Malfoy

Cornelius Fudge

Harry had told us about his discovery. According to Riddle and his diary, Hagrid had been the one to let out the monster that had killed someone 50 years ago. Hagrid was the heir of Slytherin.

I didn't want to believe it, Hagrid had always been nice to me. To everyone. He couldn't be responsible for the attacks, he wouldn't...

But, it was no secret that Hagrid enjoyed keeping strange animals as pets, like Fluffy, or Norbert. Maybe the monster was his but he hadn't done it on purpose?

"Riddle might have got the wrong person," Hermione suggested after Harry retold us the story again. "'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," Harry added miserably. "And the attacks must've stopped after Hagrid was kicked out. Otherwise, Riddle wouldn't have got his award."

Ron wasn't much of a fan of Riddle.

"Riddle does sound like Percy–who asked him to grass on Hagrid, anyway?"

"But the monster had killed someone, Ron," Hermione reminded him.

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

I could tell he sympathized with Riddle for wanting to stay here at Hogwarts instead of going 'home', honestly, I empathized with Riddle too.

"You met Hagrid down Knockturn Alley, didn't you, Harry?" Ron asked referring to when we'd gone to Diagon Alley before school.

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

The three of us fell silent, thinking about Hagrid and the monster. Whether or not it was really Hagrid, the friendly man who made us tea and rock cakes.

"Do you think we should go and ask Hagrid about it all?" Hermione asked the question we'd all been thinking.

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

We decided that we wouldn't talk about it with Hagrid unless there was another attack. Everything seemed to be getting a bit better, the Mandrakes were growing up and it had been four months since the last attack.

~~

The second years were given something else to think about over the Easter holidays. We were choosing our subjects for third year, and like anything related to school, Hermione took it very seriously.

"It could affect our whole future," She told us as we looked over the list of subjects. Checking ones we may be interested in and crossing out others we didn't want.

"I just want to give up Potions," Harry sighed, honestly if I could I wouldn't have minded not doing potions. No more Snape wouldn't that be wonderful.

"We can't," Ron told him shaking his head in disappointment. "We keep all our old subjects, or I'd've ditched Defence Against the Dark Arts."

"But that's important!" Hermione gasped shocked.

"Not the way Lockhart teaches it," Ron said. "'I haven't learned anything from him except not to set pixies loose."

"I learned that his favourite colour is lilac with his second favourite colour being turquoise," I reminded them and Harry and Ron laughed. I shook my head and laughed a little as well.