Silver Hourglass

The Snake and the Giant Chapter 45

Harry felt as though he were carrying some kind of talisman inside his chest over the following two weeks, a glowing secret that supported him through Umbridge's classes and even made it possible for him to smile blandly as he looked into the horrible bulging eyes. He and the D.A. were resisting her under her very nose, doing the very thing that she and the Ministry most feared, and whenever he was supposed to be reading Wilbert Slinkhard's book during her lesson he dwelled instead on satisfying memories of their most recent meetings, remembering how Neville had successfully disarmed Hermione, how Colin had mastered the Impediment Jinx after three meetings' hard effort, and how Theo produced such a good Reductor Curse that he had reduced the table carrying all the Sneakoscopes to dust.

He was finding it almost impossible to fix a regular night of the week for D.A. meetings, as they had to accommodate three separate Quidditch teams' practices. Harry was almost relieved that he and Draco weren't on the Slytherin teams anymore, as that would certainly make scheduling impossible.

Hermione soon devised a very cleaver method of communicating the time and date of the next meeting to all the members in case they needed to change it at short notice, she gave all the members a fake Galleon whose numbers on the edge would change for meetings.

The first match between Slytherin and Gryffindor was coming up, and Harry found he couldn't get himself excited for it. Ever since he was kicked off the team, Harry found that he just wasn't as excited for Quidditch as everyone else was. He went to watch the game, sitting with the Gryffindors along with Draco as they watched the Gryffindor team fly around the Quidditch pitch, out-pacing the inexperienced Slytherin team. Harry felt a small amount of joy as he watched Gryffindor win against Slytherin, though he still felt out of place just watching it. After the game, Harry was walking back to the castle when Hermione and Ron ran up to him. "Harry!" Hermione yelled.

"What is it?" Harry asked quickly, turning around to see his flushed friends.

"Hagrid's back," Hermione said.

Harry immediately started to sprint towards Hagrid's hut, with Ron and Hermione catching quickly, and true to Hermione's word there was light coming from Hagrid's hut. Harry raised his fist and knocked three times, a dog started barking frantically inside.

"Hagrid, it's us!" Harry called through the keyhole.

"Shoulda known!" said a gruff voice.

They beamed at one another, they could tell that Hagrid was pleased. "Bin home three seconds ...Out the way, Fang ...Out the way, yeh dozy dog ..."

The bolt was drawn back, the door creaked open, and Hagrid's head appeared in the gap. Hermione screamed. "Merlin's beard, keep it down!" Hagrid said hastily, staring wildly over their heads. "Well, get in, get in! Hope you brought your Cloak Harry."

"It's in my bag," Harry said as the three walked in.

"I'm sorry!" Hermione gasped, "I just—oh, Hagrid!"

"It's nuttin', it's nuttin'!" Hagrid said hastily, shutting the door behind them and hurrying to close all the curtains, but Hermione continued to gaze at him in horror.

Hagrid's hair was matted with congealed blood, and his left eye had been reduced to a puffy slit amid a mass of purple-and-black bruises. There were many cuts on his face and hands, some of them still bleeding, and he was moving gingerly, which made Harry suspect broken ribs. It was obvious that he had only just got home; a thick black traveling cloak lay over the back of a chair and a haversack large enough to carry several small children leaned against the wall inside the door.

"What happened to you?" Harry demanded, while Fang danced around all of them, trying to lick their faces.

"Told yeh, nuthin'," Hagrid said firmly. "Want a cuppa?"