𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝘁𝗼𝗰𝗸, harry potter

˗ˋ 165

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED
AND SIXTY FIVE
✧
-: fifth year :-

── IN WHICH THEY 
MEET HAGRID'S BROTHER

. . .

"I had ter bring him, Hermione, I had ter!" Hagrid sounded desperate. "He didn't want ter come... but I had ter!"

"But why?" Hermione looked as though she was close to tears. "Why - what - oh, Hagrid!" 

"I knew if I jus' got him back," Hagrid similarly sounded as though he was about to cry, "'an - an' taught him a few manners - I'd be able ter take him outside an' show ev'ryone he's harmless!"

"Harmless!" Hermione said shrilly, and Hagrid made frantic hushing noises with his hands as the creature before them grunted loudly and shifted in its sleep. "He's  been hurting you all this time, hasn't he? That' why you've had all these injuries!" 

"He don' know his own strength!" Hagrid told them earnestly. "An' he's gettin' better, he's not fightin' so much anymore-"

"So this is why it took you two months to get home!" Hermione added, distracted. "Oh, Hagrid, why did you bring him back if he didn't want to come, wouldn't he have been happier with his own people?" 

Harry had been so preoccupied by Hagrid and Hermione's conversation that he hadn't noticed that Aviana was slowly creeping away from them, peering over at the creature. "No." Harry insisted, and reached out to pull her back. "You're trying to get yourself killed now?"

"Might as well." Aviana hummed. "If I lose the Quidditch Cup then I'm dead anyway." 

She was beginning to sound a lot like Oliver Wood.

"They were bullyin' him, Hermione, 'cause he's so small!" Hagrid said.

"Small?" Aviana blinked, her arm waved behind her, at the sleeping mound. "He's small?"

"I couldn' leave him!" Hagrid pushed. Tears were now trickling down his bruised face into his beard. See - he's my brother!" He added.

Aviana's eyes widened and her hand clapped over her mouth, stifling back either some kind of disbelieving laughter or comment that certainly wouldn't help the situation. Hermione simply stared at him. 

Harry cleared his throat. "Hagrid, when you say 'brother'..." He began slowly, "Do you mean-?"

"Well, half-brother." Hagrid amended hastily. "Turns out me mother took up with another giant when she left me dad, an' she went an' had Grawp here-"

"Grawp?" Harry repeated.

"Yeah...    well, tha's what it sounds like when he says his name," Hagrid said anxiously. "He don' speak a lot of English... I've bin tryin' ter teach him... Anyway, she don't seem ter have liked him much more'n she liked me... See, with giantesses, what counts is producin' good big kids, and he's always been a bit on the runty side fer a giant - on'y sixteen foot-"

"Oh, yes, tiny!" Hermione said with a kind of hysterical sarcasm. "Absolutely miniscule." 

"He was bein' kicked around by all o' them - I jus' couldn' leave him-" Hagrid didn't seem to pick up on Hermione's tone.