"Come on!"
"Give me a second!"
Allison was already standing at the door of the girl's dormitory, dressed in her long coat and a thick scarf, while Hermione rummaged through her drawers, pulling out one of her knitted hats which she put over her dark locks.
"Okay, I'm good," She said, linking arms with Allison, and together, they hurried back down the stairs. Ron and Harry were already waiting for them, Invisibility Cloak in hand. Ron clicked his tongue impatiently, eyeing the woollen hat on Hermione's head.
"Well, it's cold out there!" She said defensively.
They crept through the portrait hole and covered themselves hastily in the cloak - Ron had grown so much he now needed to crouch to prevent his feet showing - then, moving slowly and cautiously, they proceeded down the many staircases, pausing at intervals to check the map for signs of Filch or Mrs. Norris.
They were lucky; they saw nobody but Nearly Headless Nick, who was gliding along absentmindedly humming something that sounded horribly like "Weasley Is Our King." They crept across the entrance hall and then out into the silent, snowy grounds.
For the first time this year, they saw little golden squares of light ahead and smoke coiling up from Hagrid's chimney. Harry set off at a quick march, they were jostling and bumping along behind him, and crunched excitedly through the thickening snow until at last they reached the wooden front door; when Harry raised his fist and knocked three times, a dog started barking frantically inside.
"Hagrid, it's us!" Harry called through the keyhole.
"Shoulda known!" A gruff voice said. They beamed at one another under the cloak; they could tell that Hagrid's voice was pleased. "Bin home three seconds...Out the way, Fang... Out the way, yeh dozy dog..."
The bolt was drawn back, the door creaked open, and Hagrid's head appeared in the gap. Hermione screamed, and Allison quickly slapped her hand over Hermione's mouth, though she was not less shocked.
"Merlin's beard, keep it down!" Hagrid said hastily, staring wildly over their heads. "Under that cloak, are yeh? Well, get in, get in!"
"I'm sorry!" Hermione gasped, as the four of them squeezed past Hagrid into the house and pulled the cloak off themselves so he could see them. "I just - oh, Hagrid!"
"It's nuthin', it's nuthin'!" Hagrid put her off, shutting the door behind them and hurrying to close all the curtains, but Hermione continued to gaze up at him in horror.
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 Allison suspect broken ribs.
It was obvious that he had only just got home; a thick black travelling cloak lay over the back of a chair and a haversack large enough to carry several small children leaned against the wall inside the door.
Hagrid himself, twice the size of a normal man and three times as broad, was now limping over to the fire and placing a copper kettle over it.
"What happened to you?" Harry demanded, while Fang danced around them all, trying to lick their faces. Allison bent down and scratched him behind the ears in an unsuccessful attempt to calm him down.
"Told yeh, nuthin'," Hagrid said firmly. "Want a cuppa?"
"Come off it," Ron said, "you're in a right state!"
"I'm tellin' yeh, I'm fine," Hagrid said, straightening up and turning to beam at us all, but wincing. "Blimey, it's good ter see you four again - had good summers, did yeh?"
YOU ARE READING
WE'LL TAKE ON THE WORLD ; h.j.p.
Fanfiction─ "i won't let go with you by my side, the calm, the storm we'll face it all." She had read about love all her life. Never had she imagined she would ever experience it herself, especially with dark forces rising to power and a war approaching fast...
