Chapter 205: Coldness

"How could you tell which ones were against the new Gurg?" asked Colin.

"Well, they were the ones bein' beaten to a pulp, weren' they?" said Hagrid patiently. "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."

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"You went poking around dark caves looking for giants?" said Ron with awed respect in his voice.

"Well, it wasn' the giants who worried us most," said Hagrid. "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, they were sneakin' round the mountains lookin' fer us. I was hard put to stop Olympe jumpin' out at them," said Hagrid, the corners of his mouth lifting his wild beard. The same soft smile appeared. "She was rarin' ter attack 'em. . . . She's somethin' when she's roused, Olympe. . . . Fiery, yeh know . . . 'spect it's the French in her . . ."

"Yeah, she is a real badass. But then what happened?" Chris said without waiting. Now it was not the time for Hagrid to go on a memory lane. "Did you ever get near any of the other giants?"

"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?"

"I don't think so," Chris said grimly. "Something else happened after that, right?"

Hagrid looked at her sadly.

"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 Ginny, looking disappointed.

"Nope," said Hagrid, heaving a deep sigh, "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 . . ."

The snow was filling up the window now. Chris became aware that the knees of her robes were soaked through; Fang was still drooling with his head in Chris's lap. Chris scratched his ear and sighed. She looked up and saw Hermione was opening her mouth and closing it repeated times. Chris gave her a curious look as she looked at her and Hermione pointed at Hagrid then mouthed, "mother." 

Chris nodded and looked back at Hagrid.

"Hagrid?" She called quietly.

"Mmm?" Hagrid responded.

"Did you . . . did you hear anything about your . . . mother while you were there?"

Hagrid's unobscured eye rested upon her, Chris returned the look with a little sympathy.

"Dead," Hagrid grunted. "Died years ago. They told me."

"Oh. . . I'm so sorry Hagrid," Hermione said in a small voice.

Hagrid shrugged his massive shoulders. "No need," he said shortly. "Can' remember her much. Wasn' a great mother."

They were silent again.

"But how did you got those?" Ginny said suddenly, pointing at Hagrid's face.

"Yeah and why you're back so late," said Harry. "Sirius says Madame Maxime got back ages ago."

"Actually, I . . ." Hagrid trailed off, looking as debating he should talk or not.

Chris, Ginny, Colin, Hermione, Harry and Ron exchanged looks.

"You just shared your top-secret mission with us, Hagrid," Ron said. "I don't think another secret story will hurt."

Hagrid glared at him and he fell silent.

"Not now, it's bin a long day an' it's late," Hagrid said. "Now you lot had better get back up to the castle."

Everyone opened their mouth to protest but Chris cut in first.

"Alright, keep your secret for now," she said. "But these injuries are serious Hagrid, and eventually we will know what happened." Hagrid tried to say something but Chris stopped him. "You have broken ribs, don't you Hagrid?"

"I — er — well — yeah," he replied grudgingly.

"Visit Madam Pomfrey, she doesn't ask questions like us," Chris said smiling as she got up. "And your face is looking much better now, but keep using the potion in every two hours."

"Alrigh'," Hagrid nodded.

All of them weren't ready to let go of Hagrid's injuries that easily like Chris but at last, they agreed and piled out of his house. As soon as Chris stepped outside she felt a chilling wind. But that wind had nothing to do with the snowy weather, it was a different kind of coldness. Chris took a few seconds to understand what was it and then looked at the Astronomy tower. The darkness around the castle prevented her from seeing anything. But she knew she had to check, so she informed Colin and Ginny that she will be late, then turned into snake and set off towards the Astronomy tower.

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To be continued. . .