𝐋𝐀𝐁𝐘𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐇 ── harry potter

xii | a double attack

ACT II — CHAPTER XII
A Dᴏᴜʙʟᴇ Aᴛᴛᴀᴄᴋ

⊱ ────── 𖥔 ✶ 𖥔 ────── ⊰

"It was Hagrid. Hagrid opened the Chamber of Secrets fifty years ago."

All of this was very hard for Quinn to understand. The night before, Harry had been writing in the diary, and it wrote back. It told him that the diary belonged to a Tom Riddle, who told him that he was, in fact, the one who caught the person who opened the Chamber of Secrets. However, a girl had died, and it looked bad for the school, and Tom was forbidden from telling the truth and the person who opened the chamber was never arrested, just expelled.

Somehow, Harry was transported into the pages of the diary, and he saw Hogwarts as it was fifty years before. He followed Tom and learned that, due to the attacks, the school almost had to close. Then, he watched Tom catch Hagrid, who was trying to protect the so-called monster.

Quinn, Harry, Ron, and Hermione had always known that Hagrid had an unfortunate liking for large and monstrous creatures. After all, just last year he had tried to raise a dragon in his little wooden hut, and it would be a long time before they forgot the giant, three-headed dog he'd christened "Fluffy."

If, as a boy, Hagrid had heard that a monster was hiding somewhere in the castle, Quinn wouldn't be surprised if he had searched it out. 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 legs; Quinn could picture a thirteen-year-old Hagrid trying to fit a leash and collar on it. But she also knew that Hagrid would never want to put anybody in harm's way, let alone kill someone.

Again and again, Quinn, Ron, and Hermione made him recount what he'd seen until he told them he was tired of saying the same thing over and over again.

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

Ron sighed, "Riddle does sound like Percy — who asked him to squeal on Hagrid, anyway?"

"Ron, the monster killed someone," Quinn said, "Someone actually died. Would you not snitch on someone who committed murder?"

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

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

"He was buying a Flesh-Eating Slug Repellent," he answered quickly.

The four of them fell silent, awkwardly looking between one another. After a long pause, Quinn posed a question that she was sure they were all thinking.

"Should we just go and ask Hagrid about this?"

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

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 incidents, they became hopeful that they would never need to talk to him about why he had been expelled.

It had been 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. Quinn's housemates no longer sent her dirty looks, her relationship with Kevin felt normal again, and Hannah Abbott once asked her to pass her a trowel in Herbology.