Mission to the Giant Colony

It had been a while since Umbridge put any Educational Decrees, but she gave many detentions. The D.A. lessons benefited them much more than Umbridge’s books. It was late in the night and the trio and Albert were sitting in the Ravenclaw Common Room. Olivia looked out of the window and with a great leap of her heart, she saw little golden squares of light ahead and smoke coiling up from Hagrid's chimney. 

‘Good news, Hagrid’s back,’ she said.

Olivia and Amelia set off at a quick march, the other two jostling and bumping along behind them. They crunched excitedly through the thickening snow until at last they reached the wooden front door of Hagrid’s hut. When Isabell raised her fist and knocked three times, a dog started barking frantically inside.

'Hagrid, it's us!' Isabell called through the keyhole.

'Shoulda known!' said a gruff voice. 'Bin home three seconds... out the way, Fang... out the way, yeh dozy dog...'

The bolt was drawn back, the door creaked open and Hagrid's head appeared in the gap.

Amelia yelled in surprise. 

'Merlin's beard, keep it down!' said Hagrid hastily, staring wildly over their heads. ‘Well, get in, get in!'

'I'm sorry,' Amelia gasped, as the four of them squeezed past Hagrid into the house 

'I just — Hagrid!' Olivia gasped loudly.

'It's nuthin', it's nuthin'!' said Hagrid hastily, shutting the door behind them and hurrying to close all the curtains, but Olivia continued to gaze up at him in horror.

Hagrid's hair was matted with congealed blood and his left eye had been reduced to a puffy slit amid a mass of purple and black bruising. There were many cuts on his face and hands, some of them still bleeding, and he was moving gingerly, which made the trio and Albert suspect broken ribs.

It was obvious that he had only just got home: a thick black travelling cloak lay over the back of a chair and a haversack large enough to carry several small children leaned against the wall inside the door. Hagrid himself, twice the size of a normal man, was now limping over to the fire and placing a copper kettle over it.

'What happened to you?' Isabell demanded, while Fang danced around them all, trying to lick their faces.

'Told yeh, nuthin',' said Hagrid firmly. 'Want a cuppa?'

'Come off it,' said Olivia, 'You're in a right state!'

'I'm tellin' yeh, I'm fine,' said Hagrid, straightening up and turning to beam at them all, but wincing. 'Blimey, it's good ter see yeh four again — had good summers and winters, did yeh?'

'Hagrid, you've been attacked!' said Amelia, horrified.

'Fer the las' time, it's nuthin'!' said Hagrid firmly.

'Would you say it was nothing if one of us turned up with a pound of mince instead of a face?' Isabell demanded.

Hagrid muttered something and poured water into his kettle. 

‘Tell us why you’ve been away for almost four months!’ Isabell demanded, shoving away Fang angrily, who was trying to lick her face.

'You ought to go and see Madam Pomfrey, Hagrid,' said Olivia anxiously. ‘Some of those cuts look very nasty, you know.'

'I'm dealin' with it, all righ’?'  said Hagrid repressively.

He walked across to the enormous wooden table that stood in the middle of his cabin and twitched aside a tea towel that had been lying on it.

Underneath was a raw, bloody, green-tinged steak slightly larger than the average car tyre.

'You're not going to eat that, are you, Hagrid?' said Amelia, leaning in for a closer look. 'It looks poisonous.'

 'It's s'posed ter look like that, it's dragon meat,' Hagrid said. 'An' I didn' get it ter eat.'

‘It’s supposed to-’ began Olivia.

Hagrid picked up the steak and slapped it over the left side of his face.

Greenish blood trickled down into his beard as he gave a soft moan of satisfaction.

'That’s better. It helps with the stingin', yeh know.’

'So, are you going to tell us what's happened to you?' Amelia asked.

'Can't, Amelia. Top secret. More'n me job's worth ter tell yeh that.'

'Did the giants beat you up, Hagrid?' asked Albert quietly.

Hagrid's fingers slipped on the dragon steak and it slid squelchily onto his chest.

'Giants?' said Hagrid, catching the steak before it reached his belt and slapping it back over his face, 'Who said anythin' abou' giants? Who yeh bin talkin' to? Who's told yeh what I've- who's said I've bin- eh?'

'I guessed,' said Albert apologetically.

'Oh, yeh did, did yeh?' said Hagrid, surveying him sternly with the eye that was not hidden by the steak.

'It was kind of... obvious,' said Olivia.

Isabell and Amelia nodded.

Hagrid glared at them, then snorted, threw the steak back onto the table and strode over to the kettle, which was now whistling.

'Never known kids like you four fer knowin' more'n yeh oughta,' he muttered, splashing boiling water into three of his bucket-shaped mugs. 'An' I'm not complimentin' yeh, neither. Nosy, some call it. Interferin'.'

But his beard twitched.

'So you have been to look for giants?' said Albert, grinning as he sat down at the table.

Hagrid set tea in front of each of them, sat down, picked up his steak again and slapped it back over his face.

'Yeah, all righ',' he grunted, 'I have.'

'And you found them?' said Olivia in a hushed voice.

'Well, they're not that difficult ter find, ter be honest,’ said Hagrid. 'Pretty big, see.'

'Where are they?' said Isabell.

 'Mountains,' said Hagrid unhelpfully.

'So why don't Muggles-?'

'They do,' said Hagrid darkly. 'On'y their deaths are always put down ter mountaineerin' accidents, aren' they?'

He adjusted the steak a little so that it covered the worst of the bruising.

'Come on, Hagrid, tell us what you've been up to!' begged Amelia.

'Tell us about being attacked by the giants and we can tell you about Umbridge from the ministry-'

Hagrid choked in his mug and dropped his steak at the same time;

a large quantity of spit, tea and dragon blood was sprayed over the table as Hagrid coughed and spluttered and the steak slid, with a soft splat, onto the floor.

'Whadda yeh mean, from the ministry?' growled Hagrid.

'Didn't you know?' Amelia asked him, wide-eyed.

'I don' know anythin' that's bin happenin' since I left. I was on a secret mission, wasn' I, didn' wan' owls followin' me all over the place — ruddy Bridge or whatever their name is! Yeh're not serious?' 

'Yeah, I am, Umbridge turned up and the Ministry is interfering with Hogwarts-'

'WHAT?'

'...and she gave us detentions and everything, but tell us about the giants first.'

'Yeh had detentions for what?'

'Tell us about your summer and we'll tell you about Hogwarts,' Amelia simply replied. 

Hagrid glared at them through his one open eye. The trio looked right back, an expression of innocent determination on their faces.

'Oh, all righ',' Hagrid said in a resigned voice.

He bent down and tugged the dragon steak out of Fang's mouth.

'Oh, Hagrid, don't, it's not hygienic-' Olivia began, but Hagrid had already slapped the meat back over his swollen eye.

He took another fortifying gulp of tea, then said, 'Well, we set off righ' after term ended — '

'Madame Maxime went with you, then?' Amelia interjected. ‘That tall teacher of the French school last year?’ 

'Yeah, that's righ',' said Hagrid, and a softened expression appeared on the few inches of face that were not obscured by his beard or green steak. 'Yeah, it was jus' the pair of us. An' I'll tell yeh this, she's not afraid of roughin' it, Olympe. Yeh know, she's a fine, well-dressed woman, an' knowin' where we were goin'. I wondered how she'd feel abou' clamberin' over boulders an' sleepin' in caves an' tha', bu' she never complained once.'

'You knew where you were going?’ Isabell repeated. 'You knew where the giants were?'

'Well, Durnbledore knew, an' he told us,' said Hagrid.

'Are they hidden?' asked Albert. 'Is it a secret, where they are?'

'Not really,' said Hagrid, shaking his shaggy head. 'It's jus' that mos' wizards aren' bothered where they are, as long as it's a good long way away. But where they are is very difficult ter get ter, fer humans anyway, so we needed Dumbledore's instructions. Took us abou' a month ter get there-'

'A whole month?' said Isabell, as though she had never heard of a journey lasting such a ridiculously long time. 'But why couldn't you just grab a Portkey or something?'

There was an odd expression in Hagrid's unobscured eye as he surveyed the trio and Albert; it was almost pitiful.

'We're bein' watched, Isabell,' he said gruffly.

'What d'you mean?' Isabell snapped.

'Yeh don' understand,' said Hagrid. 'The Ministry's keepin' an eye on Dumbledore an' anyone they reckon is in league with 'im, an'-'

'We know about that,' said Amelia quickly, keen to hear the rest of Hagrid's story. 'We know about the Ministry watching Dumbledore-'

'So you couldn't use magic to get there?'  interrupted Isabell, looking thunderstruck. 'You had to act like Muggles all the way?'

'Well, not exactly all the way,' said Hagrid cagily. 'We jus' had ter be careful, 'cause Olympe an' me, we stick out a bit.'

Isabell made a stifled noise somewhere between a snort and a sniff and hastily took a gulp of tea, hiding her laughing. 

'So, we're not hard ter follow. We were pretendin' we were goin' on holiday together, so we got inter France an' we made like we was headin' fer where Olympe's school is, 'Cause we knew we were bein' tailed by someone from the Ministry. We had to go slow, 'cause I'm not really s'posed ter use magic an' we knew the Ministry'd be lookin' fer a reason ter run us in. But we managed ter give the berk tailin' us the slip round abou' Dee-John-'

'Oh, Dijon?' said Albert, surprised. 'I've been there on holiday, did you see the-?'

He fell silent at the look on Amelia's face.

'We chanced a bit o' magic after that an' it wasn' a bad journey. Ran inter a couple o' mad trolls on the Polish border an' I had a sligh' disagreement with a vampire in a pub in Minsk, bu' apart from that, it couldn't have been smoother. 'An' then we reached the place, an' we started trekkin' up through the mountains, lookin' fer signs of 'em … We had ter lay off the magic once we got near 'em. Partly 'cause they don' like wizards an' we didn' want ter put their backs up too soon, an' partly 'cause Dumbledore had warned us You-Know-Who was bound ter be after the giants an' all. Said it was odds on he'd sent a messenger off ter them already. Told us ter be very careful of drawin' attention ter ourselves as we got nearer in case there were Death Eaters around.' 

Hagrid paused for a long draught of tea. 

'Go on!' said Amelia urgently. 

'Found 'em,' said Hagrid baldly. 'Went over a ridge one nigh' an' there they were, spread ou' underneath us. Little fires burnin' below an' huge shadows ... it was like watchin' bits o' the mountain movin'.' 

'How big are they?' asked Olivia in a hushed voice. 

‘‘Bout twenty feet,' said Hagrid casually.

'Some o' the bigger ones mighta bin twenty-five.' 

'And how many were there?' asked Isabell eagerly.

'I reckon abou' seventy or eighty,' said Hagrid. 

'Is that all?' said Albert, quite disappointedly. 

'Yep,' said Hagrid sadly, 'eighty left, an' there were loads once, musta been a hundred diff'rent tribes from all over the world. Bu' they've bin dyin' out fer ages. Wizards killed a few, o' course, bu' mostly they killed each other, an' now they're dyin' out faster than ever. They're not made ter live bunched up together like tha'. Dumbledore says it's our fault, it was the wizards who forced 'em to go an' made 'em live a good long way from us an' they had no choice but ter stick together fer their own protection.' 

'So…' said Ameia. 'You saw them and then what?' 

'Well, we waited till morning, didn' want ter go sneakin' up on 'em in the dark, fer our own safety,' said Hagrid. 'Bout three in the mornin' they fell asleep jus' where they was sittin'. We didn' dare sleep. Fer one thing, we wanted ter make sure none of 'em woke up an' came up where we were, an' fer another, the snorin' was unbelievable. Caused an avalanche near mornin'. Anyway once it was light we wen' down ter see 'em.' 

'Just like that?' said Isabell, looking awestruck. 'You just walked right into a giant camp?' 

'Well, Dumbledore'd told us how ter do it,' said Hagrid. 'Give the Gurg gifts, show some respect, yeh know.' 

'Give the what gifts?' asked Amelia, baffled. 

'Oh, the Gurg- means the chief, I think,' Isabell responded.

Hagrid nodded his hairy head and drank more of his tea.  

'How could you tell which one was the Gurg?' asked Albert. 

Hagrid grunted in amusement. 

'No problem,' he said. 'He was the biggest, the ugliest and the laziest  Sittin' there waitin' ter be brought food by the others. Dead goats an' such like. Name o' Karkus. I'd put him at twenty-two, twenty-three feet an' the weight o' a couple o' bull elephants. Skin like rhino hide an' all.' 

'And you just walked up to him?' said Olivia breathlessly. 

'Well ... down ter him, where he was lyin' in the valley. They were in this dip between four pretty high mountains, see, beside a mountain lake, an' Karkus was lyin' by the lake roarin' at the others ter feed him an' his wife. Olympe an' I went down the mountainside-'

'But didn't they try and kill you when they saw you?' asked Isabell incredulously. 

'It was definitely on some o' their minds,' said Hagrid, shrugging slightly. 'But we did what Dumbledore told us ter do, which was ter hold our gift up high an' keep our eyes on the Gurg an' ignore the others. So tha's what we did.

An' the rest of 'em went quiet an' watched us pass an' we got right up ter Karkus leet an we bowed an' put our present down in front o' him.'

'What do you give a giant?' asked Isabell eagerly. 'Food?'

Amelia and Olivia laughed. 

'Nah, he can get food all righ' fer himself,' said Hagrid. 'We took him magic. Giants like magic, jus' don' like us usin' it against 'em. Anyway, that firs' day we gave 'im a branch o' Gubraithian fire.'

‘Wow!’ Olivia said softly, but Amelia, Isabell and Albert all frowned in puzzlement.

'A branch of-?'

'Everlasting fire,' said Olivia irritably, 'You ought to know that by now. Professor Flitwick's mentioned it at least twice in class! Isabell, you kept playing with a quill, Amelia was too busy scowling at Draco and Albert was… I dunno!'

'Well, anyway,' said Hagrid quickly, intervening before anyone could answer Olivia back, 'Dumbledore'd bewitched this branch to burn fer evermore, which isn' somethin' any wizard could do, an' so I lies it down in the snow by Karkuss feet and says, "A gift to the Gurg of the giants from Albus Dumbledore, who sends his respectful greetings."'

'And what did Karkus say?' asked Amelia eagerly.

'Nothin',' said Hagrid. 'Didn' speak English.'

'You're kidding!' Isabell said in disbelief. 

'Didn' matter,' said Hagrid imperturbably, 'Dumbledore had warned us that migh' happen. Karkus knew enough to yell fer a couple o' giants who knew our language an' they translated fer us.'

'And did he like the present?' asked Albert.

'Oh, yeah, it went down a storm once they understood what it was,' said Hagrid, turning his dragon steak over to press the cooler side to his swollen eye. Very pleased. So then I said, "Albus Dumbledore asks the Gurg to speak with his messenger when he returns tomorrow with another gift.”'

'Why couldn't you speak to them that day?' asked Olivia.

'Dumbledore wanted us ter take it very slow,' said Hagrid. 'Let 'em see we kept our promises We'll come back tomorrow with another present, an' then we do come back with another present — gives a good impression, see? An' gives them time ter test out the firs' present an' fnd out it's a good one, an' get 'em eager fer more. In any case, giants like Karkus — overload 'em with information an' they'll kill yeh jus' to simplify things. So we bowed outta the way an' went off an' found ourselves a nice little cave ter spend that night in an' the followin' mornin' we went back an' this time we found Karkus sittin' up waitin' fer us lookin' all eager.'

'And you talked to him?' Olivia said. 

'Oh, yeah. Firs' we presented him with a nice battle helmet — goblin-made an' indestructible, yeh know — an' then we sat down an' we talked.'

'What did he say?' Albert asked. 

'Not much,' shrugged Hagrid. 'Listened mostly. Bu' there were good signs. He'd heard o' Dumbledore, heard he'd argued against the killin' o' the last giants in Britain.  Karkus seemed ter be quite interested in what Dumbledore had ter say. An' a few o' the others, 'specially the ones who had some English, they gathered round an' listened too. We were hopeful when we left that day. Promised ter come back next mornin' with another present… Bu' that night it all wen' wrong.'

'What d'you mean?' said Isabell quickly, the suspense intensifying. 

'Well, like I say, they're not meant ter live together, giants,' said Hagrid sadly. 'Not in big groups like that. They can' help themselves, they half kill each other every few weeks. The men fight each other an' the women fight each other; the remnants of the old tribes fight each other, an' that's even without squabbles over food an' the best fires an' sleepin' spots. Yeh'd think, seein' as how their whole race is abou' finished, they'd lay off each other, bu’...'

Hagrid sighed deeply, the trio and Albert looking up at him eagerly. 

‘That night a fight broke out, we saw it from the mouth of our cave, lookin' down on the valley. Went on fer hours, yeh wouldn' believe the noise. An' when the sun came up the snow was scarlet an' his head was lyin' at the bottom o' the lake.'

'Whose head?' gasped Olivia.

'Karkus's,' said Hagrid heavily. 'There was a new Gurg, Golgomath.'  

He sighed deeply again. 

'Well, we hadn' bargained on a new Gurg two days after we'd made friendly contact with the firs' one, an' we had a funny feelin' Golgomath wouldn' be so keen ter listen to us, bu' we had ter try.'

'You went to speak to him?' asked Isabell sceptically. 'After you'd watched him rip off another giant's head?'

'Course we did,' said Hagrid, 'we hadn' gone all that way ter give up after two days! We wen' down with the next present we'd meant ter give ter Karkus. I knew it was no go before I opened me mouth. He was sitting there wearin' Karkus's helmet, leerin' at us as we got nearer. He's massive, one o' the biggest ones there. Black hair an' matchin' teeth an' a necklace o' bones. Human-lookin' bones, some of 'em. Well, I gave it a go, held out a great roll o' dragon skin, an' said, "A gift fer the Gurg of the giants-” Nex' thing I knew, I was hangin' upside-down in the air by me feet, two of his mates had grabbed me.'

Olivia and Amelia clapped their hands to her mouth.

'How did you get out of that?' Albert quietly asked.

'Wouldn'ta done if Olympe hadn' been there,' said Hagrid. 'She pulled out her wand an' did some o' the fastes' spellwork I've ever seen. Ruddy marvellous. Hit the two holdin' me right in the eyes with Conjunctivitus Curses an' they dropped me straight away — 'bu' we were in trouble then, 'cause we'd used magic against 'em, an' that's what giants hate abou' wizards.  We had ter leg it an' we knew there was no way we was going ter be able ter march inter the camp again.'

‘Merlin’s beard, Hagrid, you had to go through all that!' said Isabell quietly.

‘How come it's taken you so long to get home if you were only there for three days?' asked Amelia, bewildered.

'We didn' leave after three days!’ said Hagrid, looking outraged. 'Dumbledore was relyin' on us!'

'But you've just said there was no way you could go back!' Albert said.

'Not by daylight we couldn', no.  We just had ter rethink a bit.

Spent a couple o' days lyin' low up in the cave an' watchin'.

An' wha' we saw wasn' good.'

'Did he rip off more heads?’ asked Olivia, sounding squeamish.

'No,' said Hagrid, 'I wish he had.'

'What d'you mean? You wanted to watch giants die-'

'I mean, we soon found out he didn' object ter all wizards — 'just us.'

‘Death Eaters?’ said Amelia at once. 

'Yep,' said Hagrid darkly. 'Couple oi 'em were visitin' him every day, bringin' gifts ter the Gurg, an' he wasn' dangling them upside-down.'

'How d'you know they were Death Eaters?' said Isabell.

'Because I recognised one of 'em,' Hagrid growled. 'Macnair, remember him? Bloke they sent ter kill Buckbeak? Maniac, he is. Likes killin' as much as Golgomath; no wonder they were gettin' on so well.'

'So Macnair has persuaded the giants to join You-Know-Who?' said Amelia desperately.

'Hold yer hippogriffs, I haven' finished me story yet-!' said Hagrid indignantly, who, considering he had not wanted to tell them anything in the first place, now seemed to be rather enjoying himself. 'Me an' Olympe talked it over an' we agreed, jus' 'cause the Gurg looked like favourin' You-Know-Who didn' mean all of 'em would. We had ter try an' persuade some o' the others, the ones who hadn' wanted Golgomath as Gurg.'

'How could you tell which ones they were?' asked Isabell.

'Well, they were the ones bein' beaten to a pulp, weren' they?' said Hagrid patiently. 'The ones with any sense were keepin' outta Golgomath's way, hidin' out in caves roun' the gully jus' like we were. So we decided we'd go pokin' round the caves by night an' see if we couldn' persuade a few o' them.'

'You went poking around dark caves looking for giants?' said Isabell, with awed respect in her voice.

'Well, it wasn' the giants who worried us most,' said Hagrid. 'We were more concerned abou' the Death Eaters. Dumbledore had told us before we wen' not ter tangle with 'em if we could avoid it, an' the trouble was they knew we was around. I suspect Golgomath told 'em abou' us. At night, when the giants were sleepin' an' we wanted ter be creepin' inter the caves, Macnair an' the other one were sneakin' round the mountains lookin' fer us. I was hard put to stop Olympe jumpin' out at 'em,' said Hagrid, the corners of his mouth lifting his wild beard, 'she was rarin' ter attack 'em ... she's somethin' when she's roused, Olympe... fiery, yeh know...'spect it's the French in her...'

Hagrid gazed misty-eyed into the fire, and took a sip. 

The trio and Albert allowed him thirty seconds of reminiscence before Amelia cleared her throat loudly.

'So, what happened? Did you ever get near any of the other giants?' Olivia said eagerly.

'Oh ... oh, yeah, we did. Yeah, on the third night after Karkus was killed we crept outta the cave we'd bin hidin' in an' headed back down inter the gully, keepin' our eyes skinned fer the Death Eaters. Got inside a few o' the caves, no go, then, in abou' the sixth one, we found three giants hidin'.'

'Cave must've been cramped,' said Albert.

'Wasn' room ter swing a Kneazle,' said Hagrid.

'Didn't they attack you when they saw you?’ asked Olivia.

'Probably woulda done if they'd bin in any condition,' said Hagrid. 'But they was badly hurt, all three o' them; Golgomath's lot had beaten 'em unconscious; they'd woken up an' crawled inter the nearest shelter they could find. Anyway, one o' them had a bit of English an' 'e translated fer the others, an' what we had ter say didn' seem ter go down too badly. So we kep' goin' back, visitin' the wounded... I reckon we had abou' six or seven o' them convinced at one poin'.'

'Six or seven?' said Isabell eagerly.

'Well that's not bad. Are they going to come over here and start fighting You-Know-Who with us?'

But Olivia said, 'What do you mean "at one point", Hagrid?'

Hagrid looked at her sadly.

'Golgomath's lot raided the caves. The ones tha' survived didn' wan' no more ter to do with us after that.'

'So ... so there aren't any giants coming?' said Olivia, looking disappointed.

'Nope,' said Hagrid, heaving a deep sigh as he turned over his steak and applied the cooler side to his face, 'But we did wha' we meant ter do, we gave 'em Dumbledore's message an' some o' them heard it an' I spect some o' them'll remember it.’

Jus' maybe, them that don' want ter stay around Golgomath'll move outta the mountains, an' there's gotta be a chance they'll remember Dumbledore's friendly to 'em ... could be they'll come.'

Snow was filling up the window now, blocking them from seeing what was outside. Amelia became aware that the knees of his robes were soaked through: Fang was drooling with his head in Amelia's lap.

'Hagrid?' said Olivia quietly after a while.

'Mmm?'

'Did you... was there any sign of... did you hear anything about your... your... mother while you were there…?'

Hagrids unobscured eye rested upon her and Olivia looked rather scared.

'I'm sorry… I... forget it-'

'Dead,' Hagrid simply grunted. 'Died years ago. They told me.'

'Oh... I'm... I'm really sorry,' said Olivia in a very small voice.

 'No need,' he said shortly. 'Can't remember her much. Wasn' a great mother.'

They were silent again. Oliva glanced nervously at Isabell, Amelia and Albert, plainly wanting them to speak.

'But you still haven't explained how you got in this state, Hagrid,' Amelia said, gesturing towards Hagrid's bloodstained face.

'Or why you're back so late,' said Albert. 'I heard Harry say that Sirius told him that Madame Maxime got back ages ago-'

'Who attacked you?' said Isabell.

'I haven' been attacked!' said Hagrid emphatically.

 'I-'

There was a sudden knock on the door, and the trio and Albert saw pink particles of perfume snake their way through the crack of the wooden door. They knew that smell only too well. Hagrid shoved them to go hide in a small room in the corer and shut the door behind them. 

‘What is she doing here!’ Isabell whisper-shouted. 

Olivia gasped; her mug slipped through her fingers and smashed on the floor. Fang yelped. All five of them stared at the window beside the doorway. The shadow of somebody small and squat rippled across the thin curtain.

'Get under here!’ Hagrid whisper-shouted as he pointed under the table. 

Fang was barking madly at the door. Hagrid looked thoroughly confused.

'Hagrid, hide our mugs!' Amelia said desperately.

Hagrid seized her, Isabell and Albert's mugs and shoved them under the cushion in Fang's basket. Fang was now leaping up at the door. Hagrid pushed him out of the way with his foot and pulled it open.

Professor Umbridge was standing in the doorway wearing her pink tweed cloak and a matching pink beret. Lips pursed, she leaned back so as to see Hagrid's face; she barely reached his waist.

 'So,' she said slowly and loudly, as though speaking to somebody deaf. 'You're Rubeus Hagrid, are you?'

Without waiting for an answer she strolled into the room, her wide, bulging eyes rolling in every direction, scanning Hagrid’s hut. 

'Get away!' she snapped, waving her handbag at Fang, who had bounded up to her and was attempting to lick her face.

'Er- I don' want ter be rude,' said Hagrid, staring at her. ‘But who in Merlin’s beard are you?'

'My name is Dolores Umbridge.'

Her eyes were now sweeping the cabin. Twice they stared directly under the table, where the trio and Albert were sandwiched together.

'Dolores Umbridge?' Hagrid said, sounding thoroughly confused, then remembered that Amelia had mentioned the name “Umbridge”.  'I thought you were one o' them Ministry- don' you work with Fudge?'

'I was Senior Undersecretary to the Minister, indeed ,' said Umbridge, now marching around the cabin, taking in every tiny detail within, from the haversack against the wall to the abandoned travelling cloak in a corner. 'I am now the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher of-'

'That's brave of yeh,' said Hagrid, 'There's not many'd take that job any more.'

'-and Hogwarts High Inquisitor,' said Umbridge, giving no sign that she had heard him.

'What's that?’ said Hagrid, frowning.

'Precisely what I was going to ask,' said Umbridge, pointing at the broken shards of china on the floor that had been Olivia's mug.

'Oh,' said Hagrid, with a most unhelpful glance towards the table where the trio and Albert bent hidden. 'Oh, that was ... was Fang. He broke a mug. So I had ter use this one instead.'

Hagrid pointed to the mug from which he had been drinking, one hand still clamped over the dragon steak pressed to his eye. Umbridge stood facing him now, taking in every detail of his appearance instead of the cabins. The bruises, the green ooze on her beard. 

'I heard voices,' she said, giggling at the end. 

'I was talkin' ter Fang,' said Hagrid uncomfortably.

 'And was he talking back to you?' Umbridge asked sweetly.

'Well... in a manner o' speakin',' said Hagrid, looking uncomfortable. 'I sometimes say Fang's near enough human and all-'

'There are four sets of footprints in the snow leading from the castle doors to your cabin,' said Umbridge sleekly.

Olivia gasped; Albert quickly clapped a hand over her mouth. Luckily, Fang was sniffing loudly around the hem of Professor Umbridge's pink robes and she did not appear to have heard.

'Well, I only jus' got back,' said Hagrid, waving an enormous bloodied hand at the haversack.

'Maybe someone came ter call earlier an' I missed 'em.'

'There are no footsteps leading away from your cabin door.'

'Well, I...  I don' know why that'd be...' said Hagrid nervously, tugging at his beard and again glancing towards the table where the trio and Albert were under, as though asking for help.

'Erm...'

Umbridge wheeled round and strode the length of the cabin, looking around carefully. She bent and peered under the table, though she almost fell when Fang jumped over here and seated himself on it as though he knew that was where the trio and Albert were. 

‘Filthy dog,’ Umbridge muttered to herself as she removed some drool on her pink cloak.  She opened Hagrid's cupboards. After looking carefully inside the enormous cauldron Hagrid used for cooking, she wheeled round again and said, 'What has happened to you? How did you sustain such nasty injuries?'

 Hagrid hastily removed the dragon steak from his face, which in Harry's opinion was a mistake, because the black and purple bruising all around his eye was now clearly visible, not to mention the large amount of fresh and congealed dragon blood on his face.

'Oh, I... had a bit of an accident,' he said lamely.

'What sort of accident?'

'I-I tripped.'

'You tripped,' she repeated coolly.

'Yeah, that's right. Over... over a friend’s broomstick. I don' fly, meself, ’course yeh’d know that. Just look at the size o' me, I don' reckon there's a broomstick that'd hold me.Friend o' mine breeds Abraxan horses, I dunno if you ve ever seen em, big beasts, winged, yer know, I've had a bit of a ride on one o' them an' it was-'

'Where have you been?’ asked Umbridge, cutting coolly through Hagrid's useless stammering.

'Where've I-’

'Been, yes,' she said, glaring at him with bulging eyes. 'First term started four months ago. Another teacher has had to cover your classes. Professor Grubbly-Plank. None of your colleagues has been able to give me any information as to your whereabouts. You left no address. Where have you been?'

There was a pause in which Hagrid stared at her with his newly uncovered widened eye. The trio and Albert could almost hear his brain working furiously from the thick silence. 

'I- I've been away for me health,' he said after a while. 

'For your health,' repeated Professor Umbridge, as her eyes scanned over Hagrid's discoloured and swollen face; dragon blood dripping slowly and silently onto his brown waistcoat.

 'I see...'

'Y-yeah,' said Hagrid. ‘Bit o'-o' fresh air, yeh know-'

'Yes, as a gamekeeper’s fresh air must be so difficult to come by' said Umbridge sweetly as she adjusted her beret.

The small patch of Hagrid's face that was not black or purple, but it flushed red.

'Well— change o' scene, yeh know— '

'Mountain scenery?' said Umbridge swiftly.

She knows, Isabell thought desperately.

'Mountains?’ Hagrid repeated, clearly thinking fast. 'Nope, South o' Francefer me.

Bit o' sun an' ... an' sea.'

'Really?’ said Umbridge. 'You don't have much of a tan.'

'Yeah... well... sensitive skin, see,' said Hagrid, attempting an ingratiating smile.

The trio and Albert noticed that two of his teeth had been knocked out. Umbridge looked at him coldly; his smile flattened. Then she hoisted her handbag a little higher into the crook of her arm. 

'I shall, of course, be informing the Minister of your late but welcoming return.'

'Righ'...' said Hagrid, nodding.

'You ought to know, too, that as High Inquisitor it is my unfortunate but necessary duty to inspect my fellow teachers. So I daresay we shall meet again soon enough.'

She turned sharply and walked back to the door.

'You're inspectin' us?' Hagrid repeated blankly, looking after her.

'Ah, yes,' said Umbridge softly, looking back at him with her hand on the rusty door handle. 'The Ministry is determined to weed out unsatisfactory teachers, Hagrid. Goodnight.'

She left, closing the door behind her with a thud! 

Amelia had the urge to get out of the room but Isabell seized her wrist.

'Not yet,' she breathed in her ear. 'She might not be gone yet.'

Hagrid seemed to be thinking the same way, for he stumped across the room and pulled back the curtain an inch or so, his puffy eye scanning what was outside. 

'She's goin' back ter the castle,' he said in a low voice. 'Blimey... inspectin' teachers, is she?'

‘Yeah,' said Isabell. 'I hear Trelawney, our Divination teacher, is on probation already...'

'Um... what sort of thing are you planning to do with us in class, Hagrid?' asked Olivia worriedly.

'Oh, don' you worry abou' that, I've got a great load o' lessons planned,' said Hagrid enthusiastically, scooping up his dragon steak from the table and slapping it over his bruised eye again. 'I've bin keepin' a couple o' creatures saved fer yer O.W.L year; you wait, they're somethin' really special.'

'Erm ... special in what way?' asked Albert tentatively.

'I'm not sayin',' said Hagrid cheerfully. 'I don' want ter spoil the surprise.'

'Look, Hagrid,' said Amelia urgently, dropping all pretence. 'Professor Umbridge won't be at all happy if you bring anything to class that's too dangerous. You can get sacked for all we know!'

'Dangerous?' said Hagrid, looking genially bemused and ignoring Amelia’s last sentence. 'Don' be silly, I wouldn' give yeh anythin' dangerous! I mean, all righ', they can look after themselves, but-'

'Hagrid, you've got to pass Umbridge's inspection, and to do that it would really be better if she saw you teaching us how to look after Porlocks, how to tell the difference between Knarls and hedgehogs, stuff like that!' said Olivia earnestly.

'But tha's not very interestin', Olivia,' said Hagrid. 'The stuff I've got's much more impressive. I've bin bringin' 'em on fer years, I reckon I've got the only domestic herd in Britain.'

Isabell’s gut was telling her that Hagrid had a point. 

'Hagrid... please...'  said Olivia, a tone of real desperation in her voice.

'Umbridge is looking for any excuse to get rid of teachers she thinks are too close to Dumbledore. Please, Hagrid, teach us something dull that's bound to come up in our O.W.L. Please…'

But Hagrid merely yawned widely and cast a one-eyed look of longing towards the vast bed in the corner. Olivia looked at him, taken aback. 

'Lis'en, it's bin a long day an' it's late,' he said, patting Olivia gently on the shoulder, so that her knees gave way and hit the floor with a thud.

Albert helped her get up. 

'Oh, sorry-' 

He pulled her back up by the neck of her robes before Albert had the chance to help. 'Look, don' you go worryin' abou' me, I promise yeh I've got really good stuff planned fer yer lessons now I'm back... now you lot had better get back up to the castle, an' don' forget ter wipe yer footprints out behind yeh, alrigh’?'

'I dunno if you got through to him,' said Amelia, a short while later when, having checked that the coast was clear, they walked back up to the castle through the thickening snow, leaving no trace behind them due to the Obliteration Charm Isabell was performing as they walked towards Hogwarts. 

'Then I'll go back again tomorrow,' said Olivia determinedly, crossing her arms.