Emma Potter; Going to War

45:Hagrid's Brother's [Pt.2]

"Sleepin'," breathed Hagrid.

 Sure enough, I could hear a distant, rhythmic rumbling thatsounded like a pair of enormous lungs at work. I glanced sidewaysat Hermione, who was gazing at the mound with her mouth slightlyopen. She looked utterly terrified. 

"Hagrid," she said in a whisper barely audible over the sound of thesleeping creature, "who is he?" 

I found this an odd question. . . . "What is it?" was the one I had been planning on asking. 

"Hagrid, you told us," said Hermione, her wand now shaking inher hand, "you told us none of them wanted to come!" 

I bit my lip as I also looked back at the mound with a small gasp of horror.The great mound of earth, on which me,Harry, Hermione, and Hagridcould easily have stood, was moving slowly up and down in time withthe deep, grunting breathing. It was not a mound at all. It was thecurved back of what was clearly . . .

 "Well — no — he didn' want ter come," said Hagrid, soundingdesperate. "But I had ter bring him, Hermione, I had ter!" 

"But why?" asked Hermione, who sounded as though she wantedto cry. "Why — what — oh, Hagrid!" 

"I knew if I jus' got him back," said Hagrid, sounding close to tears himself, "an' — an' taught him a few manners — I'd be able ter takehim outside an' show ev'ryone he's harmless!" 

"Harmless!" said Hermione shrilly, and Hagrid made frantic hushing noises with his hands as the enormous creature before themgrunted loudly and shifted in its sleep. "He's been hurting you all thistime, hasn't he? That's why you've had all these injuries!" 

"He don' know his own strength!" said Hagrid earnestly. "An' he'sgettin' better, he's not fightin' so much anymore —"

 "So this is why it took you two months to get home!" I said distractedly. "Oh Hagrid, why did you bring him back ifhe didn't want to come, wouldn't he have been happier with his ownpeople?" 

"They were all bullyin' him, Emma, 'cause he's so small!" saidHagrid.

 "Small?"I said, starting to freak out too. "Small?" 

"Emma, I couldn' leave him," said Hagrid, tears now tricklingdown his bruised face into his beard. "See — he's my brother!Yeh get tha' don' yeh?"

 I simply stared at him, my mouth open. 

"Hagrid, when you say 'brother,' " said Harry slowly, "do youmean — ?" 

"Well — half-brother," amended Hagrid. "Turns out me mothertook up with another giant when she left me dad, an' she went an' hadGrawp here —" 

"Grawp?" said Harry.

 "Yeah . . . well, tha's what it sounds like when he says his name,"said Hagrid anxiously. "He don' speak a lot of English. . . . I've bintryin' ter teach him. . . . Anyway, she don' seem ter have liked himmuch more'n she liked me. . . . See, with giantesses, what counts isproducin' good big kids, and he's always been a bit on the runty sidefer a giant — on'y sixteen foot —"

 "Oh yes, tiny!"I said, with a kind of hysterical sarcasm."Absolutely minuscule!"

"He was bein' kicked around by all o' them — I jus' couldn' leavehim —"

 "Did Madame Maxime want to bring him back?" asked Harry. 

"She — well, she could see it was right importan' ter me," said Hagrid, twisting his enormous hands. "Bu' — bu' she got a bit tired ofhim after a while, I must admit . . . so we split up on the journeyhome. . . . She promised not ter tell anyone though. . . ."