Eccentric Wizard

Chapter 12: Forbidden Forest

Beta read by DOOMRAIDER

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-Hagrid's hut-

"Don know wha' ter tell yeh, laddies. I've bin cookin some o' me cakes fer years. Never seen anyone havin any issues eatin 'em." Hagrid said as he watched both me and Hermione nearly destroy our teeths from taking a single bite.

After presenting ourselves and stating that we were walking around and were curious about our school's groundskeeper—he happily invited us into his hut.

The place could be described as homey and warm. With a lit fireplace heating up a copper cauldron with some sort of soup. Pieces of ham, de-feathered pheasant with dried herbs and various other accessories hung all around the walls.

"Yeh both drink tea? I have pumpkin juice an' a bit o' water," he asked. "Though I also have some mead but yeh kids are too young ter drink any."

"Tea is fine, we don't want to disturb you too much." I said, looking at the piece of rock disguised as food.

Maybe dunking it in something hot would help me eat it in the first place.

Soon, two large mugs filled with tea were placed in front of us with Hagrid joining us sitting in his oversized wooden chair which fitted the half-giant perfectly. The floor creaked slightly under his weight, fortunately, this was his house and could easily hold the man's body weight.

"This must be me lucky year, yeh are the second pair o' kids comin' over ter visit old me. Usually, the firs' years forget tha' I exist after I lead 'em back ter the castle an' usually on'y headmaster Dumbledore an' other teachers would pay a visit."

Even if his words sounded depressive and sad, Hagrid looked happy and cheerful.

"It's a bit hard to forget about you when you are the only giant in all of Hogwarts." Hermione said, abandoning her rock cake and just going for the tea.

"And it might be because we don't see you too often. Most of the kids sometimes don't leave the castle for days and even if they did, most would just hang around somewhere nearby and not approach the Forbidden Forest."

I agreed with her words, it just happened that Hagrid's hut was located somewhere most people wouldn't visit. And it wasn't like he could relocate as he probably dealt with the dangerous critters from the forest to not approach the safe zone of Hogwarts.

"Aye, tha' is true, Hermione. Though the other three kids from Gryffindor, Ron, Neville an' Harry did pass by a few times. I gave 'em a few treats ter take away, good kids those three. It makes me happy when I see little harry make some friends, he looks more jovial here 'n his las home."

That got Hermione interested.

"You knew Harry Potter before he came to Hogwarts?"

"I did. I'm the one who brought the young lad ter his firs' visit ter the wizarding world." he said with a smile on his face.

Hagrid really was a gentle giant. With the strength to crush anyone with just his bear strength, he did care about others and wild creatures a lot. I remembered the scene when he descended from the sky in a small scooter holding a baby Harry.

If things went differently, if Dumbledore had decided to not leave Harry to grow up with the Dursleys—then Hagrid would have surely taken care of the young boy.

I realized that even if he wasn't given to the Dursleys, then Dumbledore would have just organized for another family to foster the child. Not that he didn't trust Hagrid, but the giant didn't really have any experience raising normal kids instead of wild and dangerous creatures. At least, that was what I thought his thought process to have been back then.