Faery Heroes

Chapter 37: Hagrid's Return

Harry and Hermione trudged through the knee-high snow, the cold staining their exposed cheeks and noses red. The grounds were empty besides the two of them; the rest of the student body was gathered inside the castle following the Ravenclaw–Hufflepuff Quidditch match that morning, probably filling their bellies with warm cocoa, and Luna had begged off so she could read through the various notes Augustus Rookwood had taken for Voldemort concerning their next target. So, alone, they made their way to the small cabin located at the edge of the school, where for the first time in months a stream of smoke rose from the chimney.

Hagrid was back.

"He's late," the young man muttered as he tried to tug his coat out of his girlfriend's grasp to keep himself warm. Hermione was, despite her fervent denials, a certified blanket hog in the winter months; he and Luna often had to let her have the covers on the bed while they pulled more out of the linen cabinet for the two of them. Stealing his jacket, however, was an all-new low. "In the old timeline, he returned in November."

"I know. Maybe he ran into more trouble this time?" Shivering from more than just the cold, Hermione tried to push deeper into his warmth. "I'm not looking forward to this."

"Neither am I, to be perfectly honest." The last time the pair of them had spoken to Hagrid was about a year before the Third Voldemort War began, and it had ended with the half-giant almost literally throwing them out of the house. Harry had always considered the big man a friend, but when forced to choose between believing him and Dumbledore, Hagrid had made his position clear. As far as the Groundskeeper and Care professor was concerned, the Leader of the Light was and always would be infallible.

They therefore approached the tall wooden door with some trepidation; this Hagrid would not remember the heated arguments they had exchanged, but their opinion of the elderly headmaster had fallen even farther since that day. Harry raised his fist and let it slam against the door once, twice, thrice. A loud barking echoed from the small building, and a gruff voice shouted, "Who's there?!"

"Father Christmas and his tropical island girlfriend; who do you think it is, Hagrid?! Let us in, will you? It's cold out here!"

"I shoulda known it'd be yeh!" The door swung open, revealing the homeowner in all his ten-foot-tall glory. One beetle-black eye gazed down at the pair fondly, the other squeezed shut behind a number of bruises, while his nose now resembled Dumbledore's own bent snout. The dark beard that normally adorned his chin had been completely shaved off to showcase the lumpy left side of his jaw, and the wide neck of his shirt allowed the time-travelers to see a multitude of bandages peeking out from where they were wrapped around his chest. Seemingly unaware of Harry's shocked inspection, Hagrid slapped him on the back nearly hard enough to send him to the floor before he reached around him to pull Hermione into a crushing hug for a few moments, finally dropping her to the ground so she could take a full breath. "An' Hermione, too! Where's Ron, though?" he asked, sticking his head through the open doorway and peering about as if expecting the redhead to suddenly appear from thin air.

Which, considering the number of times we used the Cloak to visit, isn't exactly an impossibility. "He's not coming," Harry answered as he dropped into one of the human-sized chairs clustered around the rough table. "We… had a bit of a falling out this summer."

Hagrid frowned in concern before he moved over to the fire and hung a copper kettle over it. "Tha's too bad. What happened?"

"He got it into his head that I belonged to him," Hermione snapped, her displeasure with the entire Weasley family making itself known. She scowled and softened her tone before continuing, "When he found out that Harry and I had started dating, he didn't exactly take it well."