A Hogwarts Legend: Round Two [2]

Chapter Twenty Four

Unedited

Chapter Twenty Four - "Everything in life is either a potato or not a potato."

We've always known that Hagrid has an unfortunate liking for large and monstrous creatures. During our first year at Hogwarts he tried to raise a dragon in his little wooden house, and it's going to be a long time before we forget the giant, three-headed dog he had christened 'Fluffy'. And if, as a boy, Hagrid had heard that a monster was hidden somewhere in the castle, I'm sure he'd have gone to any lengths for a glimpse of it. He'd probably think it was a shame that the monster had been cooped up so long, and think it deserved the chance to stretch its many legs. But I'm equally certain that Hagrid would never have mean to kill anyone.

I half-wish we hadn't found out how to work Riddle's diary. Again and again the others make Harry and I recount what we had seen, until I'm sick of telling them and sick of the long, circular conversations that follow.

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

"How many monsters d'you think this place can hold?" Maya asks dully.

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

Ron tries a different tack.

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

"But the monster had killed someone, Ron," says Elinor.

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

Ron bites his lip, then says tentatively, "You met Hagrid down Knockturn Alley, didn't you, Harry?"

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

We fall silent. After a long pause, Hermione voices the knottiest question of all in a hesitant voice: "Do you think we should go and ask Hagrid about it all?"

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

"I think we'd be a bit more tactful than that," I say.

"Have you met you?" Maya asks.

In the end, we decide that we won't say anything to Hagrid unless there's another attack, and as more and more days go by with no whisper from the disembodied voice, I become more hopeful that we won't ever need to talk to him about why he was expelled. It's now been nearly four months since Justin and Nearly Headless Nick were Petrified, and nearly everybody seems to think that the attacker, whoever it is, has retired for good. Peeves has finally got tired of his 'Oh Potter, you rotter' song, Ernie Macmillan asks Harry quite politely to pass a bucket of leaping toadstools in Herbology one day (he's still scared of me), and in March several of the Mandrakes throw a loud and raucous party in Greenhouse Three. This makes Professor Sprout very happy.

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