Harry Potter: A Certain Ancient Rune Professor of Hogwarts (TL)

Chapter 525

Felix stood at the entrance of the castle, the sky is about to completely darken, from this angle down, you can see the lights in Hagrid’s hut is lit up. At that moment, the sound of footsteps and talking came from behind him.

“I should have guessed, Neville said his parents came back a week ago and took him to Diagon Alley to buy textbooks … I mean, since they went to the same place as Hagrid, it doesn’t make sense that Hagrid would be that much slower.” Harry said.

“Because they were on different missions.” Sirius explained as they reached the castle’s entrance, “The Longbottoms fought off the Death Eaters who had arrived as back-up and barely got their revenge, and they came back when it was over, and Hagrid … Hi Felix.” He greeted.

Felix nodded towards Sirius, not really surprised by the arrival of the golden trio, “Based on your relationship with Hagrid … it’s good to meet up, otherwise, you might have to wait a few months to see him again.”

“What happened to Hagrid?” Harry asked anxiously.

“He’ll be staying in the Forbidden Forest for most of the next few days, today is an exception. He has to take care of his injuries.” Felix replied briefly, “Let’s go and get back early.”

The five made their way down the marble steps, Harry’s mind crammed with doubts, when Ron poked him in the ribs, “Look over there.” Harry followed his gaze, and the dim light of Hagrid’s hut cheered him up.

They crossed the spacious field to Hagrid’s hut. Before they could get close, Fang’s bark rang out.

Sirius stood at the door and shouted, “Hagrid, we’re here!”

A messy rattle came from inside the hut, and after a while, the door opened, and Hagrid came out from inside, his appearance startled everyone. His face smeared with dirt, his head turned into a strange shape, like a pumpkin that had been beaten and smashed: his left eye swelled and became a slit, the corner of the eye is still bleeding, a flat line going under his eye, if not for his nose also bleeding, probably no one can find the correct location of the nose; exposed skin – hand and face are blue and purple, bruised and battered.

Hagrid carefully closed the door, with his other hand so awkwardly that one would suspect he had broken his bones.

“Are you, are you okay, Hagrid?” Hermione asked softly.

Hagrid struggled to open his eyes, and seemed to recognize Hermione’s shape as he grinned, “Ah, it’s good to see you all, I had planned to show up sometime later – I can’t spare much time now, plus I can’t see anyone in this state.” He pointed at his face and tried to smile, but it strained the wound on his face.

“I didn’t quite believe it when Dumbledore told me,” Felix looked Hagrid up and down, “but it seems to be true … How was your trip with Madame Maxime to the giants?”

Hagrid’s face flushed with embarrassment as he waved his intact arm, “Not really a success … Olympe and I, let’s just say we have achieved the minimum expectations, the Giants chose not to help both of us, and in fact, they had no time for us … They, they divided.”

” Divided?” Felix asked with some surprise.

“Incredible, isn’t it? There aren’t many of them left in total, and yet they still fight and kill each other …” Hagrid led them deeper into the Forbidden Forest, telling his story along the way, “At the beginning of the holidays, Olympe and I headed out to persuade the giants.”

” Is it Madame Maxime?” Harry asked.

“Yes, she is a strong person, not afraid of difficulties, which is rare, you know she is an elegant, well-dressed lady; when Dumbledore told me she will also join me, I was a little worried … But I was proven wrong, whether it is climbing rocks, or sleeping in the caves, she never once complained. Besides, she always comes up with all kinds of useful stuff, she said you lent it to her?” Hagrid looked at Felix.

“If you are referring to the space capsule, indeed, that product is currently a disposable type, if you want to hold things, you must prepare in advance.” Felix said.

“That’s it,” Hagrid said, stamping his foot on a dead branch, “we got to the place quickly, without much accident in the middle, and after a few days of wandering around the mountain, we finally found the cave where the giants live.”

“You guys didn’t use magic?” Hermione asked.

“Oh, no.” Hagrid muttered, “It’s okay to use it on the road, but not when you get near the giant tribe. Giants do not like magic, they hate wizards, for some deeper reason, and Dumbledore was worried that the You-Know-Who had also sent messengers, so we had to be very careful … Anyway, we made contact with the giants, and according to the method provided by Dumbledore, we managed to deliver our greetings directly to the leader, this stage was rather exhausting, we had to be patient and dispel the giants’ vigilance, and that approach worked, and we stayed in the tribe for much longer and longer.”

Speaking of this, Hagrid suddenly smiled.

“That Gurg- the leader of the giants, although lazy and greedy, but unexpectedly loved to listen to the stories, Olympe and I took the opportunity to say more good things about Dumbledore, other giants who know a few words of English also came to listen, the progress was encouraging.”

The forbidden forest became increasingly dim, Felix threw a milky white ball of light into the distance, which emitted a bright, soft white light, illuminating a large area of the forest, in the darkness, you can vaguely see the outline of different creatures, a pair of glowing eyes made people jump.

This is what the forbidden forest really looks like at night.

“We met the leader three times, and on the third visit there was an accident, as we saw the Death Eaters.”

“Death Eaters?” Ron exclaimed.

” An expected thing. … There were two Death Eaters, a man, and a woman,” Hagrid said, “and like us, they were treated as guests by the giants, and the leader of the giants foolishly introduced us to each other …”

“Did you guys fight?” Sirius asked keenly.

“Not at that time, despite the mutual hatred between us, we still reached a tacit understanding and did not fight in front of the giants, but–” Hagrid paused, ” out of the giant tribe, we fought privately, the opposite side was not our match, so they escaped. They disappeared for a few days, I thought the two Death Eaters gave up, but then we found out when we were dealing with other giants, they changed tactics and visited the giant leader while we were away, so we approached the giant leader and frankly told him that we wanted him to be on our side … Now that I think about it, we were more or less impatient, after all, we were not in a position to slowly negotiate…. later that afternoon Longbottoms’ arrived, and we had learned that the Death Eaters’ side sent reinforcements; that night, the giant tribe was in chaos, the war cries were deafening, like a thunder. The four of us discussed for a while and then decided to go out and observe the situation sneakily, and if we found out that the giants were just having a bonfire, we would come back and sleep.”

He had a complicated expression on his face.

“On the Death Eaters’ side a witch, named Bellatrix was there, I don’t know … how she managed to convince the number two man in the giant tribe to start a rebellion in a night and become the leader herself. Of course, we disagreed! So we also joined the battle. By dawn, a dozen giants died in the battle, most of them killed by each other, and one died by the hand of the Death Eater. The original leader of the giants had lost his arm, and his power was greatly reduced, so only two dozen giants were willing to follow him, including his wife and children. The remaining thirty or so giants formed a new tribe, which is stronger and more brutal. The giants divided into two groups, and the original leader fled deep into the vast mountains, while the new leader chased after … them, unless they determine a victor, they won’t care about anything else … We have arrived.”

Hagrid suddenly stopped in his tracks.

The surrounding woods are dense, but there’s a clearing beneath them that seemed out of place. The clearing is ringed with a chaotic patch of branches, and several pine trees have been uprooted. They heard a rumbling sound, and in the center of the clearing there is a huge, round thing, and the crowd moved a few steps closer with the help of the bright light from the illumination magic.

“Hiss~” Ron took two steps back, “Is it … living?”

What had been mistaken for a mound of dirt or rocks is breathing rhythmically. Harry felt like he would suffocate when the smooth gray thing suddenly moved and made a loud purring sound — he thought it is a rock, but now it didn’t seem to be; it looked like a Pogrebin that had been magnified a million times.

“My brother, oh – my half-brother.” Hagrid said in a low and hoarse voice: “I don’t think I have told you guys, I am a half-blood giant, my mother left my father after she gave birth to me and found another giant, where she gave birth to Grawp.”

Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked at each other uneasily; they had known about Hagrid being a half-blood giant for a long time. It was back at the fourth year ball when Harry and Ron overheard Hagrid and Madame Maxime talking, and in Ron’s words, Hagrid is a complete idiot, who got overwhelmed by love, and the fact that he thought he was whispering, which turned out to be not much different from shouting into their ears.

“Hagrid, is he hurt?” Felix asked.

It is only then that they noticed that the rough ‘rocky texture’ is actually a wound, and in the soft white light, they could see that it had scabbed over.

“Yes, I, alas, the first day I placed him in the Forbidden Forest, he made a lot of noise, and as a result, he attracted Fluffy, and they had a nasty fight,” Hagrid explained. A few people present – Sirius, Harry, Ron, and Hermione’s eyelids jumped hard, and Felix also somewhat became speechless, Fluffy is not a human, he is a giant three-headed dog, a rather dangerous magical creature.

“… I was forced to ask for Dumbledore’s help,” Hagrid said, wiping tears from his eyes, “Dumbledore is a good man, he helped me find medicine for the injuries, I mean, a three-headed dog’s fangs are not easy to handle, and Fluffy took a deep bite …”

“Oh My God!” Hermione exclaimed in an unclear manner.

“Yeah,” Hagrid thought Hermione was agreeing with him: “Grawp actually can heal on his own, but it’s too slow, and I can’t watch him all bloody. I planned to teach him some manners before I took him to meet people, and you guys are the first ones I thought of, this would be a good way to start …”

“Hagrid, what are your plans for his future?” Felix asked softly.

“I, uh, I haven’t thought about it, actually … it would be good to keep him in the Forbidden Forest, there’s no shortage of food here, and not many creatures here can harm him,” Hagrid stammered, “I guess he could be my assistant. Of course – only after his nature has changed for the better.” He hastily added as the three young wizards present looked like they are going to pass out.

Harry couldn’t imagine the scene which Hagrid had described in a warm and fuzzy tone; he had thought that Hagrid, who is twice the normal height, would be considered a giant, and anyone who saw him for the first time would be shocked by Hagrid’s huge size, such as the Dursleys. Only after a few more encounters would people will realize that Hagrid is quite a friendly person, but now, the thought of Hagrid patrolling the Forbidden Forest in the future, followed by a Pureblood giant much taller than him, made his scalp tingle.

“Hagrid, how tall is it-er, how tall is he?” He couldn’t resist asking.

“About sixteen feet, I think.” Hagrid estimated.

“Oh my god, oh my god.” Hermione said incoherently.

“So, uh, I’ll wake him up then – you guys get to know him, he’s much better tempered than before and only punched me twice today – while I tried to convince him to stay here.” Hagrid said expectantly, picking up a branch from the ground.

“Wh-no,” Hermione jumped back, seemingly horrified, “Well, I mean, I don’t understand … he’s not happy to stay here ?”

Hagrid paused and said with a sombre expression, “Yeah, he’s always wanted to go back, and I forcefully brought him here.”

“But Why – did Madam Maxime agree too?” Hermione asked pointedly.

“She – well, she understood my situation from the beginning,” Hagrid said uneasily: “You guys didn’t see how Grawp was bullied, if we left him there, he would be killed by the other giants, he, he is too short .”

“Short?” Hermione cried out, “Short?!”

“Within the group of giants, yeah.” Hagrid said, “When Grawp went berserk, Olympe helped me to subdue him, but it didn’t take long for her to get a little bored, and I have to admit, Grawp’s not that bright in the head, grumpy, and not easy to get along with … After she helped me to transport Grawp across the strait, she hurriedly said goodbye and left. ”

“But things are getting better,” Hagrid tried to bolster their confidence, waving a long branch in his hand in front of him: “We’ve been back for three days now, and he hasn’t lost his temper as much as he did before, which I consider a positive sign that he’s about to get used to the life here. I will try more intimate contact, like giving him a hug or something. You know, let him feel that someone values him and likes him, so he won’t always think about going back.”

Hagrid poked the sleeping giant hard with a branch, and the giant growled, his massive body stretching out, a broad palm the size of a sunshade propped up on the ground, and the thing above the arm that looked suspiciously like a head moved, as he woke up.

Felix raised his head and looked at the huddled giant rising from the ground. Legend had it that giants could fight a dragon on even ground, so he is rather curious about such a creature. Grawp has greyish white skin, a surprisingly huge face, and features that look like they have been cleaved out of a round stone; the only thing that Felix could associate remotely similar to this face is the face of the Mad-Eye Moody.

Grawp rubbed his eyes vigorously and then, without warning, stood up with astonishing agility. The crowd could now see more clearly, and they gaped at his short, stubby nose, crooked mouth, yellowed teeth, and cloudy brown-green eyes for a moment, in shock.

Before Harry had thought that Classroom Seven is simply omnipotent, but now he finally knew that something is missing; there are no giants there; the History of Magic textbooks describe giants as a totally inhuman beings, but Harry had always thought that these descriptions are a bit exaggerated, because he is surrounded by more realistic examples.

Hagrid is a half-giant, but he just looks like an oversized human, but this thing in front of him – this pureblood giant – is, as the books said, resembled a deformed humanoid monstrosity.

Felix’s eyes settled on the giant’s ankles, where a rope tethered around it, with the other end tied to a thick tree in the distance.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione kept backing away, not feeling much reassurance from the wand they are holding, the thing in front of them – well, it is Hagrid’s half-brother – Grawp seems to be able to crush them with one finger.

“Ho–”

Grawp let out a deafening roar and yanked the other end of the rope around with a rattle, as dead silence fell over the forbidden forest except for the giant before them.

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