Into The Light (Golden Trio Era) {2}

Giant Problem

"What d'you mean?" "I mean we soon found out he didn' object ter all wizards- just us." "Death Eaters?" said Harry quickly. "Yep," said Hagrid darkly. "Couple of 'em were visitin' him ev'ryday, bringin' gifts ter the Gurg, an' he wasn' dangling them upsidedown." "How d'you know they were Death Eaters?" said Ron. "Because I recognized one of 'em," Hagrid clenched a first. "Macnair, remember him? Bloke they sent ter kill Buckbeak? Maniac, he is. Likes killin' as much as Golgomath, no wonder they were gettin' on so well." "So Macnair's persuaded the giants to join You-Know-Who?" said Hermione desperately. "Hold yer hippogriffs, I haven' finished me story yet!" said Hagrid indignantly, "Me an' Olympe talked it over an' we agreed, jus' 'cause the Gurg looked like favorin' You-Know-Who didn' mean all of 'em would. We had ter try an' persuade some o' the others, the ones who hadn' wanted Golgomathas Gurg." "How could you tell which ones they were?" Mikayla questioned, who picks up her mug and takes a sip of her tea. "Well, they were the ones bein' beaten to a pulp, weren' they?" Hagrid hung his head. "The ones with any sense were keepin' outta Golgomath's way, hidin' out in caves roun' the gully jus' like we were. So we decided we'd go pokin' round the caves by night an' see if we couldn' persuade a few o' them." "You went poking around dark caves looking for giants?" said Ron with a voice that founded terrified but awed. "Well, it wasn' the giants who worried us most, we were more concerned abou' the Death Eaters. Dumbledore had told us before we wen' not ter tangle with 'em if we could avoid it, an' the trouble was they knew we was around- 'spect Golgomath told him abou' us. At night when the giants were sleepin' an' we wanted ter be creepin' inter the caves, Macnair an' the other one were sneakin' round the mountains lookin' fer us. I was hard put to stop Olympe jumpin' out at them," said Hagrid, he couldn't help but smile thinking about her. "She was rarin' ter attack 'em... she's somethin' when she's roused, Olympe... Fiery, yeh know... 'spect it's the French in her..." Mikayla felt kind of awkward listening it him talk about her but kept quiet while he gazed into the fire. Harry stayed quiet too for a while before clearing his voice politely to have him continue.

"So what happened? Did you ever get near any of the other giants?" "What? Oh... oh yeah, we did. Yeah, on the third night after Karkus was killed, we crept outta the cave we'd bin hidin' in and headed back down inter the gully, keepin' our eyes skinned fer the Death Eaters. Got inside a few o' the caves, no go- then, in abou' the sixth one, we found three giants hidin'." "Cave must've been cramped," said Ron. "Wasn' room ter swing a kneazle," said Hagrid. "Didn't they attack you when they saw you?" asked Hermione. "Probably woulda done if they'd bin in any condition," said Hagrid, "but they was badly hurt, all three o' them. Golgomath's lot had beaten 'em unconscious; they'd woken up an' crawled inter the nearest shelter they could find. Anyway, one o' them had a bit of English an' 'e translated fer the others, an' what we had ter say didn' seem ter go down too badly. So we kep' goin' back, visitin' the wounded... I reckon we had abou' six or seven o' them convinced at one poin'." "Six or seven?" said Ron eagerly. "Well that's not bad- are they going to come over here and start fighting You-Know-Who with us?" But Mikayla had a look of realization and said, "What do you mean 'at one point,' Hagrid?" Hagrid looked at her with large wet eyes."Golgomath's lot raided the caves. The ones tha' survived didn' wan' no more ter to do with us after that."

"So... so there aren't any giants coming?" said Ron, looking disappointed. "Nope," said Hagrid, heaving a deep sigh, Mikayla took a step back examining the injuries on Hagrid's face, now he just look like he had a nasty fall. "but we did wha' we meant ter do, we gave 'em Dumbledore's message an' some o' them heard it an' I 'spect some o' them'll remember it. Jus' maybe, them that don' want ter stay around Golgomath'll move outta the mountains, an' there's gotta be a chance they'll remember Dumbledore's friendly to 'em... Could be they'll come..." they all fell silent.

"Hagrid?" said Hermione quietly after a while. "Mmm?" "Did you... was there any sign of... did you hear anything about your... your... mother while you were there?" He looked at her for a moment, saying nothing, and giving no physical indications to his emotions. "I'm sorry... I... forget it-" "Dead," Hagrid grunted, sounding indifferent. "Died years ago. They told me." "Oh... I'm... I'm really sorry," Hermione responded in a very small voice, she sunk in her chair. Hagrid shrugged his shoulders. "No need," he said simply. "Can' remember her much. Wasn' a great mother." They were all quiet again, Hermione looked at each of them, her eyes telling them to say something. "But you still haven't explained how you got in this state, Hagrid," Ron said, looking at his face. "Or why you're back so late," Mikayla added. "Sirius says Madame Maxime got back ages ago-" continued Harry. "Who attacked you?" said Ron. "I haven' bin attacked!" Hagrid repeated sternly.

There was a loud knock at the door. Hermione gasped, dropping her mug to the floor, it shattered. Fang yelped and jumped away from the mess. They all looked toward the window near the door, barely breathing. Through the curtain we could see the silhouette of someone short and wide. "It's her!" Ron whispered frantically. "Get under here!" Harry said quickly, whipping out the cloak and swinging it over himself, the four of them dove under it. Ron was nearly squatting to ensure she wouldn't see their feet. They struggled into the corner of the room away from the door. Fang was barking madly and scratching at the door. Hagrid looked utterly confused at their reactions. "Hagrid, hide our mugs!" Mikayla whisper yelled from the corner. He grasped the three remaining mugs and stuffed them under a cushion in Fang's bed.