Mia Potter was the other Potter. Looking almost identical to her mother, she was a force to be reckoned with. But there was only one person who could reckon with her, and his name was Draco Malfoy.
In which the youngest Potter twin finds herself fa...
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"Mia, Harry. You did everything you could."
The four friends were walking across the bridge, Harry leaning against the bannister while Mia was fiddling with her hands.
"No one could win against that old hag," Ron said as Mia looked at him. "Even Dumbledore didn't see this coming." The twins didn't say anything.
"Twins, if it's anyone's fault, it's ours," Hermione said as the twins looked at them.
"Yeah, we talked you into it," Ron said as Mia shrugged.
"Yeah, but I agreed," Mia said, "I'm sorry I dragged you guys into this. I tried so hard to help, and all it's done is make things worse."
"Anyway, that doesn't matter anymore," Harry said as Mia looked at him. "Because I don't want to play anymore. All it does is make you care too much. And the more you care, the more you have to lose. So maybe it's just better to. . . ."
"To what?" Mia asked as she looked at him.
"To go it alone," Harry said as Mia furrowed her eyebrows.
"Bit dramatic," she said as Harry looked at her. They heard a mumbling noise, and all four of them looked up and saw Hagrid peering around a corner, trying to get their attention.
"Hagrid?" Mia asked confused, nodding to her friends as they followed him.
"I 'appreciate this, you four, I do," said Hagrid as they reached the stairs. He kept looking around nervously as they walked across the lawn before the Forbidden Forest.
They had to jog to keep up with him as he strode across the lawn, looking around with every other step. When they reached his cabin, Hermione turned automatically left towards the front door. Hagrid, however, walked straight past it into the shade of the trees on the outermost edge of the Forest, where he picked up a crossbow that was leaning against a tree. When he realised they were no longer with him, he turned.
"We're goin' in here," he said, jerking his shaggy head behind him.
"Into the Forest?" said Hermione, perplexed.
"Yeah," said Hagrid. "C'mon now, quick, before we're spotted!"
Mia and Ron looked at each other, then ran into the cover of the trees behind Hagrid with Harry and Hermione following, who was already striding away from them into the green gloom, his crossbow over his arm. Mia, Harry, Ron and Hermione ran to catch up with him.
"Any idea where he's taking us?" Mia asked, confused as the others shook their heads.
"Hagrid, why can't you just tell us?" Harry called.
It was a great struggle to keep up with Hagrid, what with branches and thickets of thorn through which Hagrid marched as easily as if they were cobwebs, but which snagged Harry and Hermione's robes, frequently entangling them so severely that they had to stop for minutes at a time to free themselves. Harry's arms and legs were soon covered in small cuts and scratches. They were so deep in the Forest now that sometimes all Harry could see of Hagrid in the gloom was a massive dark shape ahead of him. Any sound seemed threatening in the muffled silence. The breaking of a twig echoed loudly and the tiniest rustle of movement, even though it might have been made by an innocent sparrow, caused Harry to peer through the gloom for a culprit. It occurred to him that he had never managed to get this far into the Forest without meeting some kind of creature; their absence struck him as rather ominous.
"Hagrid, what's going on?" Mia asked, her tone of voice matching her mother's and Hagrid stopped walking.
"I'm sorry to be so mysterious, you four," he said as Mia looked at him. "I wouldn't be bothering you at all with it, but with Dumbledore gone, I'll likely be getting the sack any day now. And I just couldn't leave without telling someone about him."
"Who's him?" Mia asked, confused.
"Grawpy," Hagrid said as he turned to look back at the gigantic form lying asleep on the ground in front of them. Unlike Hagrid, who simply looked like an oversized human, Grawp looked strangely misshapen. What Mia had taken to be a vast mossy boulder to the left of the great earthen mound he now recognised as Grawp's head. It was much larger in proportion to the body than a human head and was almost perfectly round and covered with tightly curling,close-growing hair the colour of bracken.
The rim of a single large, fleshy ear was visible on top of the head, which seemed to sit, rather like Uncle Vernon's, directly upon the shoulders with little or no neck in between. The back, under what looked like a dirty brownish stock comprised of animal skins sewn roughly together, was very broad; and as Grawp slept, it seemed to strain a little at the rough seams of the skins. The legs were curled up under the body. Mia could see the soles of enormous, filthy, bare feet, large as sledges, resting one on top of the other on the earthy Forest floor.
Hagrid had already stepped over the great tree trunk in front of them and was proceeding toward Grawp. When he was about ten feet away, he lifted a long, broken bough from the ground, smiled reassuringly over his shoulder at Mia, Harry, Ron and Hermione, then poked Grawphard in the middle of the back with the end of the bough. The giant gave a roar that echoed around the silent Forest; birds in the treetops overhead rose twittering from their perches and soared away. In front of the four, meanwhile, the gigantic Grawp was rising from the ground, which shuddered as he placed an enormous hand upon it to push himself onto his knees. He turned his head to see who and what had disturbed him.
"Oh, him," Mia said, her voice a few octaves higher as she stared at the giant.
"Down here, you great buffoon," Hagrid called, "Grawpy. Brought you some company. I couldn't just leave him, because, because he's my brother."
"Blimey," Ron said as Mia nodded in agreement.
"Well, half-brother, really," Hagrid said as Mia nodded weakly. "He's completely harmless, just like I said. Little high-spirited, is all."
Mia hesitated as two energy balls appeared in her hands as she flew up to eye level with Grawp.
"Red!" Grawp yelled as Mia chuckled Grawp gave what Mia assumed was a smile at her.
"Hi," she said laughing as she smiled. He held out his hand for Mia and the young girl floated down into his hand and smiled.
"He gets his food and all," Hagrid said as Mia smiled "It's the company he'll be needing when I'm gone. You will look after him, won't you? I'm the only family he's got." Mia smiled as the two energy balls appeared in her hands and she floated back down to the others.
