 

"Let's go!" Potter said excitedly. We ran through the corridors, getting yelled at several times by professors and prefects alike to slow down. We ignored them, and didn't stop down until we were right at his door. I raised my fist to knock, but hesitated when I heard a familiar voice.

"I will say this one last time," Umbridge said frustratedly from inside. I shared a horrified glance with the three of them. "I'm ordering you to tell me where you've been."

We all made our way as quietly as possible to the side of the hut and peeked through the windows. Umbridge's lips were pursed in annoyance and she held her infamous clipboard under her chubby little arm. Hagrid stood facing her, looking worse than I had ever seen him. He was bruised, bloody, and was holding a ginormous piece of meat to one of his eyes. Fang was growling at Umbridge like all he wanted to do was use her pink lace bow as some sort of atrocious chew toy.

"I've told you," Hagrid replied. "I've been away for me health." It was hard to believe that in the state he was in.

"Your health?" Umbridge asked, a small, cruel smile curling at the corners of her lips. 

"Yeah, bit o' fresh air, you know?" Hagrid asked hopefully.

"Oh, yes. As a gamekeeper, fresh air must be difficult to come by." Even as Umbridge was forced to crane her neck to look at Hagrid she managed to look intimidating. "If I were you, I shouldn't get too used to being back." She giggled. "In fact, I might not bother unpacking at all."

Hagrid had no response as she walked out of the hut and took out a perfume bottle. She gave herself a couple spirts, and then sprayed the front of the door with enough to drench the average human. When she was far enough away I hurried to the door again, coughing through the cloud that smelled of kitty litter and sickly flowers.

"What do you want know?" Hagrid grumbled, pushing open the door, but his eyes widened when he saw us. "It's you four!" He exclaimed. "Come in, quickly now."

We followed him inside, and I noticed his travel coat looked like it had only just been taken off, thrown across his bed carelessly. He can't have been back for more than ten minutes. After we had been made cups of tea and were all sitting around his table, he leaned in close.

"This is top secret, okay?" He began seriously. We nodded in agreement. "Dumbledore sent me to parlay with the giants," Hagrid announced, his tone of voice easy, like Dumbledore had only asked him to go pick some fresh green beans for dinner.

"Giants!" Hermione exclaimed. Hagrid shushed her hastily. "You found them?" She whispered.

"Well, they're not that hard to find to be perfectly honest," Hagrid admitted. "They're so big, see? I tried to convince them to join the cause. But I wasn't the only one who was trying to win them over."

My gut scrunched together painfully. Death Eaters that my father was in correlation with had been trying to sway the giants to the Dark Lord's side. No, Voldemort's side. I was trying to say his real name more now for Potter's sake.