“Now, Harry” said Hagrid, placing a huge, steaming bowl of beef stew and dumplings in front of the sad-eyed boy “I’ve been hearing you’ve got yehself a new familiar.”
“Yeah” Harry sighed “Not that I’ll be able to speak to him.”
“Aw, come on now, lad. Dogs can understand almost as well as folk in my opinion.” Hagrid said, bemused.
“Dogs?!” Harry replied, frowning.
“Yeah, yeh new puppy.”
Harry’s face was a picture of surprised joy “I’m getting a puppy?”
“Yeah, lad” Hagrid grinned, taking a bite of unctuous, floury dumpling “You had summat else in mind?”
Harry blushed and hesitated “Well…” he started shyly “Um… Have you heard about the Chamber of Secrets?”
Hagrid’s forehead furrowed “Yes, Harry, happen I have.”
“Um, well, you see, Slytherin, he was frightened that muggleborns might be tortured or bribed or guilted into revealing where Hogwarts is to the muggle army. He had nothing against actual muggleborns, you see. He didn’t want them killed or anything.”
“Aye lad, I can believe that” Hagrid said, intrigued.
“Well, um, he had this pet, a basilisk. He called him Hissy. He, um” Harry lowered his voice to a whisper “kept him in the bottom of Hogwarts, just in case the castle was ever attacked!”
Hagrid nodded encouragingly.
“When I was… not feeling too good, I met Slytherin’s portrait” Harry confessed “He, he spoke to me in Parseltongue and… well, he was really kind and he helped me a lot. Er… Lord V…” Hagrid winced, so Harry corrected himself “You-Know-Who was his heir. Salazar doesn’t like him though: he calls him a kin-biter and an egg-eater.”
“An egg-eater?”
“Like a baby murderer” Harry clarified. “Though sometimes it's just, y'know, a naughty word.”
“Oh, I see that, yeah” Hagrid replied, stroking his beard.
“Well, um, You-Know-Who… well, when he was a little boy, like me, he was well evil and he found out about Hissy and placed him under the imperius curse. Hissy tried to fight him but…” Harry’s eyes filled with tears “He forced Hissy to do something really bad. Hissy’s dead scared of him.”
“He forced the poor creature to kill for him…” Hagrid said, white with fury “He cast an unforgivable on a defenceless beast and put the blame on me.” Hagrid bashed the table with his fist, causing it to split down the middle and the plates to crash and splash over the floor. Harry cried out in alarm.
Hagrid looked over at Harry, whose green eyes were shocked and fearful “I’m right sorry, lad” the large man said, blushing “I don’t allus know me own strength.”
“He… You-Know-Who blamed you?” Harry gasped, horrified.
“That he did, Harry.” Hagrid said, keeping his voice calm “Got me expelled and me wand broken and all.”
“Oh! That’s terrible” the child replied, anguish pinching his pale face.
Hagrid stood up and, taking his pink umbrella, tapped the table, which mended itself and picked the plates and mugs, which, having the benefit of an unbreakable charm, were not broken, off the floor and dumped them in the sink.
Scooping up two more bowls of stew and grabbing a couple of fresh spoons, Hagrid sat down again, his eyes a little red “Aye, it was, lad. Worst day of my life, after me Dad dying, o’ course. But” he forced a grin “Me case is to be reheard. Apparently, this last month old Salazar’s been pestering Scrimgeour, head of the Auror Office, tellin’ him I weren’t to blame and it was You-Know-Who: Slytherin told Scrimgeour that, ifn’t I couldn’t speak Parseltongue, I couldn’t be rightly blamed because he’d set the wards to only answer to a Parselmouth. He’s not given them a moment’s peace, as I understand, until they said they’d do summat about it.”
“Oh! That’s fantastic, Hagrid!” Harry grinned
“Yeah!” Hagrid replied, beaming “Dumbledore’s also been helping, always suspected You-Know-Who, you see but” the large man’s face fell “Unfortunately, no one thought to ask Slytherin and, as Veritaserum wasn’t used in those days, everyone else dint believe me when I said I was innocent.”
“But... they’re going to use it now, aren’t they?” Harry said, his green eyes pleading.
“Yes, Harry. Full retrial and, if I’m found innocent, a year on a special adult course so as I can finish me OWLS and a new wand” Hagrid said, his eyes twinkling “An I suppose it’s all down to you and your Dad. I couldn’t rightly think why Slytherin would take an interest after all this time.”
“But I’m sure he didn’t realise that it wasn’t you.” Harry replied earnestly “He wouldn’t have let you take the blame otherwise.”
Hagrid nodded “Yeh Dad did come down and ask me a boatload of questions around yuletide, that’s fer sure. I didn’t know why at the time but I spect he did some research, found out about me being blamed for it and tole Slytherin.”
Harry smiled sadly “I’m really glad that this has helped you, Hagrid.”
Hagrid nodded, his dark eyes sympathetic “But it ain’t worked out for you, has it, Harry?”
“No. I can’t speak to Reggie anymore, or Hissy. I don’t know why, though” Harry growled, stabbing a dumpling “I could speak it before I drank the potion.”
“What potion was that, Harry?” Hagrid asked, intrigued.
“Hissy and I went through the binding Ceremony.” Harry sighed “It’s like, we shared magic but something went wrong somewhere and I fainted and, when I woke up, Dad could speak Parseltongue and I couldn’t.”
“Mebbe you switched an ability?” Hagrid ventured “Can you do summat you couldn’t before?”
“Don’t think so” Harry replied, looking glum.
“Yeh know, Basilisks are dead intelligent creatures, Harry” Hagrid said thoughtfully “If anyone knew what had happened and how to fix it, it’d be one of them.”
“Yeah” Harry beamed “That’s a really good idea, Hagrid.”
Hagrid smiled “When you finished that, Harry, I got summat to show you. Secret for a secret, righ?”
“Sure!” Harry smiled, shovelling a last spoonful of stew into his mouth and hopping down from his chair.
“Come over here” Hagrid said, beaconing Harry over to the fire, over which hung a large, lidded pot “Look at this!” He removed the lid to reveal a big, black egg.
“A dragon egg!” Harry gasped.
“Yeah. Don’t tell no one though.” Hagrid grinned guiltily.
“Not even Draco? He’d be dead excited to see a real dragon!”
“Well, mebbe him… and Blaise, Theo and Hermione if yeh like.” Hagrid said, with more generosity than sense.
“Cool!” Harry replied enthusiastically “Where did you get it? I thought they were, you know, um…”
“Yeah” Hagrid blushed “I won it off a stranger, as it happens, in the Hogs Head a few nights ago. Think he was kind of relieved to get rid of it, ter be quite honest.”
“What kind do you think it is?” Harry asked curiously, peering at the large egg “The book I gave you had a bit about dragon breeds.”
“That it did, Harry.” Hagrid smiled, too involved in the conversation to notice the slight breeze as his front door opened “Norwegian Ridgeback. Rare, they are” he finished proudly.
“I’m dead pleased for you. When do you think it’ll hatch?”
“Rubeus” Severus sighed from the doorway, against which he was leaning “Just when I believed we’d had an end to the one-upmanship in the battle to own the most deadly familiar in the school...”
“Severus” Hagrid blustered “I didn’t see you there. Harry and me were just…”
“Examining the ironwork around your fireplace” Severus suggested with a smirk: Harry and Hagrid, with their red faces, figeting and 'rabbit-in-the-headlights' expressions, looked for all the world like two naughty little boys caught in their mischief.
“You can’t tell on him, Dad!” Harry cried, dismayed. “He won’t tell on us about Hissy.”
Severus raised an eyebrow, fighting a grin, “I do believe you have a point, Harry. However, I thought it might be of some interest to you that Hissy has confirmed that he is able to teach you Parseltongue.”
“What!” Harry gasped, delighted.
Severus smiled “I did not wish to give you false hope earlier, but I suspected that, as he taught me Parseltongue last night, he would also be able to help you regain the ability.”
“Cool! Can he do it now?” Harry cried, bouncing on his toes.
“It will not be instantaneous, Harry” Severus said solemnly, his heart aching when his son’s face fell “In light of recent events, Hissy is reluctant to overstretch you: children's brains are particularly vulnerable to mind magic and can be easily damaged.”
Too relieved to mind much, Harry smiled up at Hagrid, who grinned back a little nervously.
“Er, Severus” the large man said, twisting his fingers together “About the dragon…”
The corner of Severus’s mouth quirked “With the Headmaster’s permission, I expect that I will be able to provide you with a sufficiently warded enclosure. I doubt Kettleburn will be anything less than enthusiastic about this new edition” the Potions Master said with a sigh.
“Thank you, Severus” Hagrid said, delighted and somewhat surprised: Severus was a good sort but, in staff meetings, he vigorously opposed most of Professor Kettleburn’s attempts to introduce really interesting creatures to the curriculum.
“And, Draco, as Harry rightly suggested, will be no less keen on introducing a dragon to Hogwarts, so I really cannot see how the governors will oppose.” Severus smiled at his son, who beamed back in the happy knowledge that his Dad was the best.
Dark Lords and Dragons