Fred and George and the Toilers of Trouble (Year 1) ✔

Chapter 26:12

The shift to a new memory was smooth and gradual. They found themselves in the shadow-dappled courtyard, where three professors were arguing in frantic whispers.

Professor Slughorn looked furious. "Then tell me, where is she now?" he erupted, all sense of cheerfulness missing from his doughy face. "I demand to know!"

"The toilets, quite literally. She refuses to leave," said Vindictus regrettably. "And she won't stop wailing. It's...frightening the girls."

"Oh, what does it even matter?! The Ministry of Magic intends to close the school." Slughorn paused, grinding his teeth. "Myrtle is the wisest — was the wisest student of her age. Her parents are due to arrive at any moment and her killer roams free."

"I'm trying my best, Professor," said the younger Kettleburn, despairingly. His eyelids were sagging, and blood struggled to seep through the stained patch on his head. "I'm still a new teacher. I can't be expected to know every living magical creature in all of Wizendom!"

"She's dead...and someone or some thing is to blame!" Slughorn hissed.

"Don't you think I feel responsible? It's my job to know," Kettleburn avowed. "How can the Care of Magical Creatures teacher not know how to find and defeat this beast?! I haven't slept in days!"

Behind them, walking casually under the arched entrance to the courtyard, came Tom Riddle, the tall and striking student from Slytherin House. Once again, Dumbledore and the others in the Pensieve adjusted their stance involuntarily.

"Professor Viridian, might I have a word?"

"Can it wait, Tom?"

"No," he said with a subtle inflection. "It cannot wait."

Slughorn scoffed, feeling immensely disrespected, as the two of them strode to the end of the courtyard.

"Now is not the time, Mister Riddle. Go on. What is it?

"I know who is responsible."

Viridian blinked rapidly. "For the attacks? Tell me."

"It was that third year, Rubeus Hagrid," he said without expression.

"You're mistaken," said Vindictus, looking doubtful. "He's so...innocent..."

"He's been hiding the creature in a secret chamber. It's a spider, or...more of an abomination. I've seen it personally, just last night. Attempted to destroy it myself, in fact, but Hagrid is far stronger than he appears. He wrestled away my wand. The monster escaped," the boy explained, strolling away with his hands held behind his back. He gazed off insightfully at the Quidditch pitch in the distance. "Hagrid has been dabbling in some very dark magic, Professor Viridian. I do have proof, of course. Question Madam Pince. He's been reading up on the subject of Bloodcraft since he first arrived at Hogwarts." Tom had a bleak, unyielding expression as he concluded. "He's been hoarding his research away in a room at the top of the stairwell."

"Take me there, Mister Riddle. At once," Viridian requested powerfully.

They left the courtyard. The Defense Against the Dark Arts professor followed the fifth year Slytherin into the castle, his long green robes flowing out behind them.

The scene changed. They were outside again. The cloudy sky overhead was blanketed in gloomy tufts of gray. The school grounds, however, looked like something they had never witnessed. Hundreds of students, the entire population of the school, were standing silently, each wearing their own personal glower of loathing. They were arranged in a dense circle, at the center of which stood Hagrid, Vindictus Viridian, Headmaster Dippet, Albus Dumbledore, Ogg, the squat gamekeeper, and the boney man they believed to be the caretaker.

"Er...what's happening, Professor Dumbledore?" asked George uncomfortably, as both Hagrids hung their heads in shame.

"He is being expelled."

Vindictus rolled his shoulders back and looked out on the ring of indignant students.

"By the sovereignty I have been given, and by the powers I have been entrusted to exercise as Deputy Headmaster, I declare you, Rubeus Hagrid the first, expelled from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry — effective immediately. You shall not conclude your third year. Your status as a wizard is hereby renounced. Henceforth, you are barred from practicing all forms of sorcery, enchantments, potions, and spells for the duration of your life," he said sternly. "Your wand..."

Vindictus Viridian opened his palm, and the young Hagrid handed it over, his entire body trembling.

"I had nothin' ter do with wha' happened ter Myrtle," he said sorrowfully. "Honest. If yeh'd only let me —"

A shower of light and colored sparks burst from where they were standing as Vindictus snapped Hagrid's wand. He returned the two halves and rested his hand in a disconsolate, and yet somehow comforting manner on the boy's shoulder.

"It's time to leave."

Hagrid's face screwed up in an appalling grimace. "I can' even go back an' say goodbye?" he asked in a whimper, as rain began to fall upon them in great drops.

Ogg edged forward and sheltered Hagrid in a pink umbrella, as the boy's gaze sunk to the broken wand pieces in his hands.

"You are not permitted to reenter the castle."

"I am truly sorry this had to happen," said the younger Dumbledore.

Hagrid sniffled. "Pappy died. I got nowhere ter go."

"Ogg," said Albus, tilting his head toward the gamekeeper. "You've often mentioned how difficult this job has become at your age. Perhaps you can find a place for this boy, until he can move on from here."

"I...er...might have need for an assistant, if one presented himself, Professor."

The younger Kettleburn stormed through the crowd and pulled Viridian aside. "The room at the top of the stairs — was it the Chamber of Secrets?"

"No, it was not," he said softly. "And yet the attacks have stopped since Hagrid was taken to the dungeons."

"Press him for answers," Kettleburn blurted, gesturing back to Hagrid. "He'll tell us where to find the Chamber, even if I have to force it out of him!"

"Dumbledore does not think he —"

"Albus sees the best in everyone!"

"Yes, Sylvanus, and you see the worst," said Viridian, as he gazed over at the boy. "What did he mean just then? To whom could he even say goodbye at the castle? All the students are here. They've come to watch the Expulsion Ceremony."

"Perhaps he made friends with the rats in the dungeon. Or, more likely, he wanted to go back and taunt Myrtle's ghost...revel in the kill one final time," said Professor Kettleburn, visibly repulsed. "He should be in Azkaban."

"The boy's too young," said Vindictus, as he looked out on the sea of scowling students. When the younger Kettleburn left to rejoin the other staff members, it came to him. "No...not all of the students."

He slipped away from the gathering and mounted the hill toward the castle.