Half Blood Royalty

Riddle vs Hagrid

Luckily, Harry had gotten my letter by the next time I saw him in the Great Hall. As if I've had doubts- Ares is great at delivering packages in a timely matter. Probably why my dad prefers using her rather than the Hogwarts owls when he needs to get a message out. Harry, Ron, and Hermione weren't as surprised at the news than I had expected. Apparently, Hagrid had an unfortunate liking for large and monstrous creatures. They even told me about how he even tried to raise a dragon in his little wooden house last year. A story that sounded somewhat familiar to me, some details at least, from something Draco had tried telling me in the last year. His side of the story was a bit butchered, though, and I was for sure convinced he was just trying to scare me into not wanting to come to this school, myself. The three of them even told me about how he also raised a giant, three-headed dog that he had named 'Fluffy'. Just by the stories I had been told, the idea of Hagrid hiding a monster somewhere in the castle as a boy didn't seem too outstretched any longer. It had to have been him. Who else would've kept a monster as a pet at Hogwarts? Harry was sure of it as well; saying that if Hagrid, as a boy, had heard about a monster that was hidden somewhere in the castle, he'd have gone to any lengths just to catch a glimpse of it. Something about how Hagrid would've felt shame that the monster was cooped up for so long and would've wanted it to stretch its many legs.

"Although," Harry stated, "Hagrid would never have meant to actually kill anyone."

"You sure?" I asked him. A small part of me wanted to believe it. Last thing I needed was to find out I've been having tea with a man who got away with murder.

"Positive." He answered, "Did you seriously have to find out more about that diary, Melody?"

"You guys were the ones who wanted to learn more." I reminded them, "Besides, we had to find out why it was so important. We had to-"

"Still." said Ron, "You could've just assumed it was some worthless book some student discarded, and we would have never found out about Hagrid."

"So, when it's involving your friend it's bad to assume these things?" I asked him.

"What?" Ron stared at me with a blank expression on his face.

"You've spent months so sure that Draco had been causing all this with the Muggle-borns!" I almost shouted. A soft wind began to stir up around us.

"Melody." Harry pressed his inner palm into my shoulder, but I shooed his arm away.

"The only thing Draco was guilty of was being a jerk." A small part of me felt bad for calling my best friend that, but it sort of just came out. "Or maybe it was because he's apart of Slytherin house? If that was the case," I held out my wrists towards Ron, "send me to Azkaban."

"Malfoy's actions haven't seemed to stop you from staying around," Ron pursed his lips together, "Snape."

"At least I haven't gotten my father in trouble with the Ministry," I leaned forward across the table, "Weasley." Two can play this name game, Ron.

"What are you two even arguing about?" Hermione asked us.

Ron and I both turned towards her.

"Seriously," She let out a sigh, "We aren't going to get along if the two of you don't stop bickering for one second."

"And Melody doesn't need to give any reason for Snape to come check up on us." Harry chimed in.

"My father wouldn't-"

"He wouldn't want to know why the Great Hall suddenly got a little bit chilly just now?" Harry asked me.

"Maybe there was just a draft." I shrugged, "Maybe one of the ghosts came through. Maybe-"