Pure

Moving Forward

"I hope yer tea is hot enough."

"Oh, yes. Yes it is. Thank you," I said, glancing into the bottom of the cup with no intentions of taking a sip. There was an indistinguishable chunk of something floating around near the brim.

"So, er, what brings you ter visit tonight of all nights. I'da thought that ye'd be settlin' in or brushing up yer facts for the first day o'classes," said Hagrid with a wink. I sighed.

"I just wanted to get a nice cup of tea," I scrounged to remember what had happened that night so many months ago. "And actually, I er... was hoping that you might have Ron, Harry and I over one day this week. Everything has been so serious with... his... return, and I was hoping that we could help Harry forget, if just for a few hours. Have some tea together like old times. You could even show us your most exotic pet at the moment."

"Ah Hermione! What a good idea. I could show you 'ole Frank now if ye'd like! I've had her breed before but she is jest a beaut. A real--"

I stood and hugged him. My arms couldn't reach around him, but that didn't matter when he hugged me back and patted my shoulder.

"There, there," said Hagrid, "We've beaten 'im once. We can do it again."

A cry escaped my mouth. And after it did, all the tears came at once. All the emotion I'd held in rushed to the surface. Hagrid took me to the fireplace and sat me down in front of it. He let me sob as he tended the kettle. He prepared more tea, and dumped out my old batch that hadn't even gone cold yet, and placed what looked like a horse blanket over my lap.

Eventually, I got a hold of myself, and managed to stop sniffling.

"Hagrid?" I asked, "This is a strange question, but do you remember anything about Tom Riddle from when you were in school?" Hagrid stiffened.

"Well, er. I haven' heard that name in a long time... He was smart, an' pleasant with the professors, and ah, we didn't get along very well... in the end. An' that's all I'd really like to say on that er, subject." Hagrid stood.

"I'm going ter go chop some firewood. You stay there an' enjoy yer tea for a few more minutes, an' then you should prolly get off ter bed. First day of school tomorrow an' all," Hagrid said and pat my head as gently as a half giant could. He shuffled out of the hut and I heard an axe being pulled from a log.

~~~

"An' remind Harry and Ron ter come by whenever they want! You three come fer tea together on Wednesday, okay?" He called as I stepped out of the hut.

"Okay, I will. And Hagrid?" I asked, turning to face him. "Thank you."

I almost ran back to the castle. How many nights had I wished for this moment? How many dreams did I dream that Harry and Ron would burst out of the castle and call out to me?

Hagrid's hut had set me back in my current reality. Voldemort was loose. We were safe at school, but the attacks were happening every day in both the muggle and wizarding worlds. Voldemort was not Tom Riddle. He was not. He. was. not.

And he had to be destroyed, or he would hurt my friends, my family... the world. He was too dangerous.

I climbed the stairs to the Gryffindor common room, but when I got there, my mind came up blank for the password. I thought as hard as I could, but my mind was only able to produce the first letter, 'D,' which could have been any number of passwords.

"Ahem," a voice said calmly. I turned.

"Professor Dumbledore! It's you! I have so many questions, I don't know which one to ask first, but--" Dumbledore held up a hand and stared over his half-moon spectacles. His hand was black. It made my heart squeeze for some reason.