It's just a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor.

Chapter 408 Harry's Change

Rock cakes had always been Hagrid's forte.

This kind of biscuit is hard enough to break the teeth of ordinary people, Harry and the others are not acceptable in most cases.

It's just that today they didn't decline, but stared at Hagrid's face while holding the rock cake in their mouths.

"What's wrong with you? It's like fighting a dragon!"

Hagrid's situation did look dire, even if he was in good spirits.

His hair was disheveled and covered with blood clots, his left eye was swollen and bruised, and his face and hands were bruised, some of which were still bleeding. His movements were so careful that Harry suspected that his ribs might be broken up.

When he was in the auditorium yesterday, Harry only saw the back of Hagrid leaving in a hurry before dinner started, and didn't notice his serious injury.

"What happened to you?" Harry asked, Fang bouncing around them, licking their faces.

"I'm fine," said Hagrid, pretending to be relaxed. "A cup of tea?"

"Forget it," said Ron, "look at you!"

"Tell you I'm fine," said Hagrid, straightening up, turning to them and smiling, but the smile tugged at the wound on his face, and he frowned in pain, "ah, it's nice to see you—summer holidays are over Not bad, isn't it?"

Although it had been nearly a month since Christmas, it wasn't surprising that Hagrid asked this, because they hadn't seen him since the end of last semester.

"Hagrid, have you been attacked?" Ron asked.

"I'll say it one last time, it's all right!" Hagrid insisted.

"Would you say it's all right if one of our faces turned into a mess of meat paste?"

"You should show Madam Pomfrey, Hagrid," said Hermione worriedly, "Some of the wounds look dangerous."

Hagrid acted as if nothing had happened, and took a piece of raw meat that was oozing green blood from the table beside him.

"Don't worry about me, I'm really fine."

As he spoke, he grabbed the piece of meat and moved it to his face, which made Harry gasp.

"You don't want to eat raw meat right?"

Ron also leaned over to look: "This color seems to be poisonous."

Hagrid just put the piece of flesh on the wound on his face nonchalantly.

"It's just like this. It's dragon meat. It can relieve pain when applied to the wound, so I have a way to take care of myself, so I don't need you children to worry about it."

The three of Harry looked at each other. They exchanged ideas and decided to put the matter of Hagrid's injury aside for the time being and ask other questions first.

"Can you tell us what happened to you?" Harry asked.

"No, Harry, this is absolutely confidential, I can't tell you, my job can't cover the responsibility."

Hagrid's answer was so decisive, but what Hermione said next made him panic.

"Are you looking for the giant? Hagrid." Hermione asked suddenly from the side.

Hagrid let go of his hand, and the dragon meat slid onto his chest.

"Giant?" Hagrid grabbed the dragon meat before it slipped onto the belt, and applied it to his face again. He didn't seem to think that Hermione was tricking him, so he yelled in that rough voice, " Who said giants? Who did you talk to?"

There was a look of excitement in Hermione's eyes, and at the same time said in an apologetic voice
"We guessed it, it's pretty obvious, isn't it? Besides, during the summer vacation, at No. 12 Grimmauld Place, we also overheard Kingsley and the others talking about trying to win over giants and werewolves."

Annoyance appeared on Hagrid's face. He was angry with himself for letting Hermione cheat him out of his whereabouts in the past few months.

He has always been trusted by Dumbledore, but at some point it's not that he doesn't want to keep a secret, it's just that some people are too cunning.

"Well, I'm indeed looking for a giant." Hagrid simply broke the jar. Anyway, this kind of thing didn't happen once or twice, and Harry and the others were not outsiders.

Both Ron and Harry were very interested in the topic of giants.

"Honestly, they're not that hard to find," said Hagrid. "They're big."

"Where are they?" Ron asked.

"In the mountains." Hagrid answered vaguely.

Afterwards, Harry and the others asked many questions about giants, and Hagrid answered them one by one.

Of course, Hagrid didn't go alone on this half-year trip. He and Mrs. Maxim, the principal of the Beauxbaton School of Witchcraft and Magic, finally hooked up.

Together, the two embarked on a journey to find the giant in the name of going to France for a vacation. The reason for all such secret actions was to avoid attracting the attention of the Ministry of Magic.

"Moody and the others have reminded us that the Death Eaters have a lot of internal support in the Ministry of Magic, and they can use this to monitor the Floo network and monitor apparition traces, so in most cases, we can only use walking methods. Way."

According to Hagrid, they finally found a colony of giants in the mountains of central France.

They sent them gifts according to the etiquette of giants.

At the beginning, things went relatively smoothly. Gu Ge (the leader's name) among the giants had heard of Dumbledore's name, and knew that his proposition all along was to fight for the survival of the giants. .

So in the first two days, Hagrid and the others still gained a lot.

But on the third day after they arrived at the giant colony, a rebellion broke out within the giants, and the Gugo who was friendly to Dumbledore was directly screwed off by the new Gugo.

The newly appointed Gugo obviously had no interest in them at all. Even when Hagrid bit the bullet and sent him a gift in the same way he had befriended old Gugo before, he was caught on the spot. Fortunately, Maxim Madam reacted promptly and saved Hagrid.

After that, they still didn't give up, and continued to stay nearby to wait for the opportunity, and then they saw the figures of the Death Eaters.

"Before deciding to go to the giant, Sherlock actually had no hope of this action. He thought that the mysterious man was also in action, gathering his allies, and those ghosts on Azkaban Island have been completely defeated. To them. According to the news that Lupine got, a large number of werewolves also joined the ranks of Death Eaters, because the mysterious man can give them better benefits."

"But we didn't promise too much, and we couldn't even make some illusory promises. Compared with those violent elements who didn't necessarily intend to keep their promises from the beginning to the end, we really don't have much advantage."

Hagrid said sadly.

"At the beginning, I still had doubts about Sherlock's words. I thought that as long as I put my heart into contact with the giants, they would definitely be willing to communicate with us, knowing that the Death Eaters are not trustworthy. But in fact, they are really willing to listen to what we say Giants are an exception, compared to the conditions given to them by the mysterious man is more attractive."

Harry was silent, he could already guess what conditions Voldemort would use to lure these giants into an alliance with them.

Now there are less than one hundred giants in the whole world, and this is all because the wizards are constantly driving them away, making their living space smaller and smaller.

Muggles are also colonizing the wild more than ever, which will no doubt make things harder for the giants.

As long as Voldemort promised them that after he completely ruled the wizarding world, they would not have to hide in the mountains all the time and could gain more territories, even if Harry himself was the leader of the giants, he would be happy to agree.

However, Hagrid didn't return without success. While avoiding the joint pursuit of Death Eaters and giants, they got in touch with some giants who were unwilling to surrender to New Gogo, but the number was not many, only about seven or eight. But it's better than nothing.

At the end of the chat, Hermione asked cautiously.

"So, Hagrid, did you ask for news of your mother there?"

Hagrid didn't seem to have any sad or sad changes in his face.

"Oh, I found out that she died a long time ago."

The cabin fell silent immediately, Hermione said apologetically.

"Sorry, Hagrid, I don't know."

Hagrid cut her off.

"It's okay, Hermione, she's not a good mother, and I don't have much affection for her."

"But you haven't explained how you came to be like this, Hagrid." Ron pointed to Hagrid's bloody face.

"And why you came back so late," said Harry, "Sirius said Madame Maxime was back early—"

"Who attacked you?" Ron asked.

Hagrid obviously didn't want to say anything more on this topic, and this time his tone was much stricter, and he didn't give Harry and the others a chance to talk.

"It's very late now, kids, and the castle's curfew will start soon, you sure don't want to be caught by Filch for violating school rules and put in confinement?"

He pushed and pushed Harry and the others out of his hut.

"Remember not to tell other people what happened between us today."

Harry and the others had no choice but to walk towards the castle together in the dark.

"Hagrid must be hiding something," said Ron.

This is of course a fact that anyone can see.

"Forget it, knowing more is actually not good for us."

Both Ron and Hermione looked at Harry in surprise. This was obviously not something the old Harry could say.

"You won't be soul-robbed, will you? Harry!"

Hermione slapped Ron on the back.

"Don't talk nonsense, Harry is much more sensible than before."

Harry was silent for Ron's shock and Hermione's praise.

Now he was thinking in his heart, if it was true in the past, maybe he would have to figure out the secret Hagrid was hiding no matter what, maybe he would wear an invisibility cloak to see what Hagrid was doing quietly tonight.

But now with the guidance of Sherlock and Lily, Harry has changed a lot compared to before, especially in his impulsive personality.

After Harry and the others left, Hagrid sat in his hut and waited anxiously.

He worked on the single sofa for a while, then felt weak and stood up again, wandering back and forth in the middle of the cabin.

About an hour after Harry and the others left, at around nine o'clock in the evening, it was already the castle's curfew time, and there was a knock on the door of the hut.

Hagrid was refreshed immediately, and he hurried over to open the door and welcome Sherlock in.

"You're here at last, Sherlock. I thought you'd forgotten."

Sherlock looked helplessly at Hagrid's impatient look.

"How could I forget, you won't just wait for me here, right?"

Hearing his question, the smile on Hagrid's face became awkward, but he didn't intend to hide it either.

"Some time before you came, the three of them, Harry, came to sit with me for a while."

Even if Hagrid didn't have to tell the whole story, Sherlock could have guessed what happened.

He asked with blank eyes.

"Did you tell them about the giant hunt?"

"They guessed it first!" Hagrid was still explaining.

Sherlock sighed and waved his hands.

"It's okay, let's talk about it, anyway, it's not a big deal. Then you didn't say anything about what we are going to do tonight?"

Facing Sherlock's skeptical attitude, Hagrid dared to pat his chest to assure him this time.

"I didn't say a word about it, I can swear it!"

"Have they guessed anything?"

"Harry and Ron, I'm sure they didn't guess anything, but I can't guarantee Hermione, she asked my mother about it."

Sherlock shook his head.

"It doesn't matter if Hermione guessed it. She needs to know a lot. She guessed Lupine's identity early in the third grade, but she never said it out, and she didn't tell Harry and Ron."

Hagrid also nodded in agreement.

"Hermione is indeed more sensible than Harry and Ron."

"Okay, let's not talk about this for now, you have already brought him to the Forbidden Forest?"

"It's not far from the centaur territory."

"Then let's go there now, and find a suitable place for him first."

The two left Hagrid's hut together. Hagrid still held Fang in his hand, and walked into the Forbidden Forest side by side with Sherlock.

For Hagrid, who had guarded this forest for most of his life, the routes and environment inside were naturally familiar.

Together they walked to the deepest part of the Forbidden Forest.

"Have the centaurs anything to say about their new neighbor?" Sherlock asked.

Hagrid smiled mischievously.

"None of them seemed very happy. I kept telling them that Glop was easy to get along with, but they didn't seem to think so."

"After all, he's not like you. He's a pure-blooded giant. Being able to communicate with normal people is already pretty good, and we really can't expect more from him."

"I can teach him Sherlock, I can teach him well, he just doesn't know it yet"

"Don't excite Hagrid, I have no other intentions, and I don't want to believe you, let alone force you to abandon him. Dumbledore asked me to help you to make his life here better. "

(End of this chapter)