women fight each other; the remnants of the old tribes fight each other, an' that's even without squabbles over food an' the best fires an' sleepin' spots. Yeh'd think, seein' as how their whole race is abou' finished, they'd lay off each other, bu' . . ."

Hagrid sighed deeply.

"That night a fight broke out, we saw it from the mouth of our cave, lookin' down on the valley. Went on fer hours, yeh wouldn' believe the noise. An' when the sun came up the snow was scarlet an' his head was lyin' at the bottom o' the lake."

"Whose head?" I asked, though I had a terrible suspicion I already knew.

"Karkus's," Hagrid said heavily. "There was a new Gurg, Golgomath." He sighed again. "Well, we hadn' bargained on a new Gurg two days after we'd made friendly contact with the firs' one, an' we had a funny feelin' Golgomath wouldn' be so keen ter listen to us, bu' we had ter try."

"You went to speak with him?" Ron asked incredulously. "After you'd watched him rip off another giant's head?"

"Course we did," Hagrid said, "we hadn' gone all that way ter give up after two days! We wen' down with the next present we'd meant ter give ter Karkus.

"I knew it was a no go before I'd opened me mouth. He was sitting there wearin' Karkus's helmet, leerin' at us as we got nearer. He's massive, one o' the biggest ones there. Black hair an' matchin' teeth an' a necklace o' bones. Human-lookin' bones, some of 'em. Well, I gave it a go — held out a great roll o' dragon skin — an' said, 'A gift fer the Gurg of the giants —' Nex' thing I knew, I was hangin' upside-down in the air by me feet, two of his mates had grabbed me."

Hermione clapped her hands over her mouth, and I gasped. Sitting at the same table with Hagrid, seeing a man as large as him (which happened to be at least twice the size of a normal human), it was scary to imagine something big enough to overpower him.

"How did you get out of that?" Harry asked.

"Wouldn'ta done if Olympe hadn' bin there," Hagrid said. "She pulled out her wand an' did some o' the fastes' spellwork I've ever seen. Ruddy marvellous. Hit the two holdin' me right in the eyes with Conjunctivitis Curses an' they dropped me straightaway — but' we were in trouble then, 'cause we'd used magic against 'em, an' that's what giants hate abou' wizards. We had ter leg it an' we knew there was no way we was going ter be able ter march inter the camp again."

"Blimey, Hagrid," Ron said quietly.

"So, how come it's taken you so long to get home if you were only there for three days?" Hermione asked.

"We didn' leave after three days!" Hagrid said, looking outraged. "Dumbledore was relyin' on us!"

"But you've just said there was no way you could go back!"

"Not by daylight we couldn', no. We just had ter rethink a bit. Spent a couple o' days lyin' low up in the cave an' watchin'. An' wha' we saw wasn' good."

"Did he rip off more heads?" Hermione asked, sounding squeamish.

"No," Hagrid said. "I wish he had."

I frowned. "What d'you mean?"

"I mean we soon found out he didn' object ter all wizards — just us."

"Death Eaters?" Harry quickly guessed.

"Yep," Hagrid said darkly. "Couple of 'em were visitin' him ev'ry day, bringin' gifts ter the Gurg, an' he wasn' dangling them upside-down."

"How d'you know they were Death Eaters?" Ron asked.

"Because I recognised one of 'em," Hagrid growled. "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?" Hermione said desperately.

"Hold yer Hippogriffs, I haven' finished me story yet!" Hagrid said indignantly. For someone hadn't wanted to tell us anything in the first place, he now seemed to be rather enjoying himself. "Me an' Olympe talked it over an' we agreed, jus' 'cause the Gurg looked like favourin' You-Know-Who didn' mean all of 'em would. We had ter try an' persuade some o' the others, the ones who hadn' wanted Golgomath as Gurg."

"How could you tell which ones they were?" Ron asked.

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

"You went poking around dark caves looking for giants?" Ron said, his voice full of awed respect.

"Well, it wasn' the giants who worried us most," Hagrid said. "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 'em 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 'em," Hagrid said, the corners of his mouth lifting his wild beard, "she was rarin' ter attack 'em . . . she's somethin' when she's roused, Olympe . . . fiery, yeh know . . . 'spect it's the French in her . . ."

Hagrid gazed misty-eyed into the fire. It was silent for about thirty seconds before Harry cleared his throat loudly.

"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 an' 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," Ron said.

"Wasn' room to swing a Kneazle," Hagrid confirmed.

"Didn't they attack you when they saw you?" Hermione asked.

"Probably woulda done if they'd bin in any condition," Hagrid said, "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?" Ron said eagerly. "Well, that's not bad — are they going to come over here and start fighting You-Know-Who with us?"

He didn't seem to have retained the last part of what Hagrid said, so I spoke up, "Hang on, you said 'at one point', Hagrid. What does that mean?"

Hagrid looked at me sadly.

"Golgomath's lot raided the caves. The ones tha' survived didn' wan' no more ter do with us after that."

"So . . . so there aren't any giants coming?" Ron said, looking disappointed.

"Nope," Hagrid said, heaving a deep sigh as he turned over his steak to the cooler side, "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."

I glanced over at the window, which was filling up with snow. When I got bored of watching the swirling ice, I looked over to see Harry grimacing at his lap, which Fang was drooling on. I reached over and scratched the boarhound's ears, making his tail thump against the wooden floor.

"Hagrid?" Hermione said quietly, after a while.

"Mmm?"

"Did you . . . was there any sign of . . . did you hear anything about your . . . your . . . mother while you were there?"

Hagrid's unobscured eye rested upon Hermione, and she soon looked rather scared.

"I'm sorry . . . I . . . forget it —"

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

"Oh . . . I'm . . . I'm really sorry," Hermione said in a very small voice. Hagrid shrugged.

"No need," he said shortly. "Can't remember her much. Wasn' a great mother."

Everyone was silent again. Hermione glanced nervously at Harry, Ron and me, plainly asking us with her eyes to speak.

"Hagrid, you still haven't explained how you got hurt," I said, and Hermione shot me a grateful look.

"Or why you're back so late," Harry added. "Sirius says Madame Maxime got back ages ago —"

"Who attacked you?" Ron asked.

"I haven' bin attacked!" Hagrid said emphatically. "I —"

But the rest of his words were drowned out in a sudden outbreak of rapping on the door. Hermione gasped; her mug slipped through her fingers and smashed on the floor; Fang yelped. I held my breath as all five of us stared at the window beside the doorway. The shadow of somebody small and squat rippled across the thin curtain.

"It's her!" Ron whispered.

"Get under here!" Harry said quickly. He seized the Invisibility Cloak and whirled it around he and myself while Ron and Hermione tore around the table to dive under the Cloak as well. Huddled together, we backed away into a corner. Fang was barking madly at the door. Hagrid looked thoroughly confused.

"Hagrid, hide our mugs!"

Hagrid seized mine, Harry and Ron's mugs and shoved them under the cushion in Fang's basket. Fang was now leaping up at the door; Hagrid pushed him out of the way with his foot and pulled it open.

Umbridge was standing in the doorway wearing a green tweed cloak and matching hat with earflaps. Lips pursed, she leaned back so as to see Hagrid's face; she barely reached his navel.

"So," she said slowly and loudly, as though speaking to somebody deaf. "You're Hagrid, are you?"

She strolled into the room without waiting for an answer, her bulging eyes rolling in every direction.

"Get away," she snapped, waving her handbag at Fang, who had bounded up to her and was attempting to lick her face.

"Er — I don't want ter be rude," Hagrid said, staring at her, "but who the ruddy hell are you?"

"My name is Dolores Umbridge."

Her eyes were sweeping the cabin. Twice they stared directly into the corner where Harry, Ron, Hermione and I stood, all squished together.

"Dolores Umbridge?" Hagrid said, sounding thoroughly confused. "I thought you were one o' them Ministry — don't you work with Fudge?"

"I was Senior Undersecretary to the Minister, yes," Umbridge said, now nosing around the cabin, taking in every detail, from the haversack against the wall to the abandoned travelling cloak. "I am now the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher —"

"Tha's brave of yeh," Hagrid said, "there's not many'd take tha' job anymore."

"— and Hogwarts High Inquisitor," Umbridge said, giving no sign that she had heard him. I scowled at her rudeness.

"Wha's that?" Hagrid said, frowning.

"Precisely what I was going to ask," Umbridge said, pointing at the broken shards of china on the floor that had been Hermione's mug.

"Oh," Hagrid said, with a glance towards the corner where Harry, Ron, Hermione and I were hidden that made my anxiety spike, "oh, tha' was . . . was Fang. He broke a mug. So I had ter use this one instead."

Hagrid pointed to the mug that he had been drinking out of, one hand still clamped over the dragon steak pressed to his eye. Umbridge was now stood facing him, taking in every detail of his appearance, rather than the cabin's.

"I heard voices," she said quietly.

"I was talkin' ter Fang," Hagrid said stoutly.

"And was he talking back to you?"

"Well . . . in a manner o' speakin'," Hagrid said, looking uncomfortable. "I sometimes say Fang's near enough human —"

"There are four sets of footprints in the snow leading from the castle doors to your cabin," Umbridge said sleekly.

Hermione gasped; Ron clamped a hand over her mouth. I bit my lip worriedly, hoping that Umbridge hadn't noticed. Luckily, Fang was sniffing loudly around the hem of her robes and she didn't appear to have heard.

"Well, I only jus' got back," Hagrid said, waving an enormous hand at the haversack. "Maybe someone came ter call earlier an' I missed 'em."

"There are no footsteps leading away from your cabin door."

"Well, I . . . I don' know why that'd be . . ." Hagrid said, tugging nervously at his beard and again glancing towards the corner where we stood, as though asking for help. "Erm . . ."

Umbridge wheeled around and strode the length of the cabin, looking around carefully. She bent and peered under the bed, and opened Hagrid's cupboards. She passed within two inches of where Harry, Ron, Hermione and I stood pressed against the wall. I pushed myself back against Harry's chest as she walked by, wide-eyed. After looking carefully inside the enormous cauldron Hagrid used for cooking, she wheeled round again and said, "What has happened to you? How did you sustain those injuries?"

Much to my disdain, Hagrid removed the dragon steak from his face, allowing the purple bruising and congealed blood on his face to become perfectly visible. I winced.

"Oh, I . . . had a bit of an accident," he said lamely.

"What sort of accident?"

"I — I tripped."

"You tripped," Umbridge repeated coolly.

"Yeah, tha's right. Over . . . over a friend's broomstick. I don' fly, meself. Well, look at the size o' me, I don' reckon there's a broomstick that'd hold me. Friend o' mine breeds Abraxan horses, I dunno if you've ever seen 'em, big beasts, winged, yeh know, I've had a bit of a ride on one o' them an' it was —"

"Where have you been?" Umbridge asked, cutting coolly through Hagrid's babbling.

"Where've I —?"

"Been, yes," she said. "Term started two months ago. Another teacher has had to cover your classes. None of your colleagues has been able to give me any information as to your whereabouts. You left no address. Where have you been?"

There was a pause in which Hagrid stared at her with his newly uncovered eye. I silently willed Hagrid's lying to improve; I could almost hear his brain working furiously.

"I — I've been away for me health," he said.

"For your health," Umbridge said. Her eyes travelled over Hagrid's discoloured and swollen face as dragon blood dripped onto his waistcoat. "I see."

"Yeah," said Hagrid, "bit o' — o' fresh air, yeh know —"

"Yes, as gamekeeper fresh air must be so difficult to come by," Umbridge said sweetly, making me want to whack the infuriating smile off her face with the dragon steak. The small patch of Hagrid's face that was not black or purple, flushed.

"Well — change o' scene, yeh know —"

"Mountain scenery?" Umbridge said swiftly.

I sucked in a breath, and Harry's hand caught my arm. She knew.

"Mountains?" Hagrid repeated, clearly thinking fast. "Nope. South o' France fer me. Bit o' sun an' . . . an' sea."

"Really?" Umbridge said. "You don't have much of a tan."

"Yeah . . . well . . . sensitive skin," Hagrid said, attempting an ingratiating smile. I noticed that two of his teeth had been knocked out. Umbridge looked at him coldly, making his smile falter. Then she hoisted her handbag higher into the crook of her arm and said, "I shall, of course, be informing the Minister of your late return."

"Righ'," Hagrid said, nodding.

"You ought to know, too, that as High Inquisitor it is my unfortunate but necessary duty to inspect my fellow teachers. So I daresay we shall meet again soon enough."

She turned sharply and marched back to the door.

"You're inspectin' us?" Hagrid echoed blankly, looking after her.

"Oh, yes," Umbridge said softly, looking back at him with her hand on the door handle. "The Ministry is determined to weed out unsatisfactory teachers, Hagrid. Goodnight."

She left, closing the door behind her with a snap. Harry made to pull off the Invisibility Cloak, but I seized his wrist.

"Not yet," I breathed in his ear. "She might not be gone yet."

Hagrid seemed to be thinking the same way, as he stumped across the room and pulled the curtain back an inch or so.

"She's goin' back ter the castle," he said in a low voice. "Blimey . . . inspectin' people, is she?"

"Yeah," Harry said, pulling off the Cloak. "Trelawney's on probation already . . ."

"Um . . . what sort of thing are you planning to do with us in class, Hagrid?" Hermione asked.

"Oh, don' you worry abou' that, I've got a great load of lessons planned," Hagrid said enthusiastically, scooping up his dragon steak from the table and slapping it over his eye again. "I've bin keepin' a couple o' creatures saved fer yer OWL year, you wait, they're somethin' really special."

"Erm . . . special in what way?" I asked tentatively.

"I'm not sayin'," Hagrid said happily. "I don' want ter spoil the surprise."

"Look, Hagrid," Hermione said urgently, dropping all pretence, "Professor Umbridge won't be at all happy if you bring anything to class that's too dangerous."

"Dangerous?" Hagrid said, looking genially bemused. "Don' be silly, I wouldn' give yeh anythin' dangerous! I mean, all righ', they can look after themselves —"

"Hagrid, you've got to pass Umbridge's inspection, and to do that it would really be better if she saw you teaching us how to look after Porlocks, how to tell the difference between Knarls and hedgehogs, stuff like that!" Hermione said earnestly.

"But tha's not very interestin', Hermione," Hagrid said. "The stuff I've got's much more impressive. I've bin bringin' 'em on fer years, I reckon I've got the on'y domestic herd in Britain."

That didn't sound very reassuring.

"Hagrid . . . please . . ." Hermione said, a note of real desperation in her voice. "Umbridge is looking for any excuse to get rid of teachers she thinks are too close to Dumbledore. Please, Hagrid, teach us something dull that's bound to come up in our OWL."

But Hagrid merely yawned widely and cast a one-eyed look of longing towards the vast bed in the corner.

"Lis'en, it's bin a long day an' it's late," he said, patting Hermione gently on the shoulder, so that her knees gave way and hit the floor with a thud. "Oh — sorry —" He pulled her back up by the neck of her robes. "Look, don' you go worryin' abou' me, I promise yeh I've got really good stuff planned fer yer lessons now I'm back . . . now you lot had better get back up to the castle, an' don' forget ter wipe yer footprints out behind yeh!"

"I dunno if you got through to him," Ron said a short while later when, after checking and double-checking that the coast was clear, we walked back up to the castle through the thickening snow. Hermione used an Obliteration Charm on the snow behind us as we went, so that there was no trace we were ever there.

"Then I'll go back again tomorrow," Hermione said determinedly. "I'll plan his lessons for him if I have to. I don't care if she throws out Trelawney, but she's not getting rid of Hagrid!"

-

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