Clara Black and the Hidden Chamber

Failures and Screw-ups

WARNING! THIS IS A TRIGGER WARNING! THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS ABUSE BY A PARENT AND SELF DEPRECIATING THOUGHTS! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK! PLEASE I DON'T WANT TO ACCIDENTALLY HURT ANYONE WITH THIS CHAPTER!

Worst thing about what Harry'd seen was how it was easy to believe. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I always knew Hagrid had a strange obsession with large and monstrous creatures. During our first year at Hogwarts he had tried to raise a dragon in his wooden house, and I doubt that I'll ever forget the giant, three-headed dog he'd Christened "Fluffy". It's all too easy to picture a thirteen year old Hagrid looking for a monster supposedly hidden in the castle. He most likely thought it was a shame it'd been cooped up so long, and probably thought it deserved a chance to stretch it's legs. As easy as it is to picture, I'm also dead certain Hagrid didn't mean to kill anyone.

Again and again Ron and Hermione made Harry recount what he'd seen, until both Harry and I were sick of the long, circuitous conversations that followed. I just want to burn the memory out of my brain and move on.

"Riddle might have got the wrong person," said Hermione. "Maybe it was some other monster that was attacking people. . . ."

"That's hard to believe. How many monsters can this castle hold?" I asked, tossing a paper ball in the air, and catching it again.

"We always knew Hagrid had been expelled," said Harry miserably. "And the attacks must've stopped after Hagrid was kicked out. Otherwise Riddle wouldn't have got his award."

Ron tried to a different tack.

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

"The monster killed a little girl, Ron." I reminded him.

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

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

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

All four of us fell silent. After a lengthy pause, Hermione voiced the question all of us were wondering, but didn't want to say aloud. 

"Do you think we should go and ask Hagrid about it all?"

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

In the end, we decided we wouldn't say anything to Hagrid unless there was another attack, and as more and more days went by without any incidents, we became hopeful that we would never need to talk to Hagrid about why he had been expelled. It's been 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. Peeves was finally tired of his "Oh, Potter, you rotter" song, Ernie Macmillan very politely asked Harry to pass a bucket of leaping toadstools in Herbology one day, and in March several of the Mandrakes threw a loud and wild party in greenhouse three. This made Professor Sprout very happy.

"The moment they start trying to move into each other's pots, we'll know they're fully mature," She told Harry and I, "Then we'll be able to revive those poor people in the hospital wing."

*Time Skip* by Emma throwing books like Snape

The second years were all given something to ponder over the Easter holidays. The time had come to choose our subjects for third year, a matter that Hermione, at least, took very seriously. 

"It could affect our whole future," she told Harry, Ron, and I as we poured over lists of new subjects, marking them with checks.

"I just want to give up Potions," said Harry.