Dark

Chapter 22

Eleanor
By the time I woke up on Boxing Day I felt drained. It was as though I hadn’t slept at all. Not even my win the previous night had settled my mind. As the fogginess of sleep cleared, thoughts of the Yule Ball sprang back to me.
Why did I show up at all? Why did I have to be paired with Malfoy? Why did he seem so interested in my reasoning for not wanting to go to the Ball in the first place?
The longer I knew Malfoy, the harder it was to figure him out. One second I was completely certain that he hated me. Then the next moment I couldn’t tell anymore. Rather than continue to think about it, I opted to make my way to the Great Hall, three pieces of parchment clutched in my hand.
In my overwhelming dread over having to attend the Yule Ball, I had forgotten that yesterday was Christmas. I’ve never celebrated the holiday before, but I had heard that it was a pretty big deal to most people. I didn’t have any money to buy presents, but sometimes the best thing you can give to someone is information, and not a physical possession.
As always, Harry was seated with Ron and Hermione at the Gryffindor table. As it was a holiday, I wasn’t dressed in my school uniform and the t-shirt I was wearing left the scars trailing my arm quite visible. As I approached the table and I noticed a number of heads turn my way.
“Hello, Eleanor.” Hermione said as I reached the stretch of table she, Harry, and Ron were seated at.
The mention of my name brought Harry’s attention around to me, he turned to face me. He opened his mouth to say something but I immediately cut him off. I was tired of questions about the Ball and my lack of a date and my reasons for not wanting to go.
“I just realized that I forgot to give you these yesterday.” I held up the scraps of parchment in my hand. I handed them each their respective piece before continuing on. “I don’t have money for gifts, so this will have to do. Merry – er – late Christmas.”
The three of them looked up at me, confused.
“I know it isn’t really anything…but I was just…trying to be thoughtful.” This was a lot more awkward than I had anticipated. “Yours, Hermione, is a list of books I’ve gone through in the library that are really fascinating. I thought you’d like to read them sometime. For you Ron, I listed everything you need to include in that potions essay that’s due back to Snape at the beginning of next term. And Harry, that’s a clue to help you with the egg. I’m still not happy with you, so I’m not going to tell you what the clue in the egg is, but you should be able to figure it out pretty easily now.”
They kept looking down at the parchment I had handed each of them, and then looking back up at me. I thought I had done something nice, but their reaction wasn’t exactly what I had expected. I suppose if I’m being honest with myself I didn’t know how they would react. I just wanted someone to say something simple like, “Thank you,” so that I could politely end our awkward interaction and leave.
“Er…thanks.” Ron was the first to speak, a smile slowly playing out across his features. “This is…this is awesome!”
“Oh…” at least someone liked their gift.
“What did you get for Christmas?” He asked.
I noticed Harry shift awkwardly in his seat. Suddenly I knew why he at least wasn’t sure how to react to my gift.
“Nothing.” I answered. It was true, I hadn’t received anything for Christmas. It was the same as every other Christmas I had experienced. “It’s fine though, I’ve never gotten a present before. So I didn’t have my hopes up or anything.”
As soon as I had said this, the smile faded from Ron’s face.
“You didn’t get anything?” Hermione asked me quietly, a look of guilt crossing her eyes. “From anyone?”
“No, but like I said…I’ve never gotten presents before…so…” I had been hoping the moment that Ron had shown appreciation for his gift that I could make my way out of their presence, but the situation just became even stranger with that one little question he had asked. “I’m going to leave now. Merry Christmas, again…Late Christmas…”
I had suddenly felt that it would have been better to not give them anything just to have avoided that interaction all together.

Harry
I didn’t hear from Eleanor for the remainder of the holidays after she had given me the hint about the golden egg. She hadn’t been the only person to mention water though. The night of the Yule Ball, Cedric had suggested that I use the prefect’s bathroom to “mull things over in the water.” I wasn’t sure how water was supposed to help me discover the egg’s clue. I hadn’t bothered taking their advice yet, I still had plenty of time.
I was somewhat pleased that Eleanor hadn’t been around much. I hadn’t thought to give her anything for Christmas, and I hadn’t expected her to give me anything either. What struck me odd about the entire encounter was that she had said she didn’t have any money for gifts. Our parents had left behind a small fortune in Gringotts, I just assumed that she had access to it. Once the thought had crossed my mind though, I started to realize that all of Eleanor’s robes and textbooks appeared to be second-hand. They were more worn down, like Ron’s and Ginny’s things.
What really worried Hermione and Ron was Eleanor’s apparent contentedness with the fact that she hadn’t received any gifts for Christmas. Hermione had given me an ear full about not having given her anything. To be fair though, what could I have even given her to begin with? I know almost nothing about her, and no one else seemed to know a whole lot more either. Other than the fact that Eleanor had apparently been living in an orphanage her whole life, I had no real information on her. I wouldn’t have even known that fact if it hadn’t been for her confrontation with Rita Skeeter.
The next time I was anywhere near Eleanor we were in our first Care of Magical Creatures lesson of the new term.
“Hurry up, now, the bell rang five minutes ago,” a woman barked from just outside Hagrid’s cabin. What in the world is she doing here? More importantly, where is Hagrid?
“Who’re you?” Ron asked. “What’s happened to Hagrid?”
“My name is Professor Grubbly-Plank,” the woman said briskly. “I am your temporary Care of Magical Creatures teacher.”
“Where’s Hagrid?” I asked loudly.
“He is indisposed,” Grubbly-Plank said shortly.
There was a collection of quiet laughter coming from the group of Slytherin students. I shot a nasty look in their direction, annoyed by their complete disregard for Hagrid. I noticed that Eleanor was standing farther back from the rest of the Slytherins, once again alone. Why is she by herself so often? Why doesn’t she have a coat on? It’s freezing out here.
“This way please,” Professor Grubbly-Plank said as she strode around the paddock where the Beauxbatons horses were shivering.
As the class rounded the paddock a unicorn came into view at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, tethered to a tree.
“Oh it’s so beautiful!” Lavender Brown whispered. “How did she get it? They’re supposed to be really hard to catch.”
“Boys keep back!” Grubbly-Plank barked. “They prefer the woman’s touch, unicorns. Girls to the front, and approach with care, come on, easy does it…”
Hermione stepped forward with the rest of the class and I took the opportunity to speak to Ron without worrying about the new Professor.
“Why isn’t Hagrid out here?” I asked him.
“I don’t know. What could be wrong with him? You don’t think a skrewt –?” Ron started to answer.
“Oh he hasn’t been attacked, Potter, if that’s what you’re thinking.” Malfoy stepped towards us and as I looked his way I caught sight of Eleanor again, standing farther back from everyone and completely avoiding approaching the unicorn with the rest of the girls. “No, he’s just too ashamed to show his big, ugly face.”
“What do you mean?” I asked sharply.
Malfoy put a hand into his robe pocketed and pulled out a folded page of newsprint.
“There you go,” he said with a smirk. “Hate to break it to you, Potter…”
I took the newsprint from him and read through it with Ron looking at it over my shoulder.
DUMBLEDORE’S GIANT MISTAKE
Albus Dumbledore, eccentric headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, has never been afraid to make controversial staff appointments, writes Rita Skeeter, Special Correspondent. In September of this year, he hired Alastor “Mad-Eye” Moody, the notoriously jink-happy ex-Auror, to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts, a decision that caused many raised eyebrows at the Ministry of Magic, given Moody’s well-known habit of attacking anybody who makes a sudden movement in his presence. Mad-Eye, however, looks responsible and kindly when set beside the part-human Dumbledore employs to teach Care of Magical Creatures.
Rubeus Hagrid, who admits to being expelled from Hogwarts in his third year, has enjoyed the position of gamekeeper at the school ever since, a job secured for him by Dumbledore. Last year, however, Hagrid used his mysterious influence over the headmaster to secure the additional post of Care of Magical Creatures teach, over the heads of many better-qualified candidates.
An alarmingly large and ferocious-looking man, Hagrid has been using his newfound authority to terrify the students in his care with a succession of horrific creatures. While Dumbledore turns a blind eye, Hagrid has maimed several pupils during a series of lessons that many admit to being “very frightening”.
“I was attacked by a hippogriff, and my friend Vincent Crabbe got a bad bite off a flobber-worm,” says Draco Malfoy, a fourth-year student. “We all hate Hagrid, but we’re just too scared to say anything.”
Hagrid has no intention of ceasing his campaign of intimidation, however. In a conversation with a Daily Prophet reporter last month, he admitted breeding creatures he has dubbed “Blast-Ended Skrewts,” highly dangerous crosses between manitcores and fire-crabs. The creation of new breeds of magical creature is, of course, an activity usually closely observed by the Department for the Regulation and Controil of Magical Creatures. Hagrid, however, considers himself to be above such petty restrictions.
“I was just having some fun,” he says, before hastily changing the subject.
As if this were not enough, the Daily Prophet has now unearthed evidence that Hagrid is not – as he has always pretended to be – a pure-blood wizard. He is not, in fact, even pure human. His mother, we can exclusively reveal, is none other than the giantess Fridwulfa, whose whereabouts are currently unknown.
Bloodthirsty and brutal, the giants brought themselves to the point of extinction by warring amongst themselves during the last century. The handful that remained joined the ranks of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, and were responsible for some of the worst mass Muggle killings of his reign of terror.
While many of the giants who served He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named were killed by Aurors working against the Dark Side, Fridwulfa was not among them. It is possible she escaped to one of the giant communities still existing in foreign mountain ranges. If his antics during Care of Magical Creatures lessons are any guide, however, Fridwulfa’s son appears to have inherited her brutal nature.
In a bizarre twist, Hagrid is reported to have developed a close friendship with the boy who brought around You-Know-Who’s fall from power – thereby driving Hagrid’s own mother, like the rest of You-Know-Who’s supporters, into hiding. Perhaps Harry Potter is unaware of the unpleasant truth about his large friend – but Albus Dumbledore surely has a duty to ensure that Harry Potter, along with his fellow students is warned about the dangers of associating with part-giants.
“How did she find out?” Ron whispered.
I was wondering the same thing. Towards the end of the Yule Ball Ron and I had gone outside and accidentally overheard Hagrid talking to Madame Maxine. He had mentioned being a half-giant, something he had never told us himself before. We knew for a fact that no one else was there, so how Rita Skeeter of all people could have found out didn’t make sense. However, that wasn’t the biggest concern on my mind in that moment.
“What do you mean, ‘we all hate Hagrid’?” I spat at Malfoy. “What’s this rubbish about him getting a bad bite off of a flobberworm? They haven’t even got teeth!”
“Well I think this should put an end to the oaf’s teaching career,” Malfoy said, his eyes glinting. “Half-giant…and there was me thinking he’d just swallowed a bottle of Skele-Gro when he was young…None of the mummies and daddies are going to like this at all…They’ll be worried he’ll eat their kids or –“
‘Or what’ I never heard. At that moment Eleanor appeared, shoving her wand into Malfoy’s neck and glaring maliciously at him. I hadn’t even noticed her approach us.
“One more word from you today, Malfoy, and I won’t hesitate to hurt you.” She said through clenched teeth.
Malfoy swallowed nervously as he looked down at Eleanor. His expression seemed to be a mixture of confusion and utter fear.
“What does it matter to you?” He asked quietly.
“It doesn’t matter why, it just matters.” She answered simply as she slowly withdrew her wand from Malfoy’s neck and returned it to her robe pocket. “You need to learn when to keep our mouth shut.”
With that, Eleanor returned to where she had been standing before, apart from the rest of the class, including her fellow Slytherins.
“I love when she threatens Malfoy.” Ron snickered beside me.
I couldn’t help but smile and laugh a little as well. Of all the things Malfoy could be scared of, it ended up being a girl who was a year younger than us and more than a head shorter than him.