Draco Malfoy *5th Year*

Chapter 20

The next day, Hermione, Ron and I raced through the courtyard to find Harry who was walking with Cho and laughing about something as they headed into the Great Hall.

"Harry!" I called out

"Harry!" He turned around

"Hagrid's back," I said, he quickly apologised to Cho before sprinting after us as we ran down towards Hagrid's hut. Once we got there were heard voices

"I'm sorry. I will say this one last time. I'm ordering you to tell me where you've been," The unmistakable shrill voice of Umbridge made my heart sink as we slid behind a pile of wood to keep out of view.

"I told you, I've been away for me health," Hagrid replied gruffly.

"You're health?" Umbitch repeated

"Yeah. Bit of fresh air, you know?" Hagrid nodded.

"Oh, yes. As gamekeeper, fresh air must be difficult to come by. If I were you, I shouldn't get too used to being back. In fact, I mightn't bother unpacking at all," She then stepped out his door and sniffed the air before pulling a rotten face and spraying her rancid perfume in an 'x' across Hagrid's door. Shortly after she had left we were seated around Hagrid's table as he spoke to us

"This is top secret, right? Dumbledore sent me to parlay with the giants," He spoke in a hushed voice.

"Giants!?" Hermione cupped her hands over her mouth in shock.

"You found them?" I asked.

"Well, they're not that hard to find, to be perfectly honest. They're so big, see? I tried to convince them to join the cause. But I wasn't the only one that was trying to win them over," Hagrid replied.

"Death eaters," Harry stated.

"Yes," Hagrid nodded

"Trying to persuade them to join You-Know-Who," He continued.

"Did they?" Ron asked.

"I gave them Dumbledore's message. Suppose some of them remember he was friendly to them. I suppose,"

"And they did this to you?" Harry asked, pointing to the bruises and scratches across Hagrid's face.

"Not exactly, no," Hagrid replied, going to place a cold steak over his black eye before looking to Fang who was watching the steak closely.

"Oh, go on, you have it, then, you dozy dog," Hagrid chuckled and threw his dog the large slice of meat. A chill ran through the small hut and we watched as bits of straw were blown across the floor. Hagrid stood up as Harry and I turned to look outside at the storm that was growing.

"It's changing out there. Just like last time. There's a storm coming, Potters. We'd all best be ready when she does,"

"We have confirmed that 10 high-security prisoners in the early hours of yesterday evening did escape. And of course, the Muggle prime minister has been alerted to the danger. We strongly suspect that the breakout was engineered by a man with personal experience

in escaping from Azkaban notorious mass murderer Sirius Black cousin of escapee Bellatrix Lestrange,"

"Dumbledore warned Fudge this could happen. He's gonna get us all killed just because he can't face the truth," Hermione ranted as we walked towards the Gryffindor table for breakfast.

"Potters," We turned around to see Seamus standing up from his seat

"I wanted to apologize. Now even me mum says the Prophet's version of things doesn't add up. So, what I'm really trying to say is that I believe you,"

"Thank you, Seamus," I smiled and nodded at the boy who smiled back before sitting down next to Dean again.