My little Malfoy Girl

Hagrid's Hut

I waited until Lockhart was out of sight, then we pulled Ron out of the bush and up to Hagrid's front door. Harry knocked urgently.

Hagrid appeared at once, looking very grumpy, but his expression brightened when he saw who it was.

"Bin wonderin' when you'd come ter see me — come in, come in — thought you mighta bin Professor Lockhart back again —"

Harry, me and Hermione supported Ron over the threshold into the one-roomed cabin, which had an enormous bed in one corner, a fire crackling merrily in the other. Hagrid didn't seem perturbed by Ron's slug problem, which Harry hastily explained as we lowered Ron into a chair.

"Better out than in," he said cheerfully, plunking a large copper basin in front of him. "Get 'em all up, Ron."

"I don't think there's anything to do except wait for it to stop," said Hermione anxiously, watching Ron bend over the basin. "That's a difficult curse to work at the best of times, but with a broken wand —"

Hagrid was bustling around making us tea. His boarhound, Fang, was slobbering over Harry.

Hagrid seemed to just now notice me, and said, " Aren' you tha' Malfoy girl?"

"Yes, and my brother's a stupid got. I can't believe he said that to you, Hermione!" I said angrily.

"What did Lockhart want with you, Hagrid?" Harry asked, scratching Fang's ears.

"Givin' me advice on gettin' kelpies out of a well," growled Hagrid, moving a half-plucked rooster off his scrubbed table and setting down the teapot. "Like I don' know. An' bangin' on about some banshee he banished. If one word of it was true, I'll eat my kettle."

I could tell that it was most unlike Hagrid to criticize a Hogwarts teacher, as Harry looked at him in surprise.

Hermione, however, said in a voice somewhat higher than usual, "I think you're being a bit unfair. Professor Dumbledore obviously thought he was the best man for the job —"

"He was the on'y man for the job," said Hagrid, offering us a plate of treacle toffee, while Ron coughed squelchily into his basin. "An' I mean the on'y one. Gettin' very difficult ter find anyone fer the Dark Arts job. People aren't too keen ter take it on, see. They're startin' ter think it's jinxed. No one's lasted long fer a while now. So tell me," said Hagrid, jerking his head at Ron. "Who was he tryin' ter curse?"

"Malfoy called Hermione something — it must've been really bad, because everyone went wild."

"It was bad," said Ron hoarsely, emerging over the tabletop looking pale and sweaty. "Malfoy called her 'Mudblood,' Hagrid —"

Ron dived out of sight again as a fresh wave of slugs made their appearance. Hagrid looked outraged.

"He didn'!" he growled at Hermione.

"He did," she said. "But I don't know what it means. I could tell it was really rude, of course —"

"It's about the most insulting thing he could think of," I said. "Mudblood's a really foul name for someone who is Muggle-born — you know, non-magic parents. There are some wizards —

like - " I grimaced, " - like my family — who think they're better than everyone else because we're what people call pureblood." I was interrupted by Ron, though I didn't mind, and when he was done, I continued.

"I mean, I seem to be the only one in my family that knows it doesn't make any difference at all. Look at Neville Longbottom — he's pure-blood and he can hardly stand a cauldron the right way up. And then look at Hermione."

"They haven't invented a spell our Hermione can' do," said Hagrid proudly, making Hermione go a brilliant shade of magenta.

"It's a disgusting thing to call someone," I said, ranting more angrily now. "Dirty blood, see. Common blood. It's ridiculous. Most wizards these days are half-blood anyway. If we hadn't married Muggles we'd've died out."

Ron retched and ducked out of sight again.

"Well, I don' blame yeh fer tryin' ter curse him, Ron," said Hagrid loudly over the thuds of more slugs hitting the basin. "Bu' maybe it was a good thing yer wand backfired. 'Spect Lucius Malfoy would've come marchin' up ter school if yeh'd cursed his son. Least yer not in trouble."

"Bet he woudnt do the same for me," I muttered.

There was silence for a while, other than the slugs hitting the bottom of the basin.

"Harry," said Hagrid abruptly as though struck by a sudden thought. "Gotta bone ter pick with yeh. I've heard you've bin givin' out signed photos. How come I haven't got one?"

Furious, I saw Harry wrenched his teeth apart. I cautioningly put a hand on his arm.

"I have not been giving out signed photos," he said hotly. "If Lockhart's still spreading that around —"

I saw that Hagrid was laughing.

"I'm on'y jokin'," he said, patting Harry genially on the back and sending him face first into the table. "I knew yeh hadn't really. I told Lockhart yeh didn' need teh. Yer more famous than him without tryin'." I smiled widely.

"Bet he didn't like that," said Harry, sitting up and rubbing his chin.

"Don' think he did," said Hagrid, his eyes twinkling. "An' then I told him I'd never read one o' his books an' he decided ter go. Treacle toffee, Ron?" he added as Ron reappeared.

"No thanks," said Ron weakly. "Better not risk it."

"Hagrid, for speaking to Lockhart that way, you are my new hero," I said. 

He smiled.

"Come an' see what I've bin growin'," said Hagrid as Harry, me and Hermione finished the last of our tea. 

In the small vegetable patch behind Hagrid's house were a dozen of the largest pumpkins I had ever seen. Each was the size of a large boulder. 

"Whoa!"

"Gettin' on well, aren't they?" said Hagrid happily.

"Fer the Halloween feast ... should be big enough by then."

"You have Halloween feasts here? Cool! We never celebrated Halloween at Beauxbatons! It was supposedly 'an improper holiday!' I am gonna LOVE Hogwarts!" Harry looked at me weird.

"What?" I said defensively.

"What've you been feeding them?" said Harry, turning his attention back to the pumpkins.

Hagrid looked over his shoulder to check that we were alone. 

"An Engorgement Charm, I suppose?" said Hermione, halfway between disapproval and amusement. "Well, you've done a good job on them."

"That's what yer little sister said," said Hagrid, nodding at Ron. "Met her jus' yesterday." Hagrid looked sideways at Harry, his beard twitching. "Said she was jus' lookin' round the grounds, but I reckon she was hopin' she might run inter someone else at my house." He winked at Harry. "If yeh ask me, she wouldn' say no ter a sign—"

"Oh, shut up," said Harry. Me and Ron snorted with laughter and the ground was sprayed with slugs.

"Watch it!" Hagrid roared, pulling Ron away from his precious pumpkins.

It was nearly lunchtime, and as Harry and I had only had one bit of treacle toffee since dawn, I was keen to go back to school to eat the school's delicious food. We said good-bye to Hagrid and walked back up to the castle, Ron hiccuping occasionally, but only bringing up two very small slugs.