Harry Potter and the Great Old Ones

Chapter 457 Hai Yiji

After Umbridge left, Harry, Ron, and Hermione watched her walk into Hogwarts Castle before they removed their Invisibility Cloaks and knocked on the door of Hagrid's Hut.

“Hagrid, it’s us!” Harry called out into the keyhole.

“You should have thought of that!” A rough, hoarse voice came from inside the house, and Hagrid sounded pleased.

Then came the sound of the latch being pulled, and the door creaked open, revealing Hagrid's long-unseen, fluffy head through the crack.

“Come in, come in quickly,” Hagrid said. His hair was a mess, covered in blood clots, his left eye was swollen to a slit and was bruised and purple, and his face and hands were covered in wounds, some of which were still bleeding. He moved very carefully, and Harry suspected that he might have broken a rib.

Hagrid had clearly just arrived home; a thick black travel cloak was draped over the back of his chair, and a large backpack that could fit several children leaned against the wall. Twice the height and three times the width of a normal person, Hagrid limped toward the fireplace and placed a copper kettle on the fire.

"What happened to you?" Harry asked, as Tooth bounced around them and licked their faces.

"It's nothing," Hagrid said deliberately, changing the subject. "Would you like a cup of tea?"

“Come on,” Ron said. “Look at you! You look like you ate George and Fred’s rotten candy.”

"I'm telling you, I'm fine." Hagrid said, straightening up and turning to smile at them, but wincing in pain. "Ah, it's so nice to see you all. You had a good summer vacation, didn't you?"

“Hagrid, were you attacked?” Ron asked.

"I'm saying it one last time, it's okay!" Hagrid insisted stubbornly.

"If one of our faces turned into a pile of minced meat, would you say it's okay?"

“You should have Mrs. Pomfrey take a look, Hagrid,” Hermione said anxiously. “Some of the wounds look dangerous.”

“I’ll handle it, okay?” Hagrid said authoritatively. He walked to the huge wooden table in the middle of the cabin, lifted a tea towel off the table, revealing a piece of raw, bloody meat, greenish-blue, slightly larger than an ordinary car tire.

"You're not going to eat that, are you, Hagrid?" Ron leaned closer to take a look. "It looks poisonous."

“That’s what it looks like, it’s dragon meat,” Hagrid said. “I’m not going to eat it.”

He picked up the dragon meat and applied it to his left cheek. Green blood dripped onto his beard, and he hummed with satisfaction. "Feeling better. It has an analgesic effect."

“Speak, Hagrid,” Hermione said, adopting an interrogation tone. “What exactly happened?”

"Really, everything's alright, really—"

"Dumbledore sent him to negotiate with the giants." Hagrid was about to deny it, but was interrupted by a voice that suddenly came from the large mirror next to him.

Hagrid followed the sound—

"Ti, Ti, Ti, Ti, Ti, Tiela?" Hagrid's reaction was almost identical to that of the group of young wizards, as surprised as a chubby child weighing at least 300 pounds but not quite 400 pounds. "What, what, what is going on?"

"You, you, you, you've become, become a ghost?" Hagrid was the same age as Voldemort, had experienced the Dark Lord's chaos, joined the Order of the Phoenix, and fought against the Death Eaters. He was a man of experience and immediately guessed the most likely wrong answer.

“No, to be precise, I’ve been transformed into a demon.” Tierra sighed and recounted to Hagrid what she had told Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Hagrid nodded repeatedly; although he didn’t understand, he was deeply shocked and finally accepted the fact that Tierra had been “resurrected.”

“Professor Dumbledore has already heard about this,” Tyella said. “He has entrusted this matter to me.”

"Negotiate with giants?" Hermione asked, puzzled. "How do you negotiate? Have you found them?"

“To be honest, they’re not that hard to find,” Hagrid said. “They’re quite big.”

“Where are they?” Ron asked.

“In the mountains,” Hagrid replied vaguely.

"Then why don't Muggles have it—"

“It’s not that they didn’t,” Hagrid said in a low voice, “it’s just that their deaths are always attributed to mountaineering accidents, isn’t it?”

He moved the dragon meat around to cover the worst wounds.

"Hagrid, tell us what you've done!" Ron asked, eager to stir up trouble. "We're all family here, so just tell us. You have no idea how bored we've been at school this semester."

"Alright, alright." Hagrid couldn't resist the expectant looks from Ron, Harry, and Hermione. After tossing the dragon meat on his face to Tooth, he sat back down and said, "We'll leave as soon as last term ends—"

"You?" Ron interrupted, "Who else but you?"

“Hagrid and Mrs. Maxim, that giant... half-giant headmistress from Beauxbatons last semester.” Tiera interjected at this point, “Hagrid and Mrs. Maxim, right after my funeral last semester, Hagrid pretended to be in love and accepted Mrs. Maxim’s invitation to go to France to avoid potential stalkers from the Death Eaters and the Ministry of Magic.”

"Ah? Um... um... um..." Hagrid's face flushed red instantly, and he began to stammer.

“Of course, now I have reason to believe that Hagrid might not be pretending, but genuinely has feelings for Mrs. Maxim,” Tierra said jokingly.

"You, you, you, how can you slander someone's innocence out of thin air?" Hagrid's face seemed to turn even redder, and the veins on his forehead bulged as he argued, "This, this, this is all, this is all to complete the mission, all to avoid being followed by the Death Eaters and those idiots in the Ministry of Magic."

Then came a jumble of incoherent phrases: "Dumbledore," "Voldemort," "Death Eater," "Orim," "not afraid of hardship," etc., which inexplicably made the listener feel utterly confused.

"Hahahaha—" Tiera was the first to laugh happily.

Harry, Hermione, and even the slow-witted Ron joined in the laughter, filling the cabin with a joyful atmosphere.

"If you like her, go for it, Hagrid," Tierra said earnestly after laughing.

Tierra remembered that Hagrid was about three generations younger than Voldemort, which meant that Hagrid was already in his sixties. Although giants generally live longer than wizards, Hagrid was considered middle-aged at his age, and it was time for him to start thinking about his marriage.

"No...I...I...I..." Hagrid stammered again.

"I'll tell you about what happened on my journey to find the giants!" Hagrid abruptly changed the subject. "I'll tell you, I encountered two giants on the Polish border, and we even had a little tiff with a vampire in a bar in Minsk."

(End of this chapter)