The Other Black Book 2

Chapter 14 - Cornelius Fudge

Harry, Ron, Aurora, and Hermione had always known that Hagrid had an unfortunate liking for large and monstrous creatures. During their first year at Hogwarts he had tried to raise a dragon in his little wooden house, and it would be a long time before they forgot the giant, three-headed dog he'd christened "Fluffy." And if, as a boy, Hagrid had heard that a monster was hidden somewhere in the castle, Harry had been sure he'd have gone to any lengths for a glimpse of it.

Aurora suggested that he'd probably thought it was a shame that the monster had been cooped up so long, and thought it deserved the chance to stretch its many legs; she could just imagine the thirteen-year-old Hagrid Harry had seen trying to fit a leash and collar on it. But she was equally certain that Hagrid would never have meant to kill anybody.

Again and again Ron, Aurora, and Hermione made Harry recount what he'd seen, until he was heartily sick of telling them and sick of the long, circular conversations that followed.

"Riddle might have got the wrong person," said Hermione. "Maybe it was some other monster that was attacking people..."

"How many monsters d'you think this place can hold?" Ron asked dully.

"We always knew Hagrid had been expelled," said Harry miserably. "And the attacks must've stopped after Hagrid was kicked out. Otherwise, Riddle wouldn't have got his award."

Ron tried a different tack. "Riddle does sound like Percy — who asked him to squeal on Hagrid, anyway?"

"But the monster had killed someone, Ron," said Hermione.

"And Riddle was going to go back to some Muggle orphanage if they closed Hogwarts," said Aurora. "I don't blame him for wanting to stay here..."

"You met Hagrid down Knockturn Alley, didn't you, Harry?"

"He was buying a Flesh-Eating Slug Repellent," said Harry quickly.

The three of them fell silent. After a long pause, Hermione voiced the knottiest question of all in a hesitant voice. "Do you think we should go and ask Hagrid about it all?"

"That'd be a cheerful visit," said Ron. "'Hello, Hagrid. Tell us, have you been setting anything mad and hairy loose in the castle lately?'"

Aurora shook her head. "No, I don't think we should. I think there's something we're missing. This may be far-fetched, but what if Riddle tried to frame Hagrid?"

"You think what?"

"Think about it," Aurora said to her friends. "Hagrid has some creature in the castle. Yeah, it was a monster, but would Slytherin's monster be some... mutated spider creature? Slytherin, who was a Parselmouth, who could talk to snakes, who made the symbol of his house a snake... why would his monster that he kept hidden in the Chamber of Secrets be a spider that Hagrid watched after? We don't know what house Riddle was in, but from his performance in the headmaster's room, I wouldn't be surprised if he was a Slytherin. Hagrid was a Gryffindor, right? Why would Slytherin's heir be a Gryffindor?"

"Makes about as much sense as any of our thoughts," Harry said. "Although maybe a little less."

In the end, they decided that they would not say anything to Hagrid unless there was another attack, and as more and more days went by with no whisper from the disembodied voice, they became hopeful that they would never need to talk to him about why he had been expelled. It was now nearly four months since Justin and Nearly Headless Nick had been Petrified, and nearly everybody seemed to think that the attacker, whoever it was, had retired for good. Peeves had finally got bored of his "Oh, Potter, you rotter" song, Ernie Macmillan asked Harry quite politely to pass a bucket of leaping toadstools in Herbology one day, and in March several of the Mandrakes threw a loud and raucous party in greenhouse three. This made Professor Sprout very happy.