The Other Black Book 5

Chapter 20 - The Eye of the Snake

Hermione plowed her way back to Hagrid's cabin through two feet of snow on Sunday morning. Harry and Ron wanted to go with her, but their mountain of homework had reached an alarming height again, so they grudgingly remained in the common room. Aurora didn't think Hagrid would listen to either of them, and so she did what she'd been doing since she discovered the Room of Requirement: helping her friends.

She asked her friends from Bekker Street if any of them had any plans for the weekend, and if they didn't she would help them with various charms and spells (limiting herself to tutoring them on what they'd been learning in class), or with June practicing more advanced spells that Aurora was mastering pretty quickly. It was from June, who'd read about the charm, that Aurora had learned about Disillusioning and how to cast it.

This Sunday was another one of her and June's practices, and they split ways just before lunch. Aurora went back to her common room, hoping Hermione was back with news.

"He wasn't even there when I arrived," Hermione was saying as Aurora sat down. "I was knocking for at least half an hour. And then he came stumping out of the forest — "

Harry groaned. The Forbidden Forest was teeming with the kind of creatures most likely to get Hagrid the sack. "What's he keeping in there? Did he say?" asked Harry.

"No," said Hermione miserably. "He says he wants them to be a surprise. I tried to explain about Umbridge, but he just doesn't get it. He kept saying nobody in their right mind would rather study knarls than chimaeras — oh I don't think he's got a chimaera," she added at the appalled look on Harry, Aurora, and Ron's faces, "but that's not for lack of trying from what he said about how hard it is to get eggs. . . . I don't know how many times I told him he'd be better off following Grubbly-Plank's plan, I honestly don't think he listened to half of what I said. He's in a bit of a funny mood, you know. He still won't say how he got all those injuries. . . ."

Hagrid's reappearance at the staff table at breakfast next day was not greeted by enthusiasm from all students. Some, like Fred, George, and Lee, roared with delight and sprinted up the aisle between the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables to wring Hagrid's enormous hand; others, like Parvati and Lavender, exchanged gloomy looks and shook their heads. Aurora knew that many of them preferred Professor Grubbly-Plank's lessons, and the worst of it was that a very small, unbiased part of her knew that they had good reason: Grubbly-Plank's idea of an interesting class was not one where there was a risk that somebody might have their head ripped off.

It was with a certain amount of apprehension that Harry, Ron, Aurora, and Hermione headed down to Hagrid's on Tuesday, heavily muffled against the cold. Aurora was worried, not only about what Hagrid might have decided to teach them, but also about how the rest of the class, particularly Draco and his cronies, would behave if Umbridge was watching them.

However, the High Inquisitor was nowhere to be seen as they struggled through the snow toward Hagrid, who stood waiting for them on the edge of the forest. He did not present a reassuring sight; the bruises that had been purple on Saturday night were now tinged with green and yellow and some of his cuts still seemed to be bleeding. Aurora could not understand this: Had Hagrid perhaps been attacked by some creature whose venom prevented the wounds it inflicted from healing? As though to complete the ominous picture, Hagrid was carrying what looked like half a dead cow over his shoulder.

"We're workin' in here today!" Hagrid called happily to the approaching students, jerking his head back at the dark trees behind him. "Bit more sheltered! Anyway, they prefer the dark. . . ."

"What prefers the dark?" Aurora heard Draco say sharply to Crabbe and Goyle, a trace of panic in his voice. "What did he say prefers the dark — did you hear?"