Harry and Danny slam the door behind them.
"Did everyone see that Grubby-Plank woman?" asks Misty. "What's she doing back here? Hagrid can't have left, can he?"
"I'll be quite glad if he has," says Luna, "he isn't a very good teacher, is he?"
"Yes, he is!" say Danny, Ron and Ginny angrily.
Harry and Danny glare at me. I clear my throat and quickly say, "Erm...yes...he's very good."
"Well, we in Ravenclaw think he's a bit of a joke," says Luna, unfazed.
"You've got a rubbish sense of humour then," Ron snaps, as the wheels below us creak into motion.
Luna does not seem perturbed by Ron's rudeness; on the contrary, she simply watches him for a while as though he is a mildly interesting television programme.
Rattling and swaying, the carriages move in convoy up the road. When we pass between the tall stone pillars topped with winged boars on either side of the gates to the school grounds, I lean forwards to try and see whether there are any lights on in Hagrid's cabin by the Forbidden Forest, but the grounds are in complete darkness. Hogwarts Castle, however, looms ever closer, a towering mass of turrets, jet black against the dark sky, here and there a window blazing fiery orange bright above us.
The carriages jingle to a halt near the stone steps leading up to the oak front doors and Harry and Danny get out of the carriage first. When I finally emerge, I turn again to look for lit windows down by the Forest, but there is definitely no sign of life within Hagrid's cabin.
Harry and Danny are staring into space right in front of the carriages, looking thoughtful.
"Are you coming or what?" says Ron beside them.
"Oh...yeah," says Harry quickly and we join the crowd hurrying up the stone steps into the castle.
The Entrance Hall is ablaze with torches and echoing with footsteps as the students cross the flagged stone floor for the double doors to the right, leading to the Great Hall and the start-of-term feast.
The four long house tables in the Great Hall are filling up under the starless black ceiling, which is just like the sky we can glimpse through the high windows. Candles float in midair all along the tables, illuminating the silvery ghosts who are dotted about the Hall and the faces of the students talking eagerly, exchanging summer news, shouting greetings at friends from other houses, eyeing one another's new haircuts and robes. Again, I notice people putting their heads together and whispering as Harry and Danny pass; I grit my teeth and try to act as though I neither notice nor care.
Luna drifts away from us at the RavenClaw table. The moment we reach the Gryffindor table, Ginny is hailed by some fellow fourth-years and left to sit with them; Harry, Danny, Ron, Hermione, Neville and I find seats together about halfway down the table between Nearly Headless Nick, the Gryffindor ghost, and Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown, the last two of whom give Harry and Danny airy, overly-friendly greetings that make me quite sure they stopped talking about him a split second before. I have more important things to worry about, however: Harry and Danny are looking over the students' heads to the staff table that runs along the top of the Hall.
"He's not there," says Danny.
Ron, Hermione and I scan the staff table too, though there is no real need; Hagrid's size makes him instantly obvious in any lineup.
"He can't have left," says Ron, sounding slightly anxious.
"Of course he hasn't," says Harry firmly.
"You don't think he's...hurt, or anything, do you?" says Hermione uneasily.
"No," says Danny at once.
YOU ARE READING
Dawn Rivera
Fanfiction"One is the lock, one is the key, one is the sacrifice the world shall shall grieve." Dawn has wanted to go to Hogwarts ever since she was a little girl, and nothing her older sister Gertrude says will discourage her. Little does she know that the m...
