Chapter Fifteen: Hagrid's Tale
Harish felt completely dead without Quidditch. The first match he had been able to play in for a year, and he was banned for life. How did these things happen? Voldemort said that Harish lacked control over his emotions. Harish disagreed. He thought that the hag that was Umbridge just had it out for him; determined to make his life miserable.
But, Voldemort would say that he dug his own grave protesting the way she ran class to her face. Situations like that had to be dealt with—how did he put it?—delicately. Meaning, for Voldemort, that Harish had to go and do something behind her back that no one knew of. Like starting a secret army, for example.
But, as he moped about not being able to play Quidditch any longer, Ron moped about what a horrible player he was.
"This is the worst I've ever felt in my life," Ron muttered, his arms crossed.
Nearby, Dean rolled his eyes and Neville was torn between feeling sorry for his old friend and not wanting to care.
"Well," Seamus muttered quietly to Ron. "I can think of one thing that might cheer you up."
"Yeah?" Ron asked skeptically.
"Hagrid's back."
Ron hopped up from his seat and peered out the window. There was, indeed, a light lit inside the cabin and smoke furled from the chimney.
The next morning the two boys rushed down the sloping lawns to Hagrid's cabin. Ron knocked on the door and they could hear a dog barking frantically inside.
"Hagrid it's us!" Ron called through the keyhole.
"Shoulda known!" said a gruff voice.
The bolt was drawn back, the door creaked open, and Hagrid's head appeared in the gap.
"We would've come sooner," Ron said taking his eyes off Fang, Hagrid's boarhound. "but—"
He caught off at the sight of Hagrid's face.
"What happened to you?" he asked loudly.
As Hagrid invited them in and they moved out of the shadow of the cabin, they could see Hagrid's face a bit more clearly. 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 bruises There were many cuts on his face and hands, some of them still bleeding, and he was moving gingerly, which made Ron suspect broken ribs.
"It's nuthin'." Hagrid said, pouring them two cups of tea. "Where's Neville?"
"Couldn't come," Seamus muttered as Ron protested, "Come off it, you're in a right state!"
"I'm tellin' yeh, I'm fine," Hagrid grunted, straightening up and turning to beam at them, but wincing. "Blimey, it's good ter see yeh again—had good summers, did yeh?"
"Hagrid, you've been attacked!"
"Fer the las' time, it's nuthin'!"
"Would you say it was nothing if one of us turned up with a pound of mince instead of a face?" Ron demanded.
"You ought to go to Madam Pomfrey," Seamus said. "She could fix you up."
"I'm dealin' with it, all right?"
Hagrid walked across to the enormous wooden table that stood in the middle of his cabin that had been lying on it. Underneath was a raw, bloody, green-tinged steak slightly larger than the average tire.
"You're not going to eat that, are you, Hagrid?" Ron asked, leaning in for a closer look. "It looks poisonous."
"It's supposed ter look like that, it's dragon meat," Hagrid grumbled. "An' I didn't get it ter eat."
He picked up the steak and slapped it over the left side of his face. Greenish blood trickled down into his bead as he gave a soft moan of satisfaction.
"Tha's better. It helps with the stingin', yeh know."
"So are you going to tell us what's happened to you?" Seamus asked eagerly.
"Can', Seamus. Top secret. More'n me job's worth ter tell yeh that."
"Did the giants beat you up, Hagrid?" Ron pried.
Hagrid's fingers slipped on the dragon steak, and it slid squelchily onto his chest.
"Giants?" Hagrid queried, 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 been—eh?"
"We guessed," Seamus said.
"Oh, yeh did, did yeh?" Hagrid asked, fixing a stern eye on him that was not hidden by the steak.
"It was kind of…obvious," Ron said. Seamus nodded.
Hagrid glared at them and then snorted.
"Never known kids like yeh fer knowin' more'n yeh oughta," he muttered. "An' I'm not complementin' yeh, neither. Nosy, some'd call it. Interferin'."
But his beard twitched.
"So you have been to look for the giants?" Ron asked, grinning.
"Yeah, all righ'," he grunted. "I have."
"And you found them?" Seamus asked curiously.
"Well, they're not that difficult ter find, ter be honest," Hagrid replied. "Pretty big, see."
"Where are they?" Ron asked.
"Mountains," Hagrid explained simply.
"So why don't Muggles—"
"They do," Hagrid informed them darkly. "On'y their deaths are always put down ter mountaineerin' accidents, aren' they?"
He adjusted the steak a little so that it covered most of the bruising.
"Come on, Hagrid, tell us what you've been up to!" Ron exclaimed. "Tell us about being attacked by the giants and we won't pester you anymore."
"Oh, all righ'," Hagrid said in a resigned voice. "S'not like yeh won't figger it out eventually."
He took a fortifying gulp of tea and then said, "Well, we set off righ' after term ended—"
"Madame Maxime went with you, then?" Ron interjected.
"Yeah, tha's right," Hagrid replied, and a softened expression appeared on the few inches of his face that were not obscured by 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 was goin' I wondered 'ow she'd feel abou' clamberin' over boulders an' sleepin' in caves an' tha' bu' she never complained once."
"You knew where you were going?" Ron questioned. "You knew where the giants were?"
"Well, Dumbledore knew an' he told us," Hagrid said.
"Are they hidden?" Seamus asked. "Is it a secret, where they are?"
"Not really," Hagrid said, shaking his shaggy head. "It's jus' that mos' wizards aren' bothered where they are, s'long as it's a good way away. But where they are's very difficult ter get ter, fer humans anyway, so we needed instructions. Took us abou' a month ter get there—"
"A month?" Ron asked, as though he 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 squinted at Ron; it was almost pitying.
"We're bein' watched, Ron," he said gruffly.
"What d'you mean?"
"Yeh don't understand," Hagrid said. "The Ministry's keepin' an eye on Dumbledore an' anyone they reckon's in league with him, an'—"
"We know about that," Seamus said quickly, keen to hear the rest of the story. "We know about th Ministry watching Dumbledore—"
"So you couldn't use magic to get there?" Ron asked, looking thunderstruck. "You had to act like Muggles all the way?"
"Well, not exactly all the way. We jus' had ter be careful, 'cause Olympe an' me, we stick out a bit—"
Ron made a stifled noise somewhere between a snort and a sniff and hastily took a gulp of tea.
"—so we're not hard ter follow. We was pretendendin' we was 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 was bein' tailed by someone from the Ministry. We had to go slow, 'cause I'm not really s'posed ter use magic n' we knew the Ministry'd be lookin' fer a reason ter run us is. But we managed ter give the berk tailin' us the slip round abou' Dee-John.
"We chanced a bit o' magic after that, and it wasn' a bad journey. Ran inter a couple o' mad trolls on the Polish border, an' I had sligh' disagreement with a vampire in a pub in Minsk, but apart from tha', couldn'ta bin smoother."
"An' then we reached the place, an' we started trekkin' up the mountains, lookin' fer signs of 'em…
"We had to lay off the magic once we got near 'em. 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 tell them already. Told us ter be very careful of drawin' attention ter ourselves as we got nearer in case there was Death Eaters around."
Hagrid paused for a long draught of tea.
"Go on!" Ron urged.
"Found 'em," Hagrid said baldy. "Went over a ridge one nigh' an' there they was, spread ou' underneath us. Little fires burnin' below an' huge shadows…It was like watchin' bits o' mountain movin'."
"How big are they?" Ron asked in a hushed voice.
"Bout twenty feet," Hagrid replied casually. "Some o' the bigger ones mighta been twenty-five."
"And how many were there?" Seamus asked.
"I reckon abou' seventy or eighty."
"Is that all?"
"Yep," Hagrid said sadly. "eighty left, an' there was loads once, musta bin a hundred diff'rent tribes from all over the world. But they're bin dyin' out fer ages. Wizards killed a few, o' course, but mostly they killed each other, an' now they're dyin' faster than ever. They're not made ter live bunched together like tha'. Dumbledore says it's our fault, it was the wizards who forced 'em ter go inter the mountains an' they had no choice but ter stick together fer their own protection."
"So, you saw them and then what?"
"Well we waited till morning, didn't want ter go fer our own safety," Hagrid continued. "Bout three in the mornin' they jus' fell asleep jus' where they was sittin'. We didn't 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?" Ron asked, looking awestruck. "You just walked right into a giant camp?"
"Well, Dumbledore'd told us how ter do it," Hagrid said. "Give the Gurg gifts, shoe some respect, yeh know."
"Give the what gifts?" Seamus squawked.
"Oh, the Gurg—means the chief."
"How could you tell which one was the Gurg?" Ron asked.
Hagrid grunted in amusement.
"No problem," he replied. "He was the biggest, the ugliest, an' 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 of a couple o' bull elephants. Skin like rhino hide an' all."
"And you just walked up to him?"
"Well…down ter him, where he was lyin' in the valley. They was in this dip between four pretty high mountains, see, beside a mountain lake, an' Karkus was lyin' by the lake roarin' at th 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?" Ron asked incredulously.
"It was def'nitely on some of their minds," Hagrid shrugged, "but we did what Dumbledore told us ter do, which was ter hold our gift up high an' keep our eyes on th 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's feet an' we bowed an' put our present down in front o' him."
"What do you give a giant?" Ron asked eagerly. "Food?"
"Nah, he can get food all righ' fer himself. We took him magic. Giants like magic, jus' don't like us usin it against 'em. Anyway, that firs' day we gave him a branch of Gubraithian fire."
"A branch of—?"
"Everlasting fire. Dumbledore bewitched it, which isn't something' any wizard could do, an' so I lies it down in the snow by Karkus's feet and says, 'A gift to the Gurg of the giants from Albus Dumbledore, who sends his respectful greetings.'"
"And what did Karkus say?" Seamus questioned.
"Nothin'. Didn't speak English."
"You're kidding!"
"Didn' matter," Hagrid said imperturbably. "Dumbledore had warned us tha' migh' happen. Karkus knew enough ter yell fer a couple o' giants who knew our lingo an' they translated fer us."
"And did he like the present?" Ron queried.
"Oh yeah, it went down a storm once they understood what it was," Hagrid replied, 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?" Seamus inquired.
"Dumbledore wanted us ter take it very slow," Hagrid explained. "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' find 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' the simplify things. So we bowed outta the way an' went back an' this time we found Karkus sittin' up waitin' fer us lookin' all eager."
"And you talked to him?"
"Oh yeah. Firs' we presented him with a nice battle helmet—goblin made an' indestructible, yeh know—an' then we sat down an' talked."
"What did he say?"
"Not much," Hagrid said. "Listened mostly. But there were good signs. He'd heard o' Dumbledore, heard he's argued against the killin' of the last gints in Britain. Karkus seemed ter be quite int'rested in what we was sayin'. 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 day. Promised ter come back next day with another present.
"But that night it all wen' wrong."
"What d'you mean?" Ron asked quickly.
"Well, like I say, they're not meant ter live together, giants," Hagrid said 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, but…"
Hagrid sighed deeply.
"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?" Seamus asked.
"Karkus's," Hagrid replied heavily. "There was a new Gurg, Golgomath." He sighed deeply. "Well, we hadn't bargained on a new Gurg two days after we'd made friendly contact with the fir' one an' we had a funny feelin' Golgomath wouldn' be so keen ter listen to us, but we had ter try."
"You went to speak to him?" Ron asked incredulously. "After you'd watched him rip off another giant's head?"
"'Course we did," Hagrid said. "We hadn't 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'd 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' matching teeth an' necklace o' bones. Human lookin' bones some of 'em. Well, I gave it a go—held out a great roll of 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."
"How did you get out of that?"
"Wouldn'ta done if Olympe hadn' bin there," Hagrid replied. "She pulled out her wand an' did some o' the fastes' spellwork I've ever seen. Ruddy marvelous. Hit the two holdin' me right in the eyes with Conjunctivitus Curses an' they dropped me straightaway—bu' we were in trouble them, 'cause we'd used magic agains '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 camp again."
"Blimey, Hagrid," Ron said quietly.
"So how come it's taken you so long to get home if you were only there for three days?" Seamus.
"We didn' leave after three days!" Hagrid exclaimed, looking outraged. "Dumbledore was relyin' on us!"
"But you've just said there was no way you could go back!"
"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?"
"No," Hagrid replied. "I wish he had."
"What d'you mean?"
"I mean we soon found out he didn' object ter all wizards—just us."
"Death Eaters?" Ron asked.
"Yep," Hagrid explained darkly. "Couple of 'em were visitin' him ev'ry day, bringin' gifts ter the Gurg, an' he wasn' dangling them upside down."
"How d'you know they were Death Eaters?" Seamus wondered.
"Because I recognized on 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's persuaded the giants to join You-Know-Who?"
"Hold yer hippogriffs. I haven' finished me story yet!" Hagrid said indignantly, who, considering he had not wanted to tell them 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 favorin' 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?" Ron questioned.
"Well, they were the ones bein; beaten to a pulp, weren' they? The ones with any sense were keepin' outta Golgomath's way, hidin' out in caves round the gully jus' like we were. So we went pokin' round by night an' saw if we couldn' persuade a few o' 'em."
"Did you convince any to join us?" Seamus asked.
"At one point we had six or seven that looked eager teh help."
"At one point?" Ron asked.
"Golgomath's lot raided the caves. The ones tha' survived didn' wan' no more ter do with us after that."
"So…so there aren't any giants coming?" Ron asked disappointedly.
"Nope," Hagrid sighed as he turned his steak over again 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' 'em heard it an' I 'spect sine o' them'll remember it. Just maybe, them that don' want ter stay round 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…"