Everybody got up late on Boxing Day. The Gryffindor common room was much quieter than it had been lately, many yawns punctuating the lazy conversations. Hermione's hair was bushy once again. She confessed to Harry that she had used liberal amounts of Sleekeazy's Hair Potion on it for the ball. "But it's way too much bother to do every day." she said matter-of-factly, scratching a purring Crookshanks behind the ears while Noctis purred on her leg.
"I personally like your hair the way it is."
The three turned their heads to see Y/n at the bottom of the common room stairs heading towards them. Hermione felt herself jump in her seat but it went unnoticed by Harry or Ron. She could see that upon Y/n's wrist was a silver bracelet with a small cat paw charm attached to it. She composed herself now as Y/n sat down.
"How did you all rest?" Y/n asked them and conversation broke out. Ron and Hermione seemed to have reached an unspoken agreement not to discuss their argument. They were being quite friendly to each other, though oddly formal. Ron and Harry wasted no time in telling Hermione about the conversation they had overheard between Madame Maxime and Hagrid, but Hermione didn't seem to find the news that Hagrid was a half-giant nearly as shocking as Ron did.
"Well, I thought he must be." she said, shrugging. "I knew he couldn't be pure giant because they're about twenty feet tall. But honestly, all this hysteria about giants. They can't all be horrible. It's the same sort of prejudice that people have toward werewolves, It's just bigotry, isn't it?"
Ron looked as though he would have liked to reply scathingly, but perhaps he didn't want another row, because he contented himself with shaking his head disbelievingly while Hermione wasn't looking then started talking to Harry.
Y/n decided to use this opportunity to lean over to Hermione slightly. "I was hoping we could talk in private, would the dormitory be alright?" He asked her quietly.
"Okay." Hermione nodded but she felt dreadfully nervous.
Y/n was the first to get up from his chair and Hermione slowly followed as they began to head to the stairs.
"Where are you two going?" Ron asked them.
"To get Hermione's Christmas present. I was unable to give it to her yesterday." Y/n lied.
"Oh...right." Ron said losing interest now.
Hermione just shook her head as she and Y/n began to climb up the stairs now and stopped when they reached Y/n, Harry and Ron's dormitory. Y/n opened the door for her and Hermione stepped inside.
The dormitory was empty but Hermione could certainly see that it was well lived in, some beds like Seamus and Ron's were messy with clothes spilling out from their trunks. While others like Y/n and Harry's beds were clean and freshly made.
Y/n shut the door behind him now and an awkward silence settled in.
"You wanted to talk..." Hermione tried to prompt him.
Y/n shuffled on his feet. "Yes...Yes, I thought it would be best after what happened last night." He started and Hermione's cheeks flushed pink with a blush as she remembered their kiss. "How did Viktor behave after I left?" Y/n asked.
"He wasn't very happy." Hermione admitted feeling awkward. "But he didn't question me any further on it and we carried on with the night as if it didn't happen." She told him. Y/n just nodded his head in acknowledgment.
"And did you... kiss him by any chance?" Y/n carefully asked.
Hermione shook her head. "We barely know each other Y/n. He never even tried."
Again Y/n just nodded his head secretly feeling better with this knowledge.
"Y/n that kiss..." Hermione started. "What did that mean to you? Why did you do it?" She asked him.
"I like you Hermione." Y/n openly admitted to her now as he moved to look out one of the windows in his dormitory. "And I think I have for quite some time. When I heard you were going to the ball with Krum, I was devastated. It is the first time in my life I think I have felt real jealousy towards a person."
"Y/n I...I like you as well." Hermione said and Y/n turned his head to face her again.
"But what about Viktor?" Y/n asked.
"I was never interested In Viktor like that Y/n. I only went to the ball with him as a friend the same way you and Fleur did." Hermione told him.
Y/n said nothing as he slowly walked forward and pulled an unsuspecting Hermione into a hug wrapping his arms around her. Once she had gotten over the initial shock she wrapped her own arms around him and both stood there, holding one another.
"Where do we even go from here Y/n?" Hermione asked feeling confused.
"I do not know..." Y/n said truthfully. "I want to be with you Hermione, but I cannot give you the attention you need and deserve until this Tri-wizard tournament is over. I need to put my full focus into overcoming the upcoming tasks, and finding out who is trying to get me and Harry killed." He sighed and rested his head on top of hers.
Hermione just held onto him and slowly nodded, understanding that he was under a lot of stress. "You need to take a break from that egg Y/n. I know it's important, but at this rate you're going to be in no condition to compete when the second task does come around."
Y/n knew she was most likely right. He had spent weeks on it making no success and with Cedric's clue he supposed he could take a small break to get back to normal. "I'll take three weeks off from it, no more. Once we have our Hogsmede trip I will return to working on it."
"Thank you." Hermione said relieved to hear he would finally let himself rest.
Y/n moved his head to look down at her now. "Hermione, I know that it is selfish of me and I have no right to ask this but...will you wait for me, till the end of the tournament? When all of this is over...can we talk about our future then?" Y/n asked her.
Hermione just looked up at him now. "I'll wait for you."
The first day of the new term arrived, and the four set off to lessons, weighed down with books, parchment, and quills as usual.
Snow was still thick upon the grounds, and the greenhouse windows were covered in condensation so thick that they couldn't see out of them in Herbology. Nobody was looking forward to Care of Magical Creatures much in this weather, though as Ron said, the skrewts would probably warm them up nicely, either by chasing them, or blasting off so forcefully that Hagrid's cabin would catch fire.
When they arrived at Hagrid 's cabin, however, they found an elderly witch with closely cropped gray hair and a very prominent chin standing before his front door.
"Hurry up, now, the bell rang five minutes ago." she barked at them as they struggled toward her through the snow.
"Who're you?" said Ron, staring at her.
"Where is Professor Hagrid?" Y/n asked not understanding.
"My name is Professor Grubbly-Plank." she said briskly. "I am your temporary Care of Magical Creatures teacher."
"Where's Hagrid?" Harry repeated Y/n's earlier question more loudly.
"He is indisposed." said Professor Grubbly-Plank shortly.
Soft and unpleasant laughter reached Y/n's ears. He turned, Atticus, Draco and the rest of the Slytherins were joining the class. All of them looked gleeful, and none of them looked surprised to see Professor Grubbly-Plank.
"This way, please." said Professor Grubbly-Plank, and she strode off around the paddock where the Beauxbatons horses were shivering. Harry, Ron, Y/n and Hermione followed her, looking back over their shoulders at Hagrid's cabin. All the curtains were closed. Was Hagrid in there, alone and ill?
"What's wrong with Hagrid?" Harry said, hurrying to catch up with Professor Grubbly-Plank.
"Never you mind." she said as though she thought he was being nosy.
"I do mind, though." said Harry hotly. "What's up with him?"
Professor Grubbly-Plank acted as though she couldn't hear him. She led them past the paddock where the huge Beauxbatons horses were standing, huddled against the cold, and toward a tree on the edge of the forest, where a large and beautiful unicorn was tethered.
Many of the girls "ooooohed!" at the sight of the unicorn.
"Oh it's so beautiful!" whispered Lavender Brown. "How did she get it? They're supposed to be really hard to catch!"
The unicorn was so brightly white it made the snow all around look gray. It was pawing the ground nervously with its golden hooves and throwing back its horned head.
"Boys keep back!" barked Professor Grubbly-Plank, throwing out an arm and catching Harry hard in the chest and knocking him back into Y/n. "They prefer the woman's touch, unicorns. Girls to the front, and approach with care, come on, easy does it."
She and the girls walked slowly forward toward the unicorn, leaving the boys standing near the paddock fence, watching.
The moment Professor Grubbly-Plank was out of earshot. Harry turned to Y/n and Ron. "What d'you reckons wrong with him? You don't think a skrewt..."
"Oh he hasn't been attacked, Potter, if that's what you're thinking." said Malfoy softly. "No, he's just too ashamed to show his big, ugly face."
"And what is that supposed to mean Malfoy?" said Y/n sharply.
Malfoy put his hand inside the pocket of his robes and pulled out a folded page of newsprint. "There you go." he said. "Hate to break it to you. Potter."
He smirked as Harry snatched the page, unfolded it, and read it, with Y/n, Ron, Seamus, Dean, and Neville looking over his shoulder. It was an article topped with a picture of Hagrid looking extremely shifty.
'DUMBLEDORE'S GIANT MISTAKE
Albus Dumbledore, eccentric Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, has never been afraid to make controversial staff appointments, writes Rita Skeeter, Special Correspondent. In September of this year, he hired Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody, the notoriously jinx-happy ex-Auror, to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts, a decision that caused many raised eyebrows at the Ministry of Magic, given Moody's well-known habit of attacking anybody who makes a sudden movement in his presence. Mad-Eye Moody, however, looks responsible and kindly when set beside the part-human Dumbledore employs to teach Care of Magical Creatures.
Rubeus Hagrid, who admits to being expelled from Hogwarts in his third year, has enjoyed the position of gamekeeper at the school ever since, a job secured for him by Dumbledore. Last year, however, Hagrid used his mysterious influence over the headmaster to secure the additional post of Care of Magical Creatures teacher, over the heads of many better-qualified candidates.
An alarmingly large and ferocious-looking man, Hagrid has been using his newfound authority to terrify the students in his care with a succession of horrific creatures. While Dumbledore turns a blind eye, Hagrid has maimed several pupils during a series of lessons that many admit to being "very frightening. "
'I was attacked by a hippogriff, and my friend Vincent Crabbe got a bad bite off a flobberworm," says Draco Malfoy, a fourth-year student. "We all hate Hagrid, but we're just too scared to say anything."
Hagrid has no intention of ceasing his campaign of intimidation, however. In conversation with a Daily Prophet reporter last month, he admitted breeding creatures he has dubbed "Blast-Ended Skrewts," highly dangerous crosses between manti-cores and fire-crabs. The creation of new breeds of magical creature is, of course, an activity usually closely observed by the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. Hagrid, however, considers himself to be above such petty restrictions.
"I was just having some fun." he says, before hastily changing the subject.
As if this were not enough, the Daily Prophet has now unearthed evidence that Hagrid is not - as he has always pretended...a pure-blood wizard. He is not, in fact, even pure human. His mother, we can exclusively reveal, is none other than the giantess Fridwulfa, whose whereabouts are currently unknown.
Bloodthirsty and brutal, the giants brought themselves to the point of extinction by warring amongst themselves during the last century. The handful that remained joined the ranks of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, and were responsible for some of the worst mass Muggle killings of his reign of terror.
While many of the giants who served He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named were killed by Aurors working against the Dark Side, Fridwulfa was not among them. It is possible she escaped to one of the giant communities still existing in foreign mountain ranges. If his antics during Care of Magical Creatures lessons are any guide, however, Frid-wulfa's son appears to have inherited her brutal nature.
In a bizarre twist, Hagrid is reputed to have developed a close friendship with the boy who brought around You-Know-Who's fall from power, thereby driving Hagrid's own mother, like the rest of You-Know-Who's supporters, into hiding. Perhaps Harry Potter is unaware of the unpleasant truth about his large friend but Albus Dumbledore surely has a duty to ensure that Harry Potter, along with his fellow students, is warned about the dangers of associating with part-giants.'
Harry finished reading and looked up at Ron, whose mouth was hanging open and Y/n whose eyes were closed and his face harboring a massive look of disgust.
"How on earth did she find out?" Y/n said angrily.
But that wasn't what was bothering Harry. "What d'you mean, 'we all hate Hagrid'?" Harry spat at Malfoy. "What's this rubbish about him" he pointed at Crabbe. "getting a bad bite off a flobberworm? They haven't even got teeth!"
Crabbe was sniggering, apparently very pleased with himself.
"Well, I think this should put an end to the oaf's teaching career." said Malfoy, his eyes glinting. "Half-giant...and there was me thinking he'd just swallowed a bottle of Skele-Gro when he was young. None of the mummies and daddies are going to like this at all... They'll be worried he'll eat their kids, ha, ha..."
"You..."
"Are you paying attention over there?" Professor Grubbly-Planks voice carried over to the boys, the girls were all clustered around the unicorn now, stroking it. Harry was so angry that the Daily Prophet article shook in his hands as he turned to stare unseeingly at the unicorn, whose many magical properties Professor Grubbly-Plank was now enumerating in a loud voice, so that the boys could hear too.
"I hope she stays, that woman!" said Parvati Patil when the lesson had ended and they were all heading back to the castle for lunch. "That's more what I thought Care of Magical Creatures would be like...proper creatures like unicorns, not monsters..."
"What about Hagrid?" Harry said angrily as they went up the steps.
"What about him?" said Parvati in a hard voice. "He can still be gamekeeper, can't he?"
Parvati had been very cold toward Harry since the ball. He supposed that he ought to have paid her a bit more attention, but she seemed to have had a good time all the same. She was certainly telling anybody who would listen that she had made arrangements to meet the boy from Beauxbatons in Hogsmeade on the next weekend trip.
"That was a really good lesson." said Hermione as they entered the Great Hall. "I didn't know half the things Professor Grubbly-Plank told us about uni..."
"Hermione, we have just found out what has caused Hagrid's absence." Y/n stopped her.
"What?" Hermione asked.
"Look at this!" Harry snarled, and he shoved the Daily Prophet article under Hermione's nose.
Hermione's mouth fell open as she read. Her reaction was exactly the same as Y/n's. "How did that horrible Skeeter woman find out? You don't think Hagrid told her?"
"No." said Harry, leading the way over to the Gryffindor table and throwing himself into a chair, furious. "He never even told us, did he? I reckon she was so mad he wouldn't give her loads of horrible stuff about me, she went ferreting around to get him back."
"Maybe she heard him telling Madame Maxime at the ball." said Hermione quietly.
"It is not impossible." Y/n paused.
"Come off it...We'd have seen her in the garden!" Ron interrupted. "Anyway, she's not supposed to come into school anymore, Hagrid said Dumbledore banned her."
"Maybe she's got an Invisibility Cloak." said Harry, ladling chicken casserole onto his plate and splashing it everywhere in his anger. "Sort of thing she'd do, isn't it, hide in bushes listening to people."
"Like you, Y/n and Ron did, you mean." said Hermione.
"We weren't trying to hear him!" said Ron indignantly. "We didn't have any choice! The stupid prat, talking about his giantess mother where anyone could have heard him!"
"We've got to go and see him." said Harry.
"We can go this evening." Y/n said in agreement with this.
"Tell him we want him back." Harry nodded. "You do want him back?" he shot at Hermione.
"I... well, I'm not going to pretend it didn't make a nice change, having a proper Care of Magical Creatures lesson for once... but I do want Hagrid back, of course I do!" Hermione added hastily, quailing under Harry's furious stare.
So that evening after dinner, the four of them left the castle once more and went down through the frozen grounds to Hagrid's cabin. They knocked, and Fang's booming barks answered.
"Hagrid, it's us!" Harry shouted, pounding on the door.
"Hagrid! Please open up, We only wish to talk!" Y/n then called out.
Hagrid didn't answer. They could hear Fang scratching at the door, whining, but it didn't open. They hammered on it for ten more minutes, Ron even went and banged on one of the windows, but there was no response.
"What's he avoiding us for?" Hermione said when they had finally given up and were walking back to the school. "He surely doesn't think we'd care about him being half-giant?"
But it seemed that Hagrid did care. They didn't see a sign of him all week. He didn't appear at the staff table at mealtimes, they didn't see him going about his gamekeeper duties on the grounds and Professor Grubbly-Plank continued to take the Care of Magical Creatures classes.
Malfoy was gloating at every possible opportunity. "Missing your half-breed pal?" he kept whispering to Harry whenever there was a teacher around, so that he was safe from Harry's retaliation. "Missing the elephant-man?"
It was halfway through January now and Hermione knew Y/n was planning to get back to work on the egg once the upcoming trip to Hogsmeade was over but he had kept his word and not worked on it since. She was very surprised when Harry said that he was going to go however.
"I just thought you'd want to take advantage of the common room being quiet." she said. "Really get to work on that egg."
"Oh I... I reckon I've got a pretty good idea what it's about now." Harry lied.
"Have you really?" said Hermione, looking impressed. "Well done! You can tell Y/n all about it then while I go get Ron then we can all go." She took off.
"You do not have a single clue do you?" Y/n whispered so only Harry could hear.
"No." Harry whispered back. "But if I go into Hogsmeade, we might run into Hagrid, and get a chance to persuade him to come back."
"Look, why do we not we start to work on it together?" Y/n proposed.
"I thought you wanted to solve it alone?" Harry asked.
"At first I did, but It mostly turned into an excuse to avoid Hermione." Y/n said.
"You were avoiding Hermione?" Harry asked him confused.
"I shall explain another time." Y/n told him. "This stays between you and me."
"Alright fine, but we have to get Hagrid back first before starting on the egg." Harry said adamantly.
Y/n nodded. "I can agree to that."
Harry, Ron, Y/n and Hermione left the castle together and set off through the cold, wet grounds toward the gates. As they passed the Durmstrang ship moored in the lake, they saw Viktor Krum emerge onto the deck, dressed in nothing but swimming trunks. He was very skinny indeed, but apparently a lot tougher than he looked, because he climbed up onto the side of the ship, stretched out his arms, and dived, right into the lake.
"He's mad!" said Harry, staring at Krum's dark head as it bobbed out into the middle of the lake. "It must be freezing, it's January!"
"It's a lot colder where he comes from." said Hermione. "I suppose it feels quite warm to him. "
"Yeah, but there's still the giant squid." said Ron. He didn't sound anxious, if anything, he sounded hopeful.
Hermione noticed his tone of voice and frowned. "He's really nice, you know," she said. "He's not at all like you'd think, coming from Durmstrang. He likes it much better here, he told me..."
"Come on, I can see a carriage to Hogsmeade up ahead." Y/n changed the topic not wanting to talk about Viktor.
Harry kept his eyes skinned for a sign of Hagrid all the way down the slushy High Street, and suggested a visit to the Three Broomsticks once he had ascertained that Hagrid was not in any of the shops.
The pub was as crowded as ever, but one quick look around at all the tables told them that Hagrid wasn't there. Heart sinking, Harry went up to the bar with Ron, Y/n and Hermione, ordered four butterbeers from Madam Rosmerta, and thought gloomily that he might just as well have stayed behind and listened to the egg wailing after all.
"Doesn't he ever go into the office?" Hermione whispered suddenly. "Look!"
She pointed into the mirror behind the bar, and Y/n saw Ludo Bagman reflected there, sitting in a shadowy corner with a bunch of goblins. Bagman was talking very fast in a low voice to the goblins, all of whom had their arms crossed and were looking rather menacing.
It was indeed odd. Y/n thought, that Bagman was here at the Three Broomsticks on a weekend when there was no Triwizard event, and therefore no judging to be done. He watched Bagman in the mirror. He was looking strained again, quite as strained as he had that night in the forest before the Dark Mark had appeared. But just then Bagman glanced over at the bar, saw Him and Harry and stood up.
"In a moment, in a moment!" They heard him say brusquely to the goblins, and Bagman hurried through the pub toward Harry and Y/n his boyish grin back in place.
"Harry! Y/n!" he said. "How are you both? Been hoping to run into you! Everything going all right?"
"Fine, thanks." said Harry.
"Wonder if I could have a quick, private word, Y/n? Harry?" said Bagman eagerly. "You couldn't give us a moment, you two, could you?"
"Er... okay." said Ron, and he and Hermione went off to find a table.
Bagman led Y/n and Harry along the bar to the end furthest from Madam Rosmerta.
"Well, I just thought I'd congratulate you both again on your splendid performances against the Horntail and Hebridean." said Bagman. "Really superb."
"Thanks." said Harry, but they knew this couldn't be all that Bagman wanted to say, because he could have congratulated them in front of Ron and Hermione. Bagman didn't seem in any particular rush to spill the beans, though. Harry saw him glance into the mirror over the bar at the goblins, who were all watching him and Harry in silence through their dark, slanting eyes.
"Absolute nightmare." said Bagman to Harry in an undertone, noticing Harry watching the goblins too. "Their English isn't too good, it's like being back with all the Bulgarians at the Quidditch World Cup but at least they used sign language another human could recognize. This lot keep gabbling in Gobblede-gook and I only know one word of Gobbledegook. Bladvak. It means 'pickaxe. ' I don't like to use it in case they think I'm threatening them."
He gave a short, booming laugh.
"What do they want?" Y/n asked, noticing how the goblins were still watching Bagman very closely.
"Er...well..." said Bagman, looking suddenly nervous. "They... er... they're looking for Barty Crouch."
"Why would they be looking for him here?" said Y/n not believing him . "I thought he was at the Ministry in London?"
"Er...as a matter of fact, I've no idea where he is." said Bagman. "He's sort of...stopped coming to work. Been absent for a couple of weeks now. Young Percy, his assistant, says he's ill. Apparently he's just been sending instructions in by owl. But would you mind not mentioning that to anyone. Y/n? Harry? Because Rita Skeeter's still poking around everywhere she can, and I'm willing to bet she'd work up Bartys illness into something sinister. Probably say he's gone missing like Bertha Jorkins."
"Have you heard anything about Bertha Jorkins?" Harry asked.
"No." said Bagman, looking strained again. "I've got people looking, of course, it's all very strange. She definitely arrived in Albania, because she met her second cousin there. And then she left the cousin's house to go south and see an aunt and she seems to have vanished without trace en route. Blowed if I can see where she's got to, she doesn't seem the type to elope, for instance... but still, What are we doing, talking about goblins and Bertha Jorkins? I really wanted to ask you both..." he lowered his voice . "How are you getting on with your golden eggs?"
"Er...not bad," Harry said untruthfully.
Bagman seemed to know he wasn't being honest.
"Listen, Harry." he said still in a very low voice, "I feel very bad about all this...you were thrown into this tournament, you didn't volunteer for it...and if..." his voice was so quiet now, Harry had to lean closer to listen "If I can help at all...a prod in the right direction...I've taken a liking to you...the way you got past that dragon!...well, just say the word."
Harry stared up into Bagman's round, rosy face and his wide, baby-blue eyes.
"We're supposed to work out the clues alone, aren't we?" he said, careful to keep his voice casual and not sound as though he was accusing the head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports of breaking the rules.
"Well...well, yes." said Bagman impatiently. "but come on. Harry... we all want a Hogwarts victory, don't we?"
"Have you offered Cedric help?" Harry said. "I noticed you didn't include Y/n just now too."
Y/n just crossed his arms as the smallest of frowns creased Bagman's smooth face.
"No, I haven't." he said. "I... well, like I say, I've taken a liking to you. Just thought I'd offer..."
"Well, thanks." said Harry. "But I think I'm nearly there with the egg...couple more days should crack it."
He wasn't entirely sure why he was refusing Bagman's help, except that Bagman was almost a stranger to him, and accepting his assistance would feel somehow much more like cheating than asking advice from Ron, Hermione, or Sirius.
Bagman looked almost affronted, but couldn't say much more as Fred and George turned up at that point.
"Hello, Mr. Bagman." said Fred brightly. "Can we buy you a drink?"
"Er...no." said Bagman, with a last disappointed glance at Harry. "No, thank you, boys..."
Fred and George looked quite as disappointed as Bagman, who was surveying Harry as though he had let him down badly.
"Well, I must dash." he said. "Nice seeing you all. Good luck, Harry."
He hurried out of the pub. The goblins all slid off their chairs and exited after him. Y/n and Harry went to rejoin Ron and Hermione.
"What did he want?" Ron said, the moment they had sat down.
"He offered to help me with the golden egg." said Harry.
"Leaving me out in the process." Y/n added.
"He shouldn't be doing that!" said Hermione, looking very shocked. "He's one of the judges! And anyway, you've already worked it out...haven't you?"
"Er...nearly." said Harry.
"Well, I don't think Dumbledore would like it if he knew Bagman was playing favourites and trying to persuade you to cheat!" said Hermione, still looking deeply disapproving. "I hope he's trying to help Cedric as much!"
"He's not, I asked." said Harry.
"Who cares if Diggory's getting help?" said Ron. Harry privately agreed.
"Those goblins didn't look very friendly." said Hermione, sipping her butterbeer. "What were they doing here?"
"Supposedly they are looking for Mr Crouch." Y/n told her and Ron.
"According to Bagman he's still ill. Hasn't been into work." Harry added.
"Maybe Percy's poisoning him." said Ron. "Probably thinks if Crouch snuffs it he'll be made head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation."
Hermione gave Ron a don't-joke-about-things-like-that look, and said. "Funny, goblins looking for Mr. Crouch. They'd normally deal with the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. "
"Crouch can speak loads of different languages though." said Harry. "Maybe they need an interpreter."
"Worrying about poor 'ickle goblins, now, are you?" Ron asked Hermione. "Thinking of starting up S. P. U. G. or something? Society for the Protection of Ugly Goblins?"
"Ha, ha, ha." said Hermione sarcastically. "Goblins don't need protection. Haven't you been listening to what Professor Binns has been telling us about goblin rebellions?"
"No." said Harry and Ron together.
"How do you two even pass your exams?" Y/n commented and shook his head.
"They're quite capable of dealing with wizards." said Hermione, taking another sip of butterbeer. "They're very clever. They're not like house-elves, who never stick up for themselves."
"Uh-oh." said Ron, staring at the door.
Y/n looked to see where he was looking and saw Rita Skeeter had just entered.
She was wearing banana-yellow robes today, her long nails were painted shocking pink, and she was accompanied by her paunchy photographer. She bought drinks, and she and the photographer made their way through the crowds to a table nearby. Harry, Ron, Y/n and Hermione glaring at her as she approached. She was talking fast and looking very satisfied about something.
"...didn't seem very keen to talk to us, did he, Bozo? Now, why would that be, do you think? And what's he doing with a pack of goblins in tow anyway? Showing them the sights... What nonsense, he was always a bad liar. Reckon something's up? Think we should do a bit of digging? 'Disgraced Ex-Head of Magical Games and Sports, Ludo Bagman.' Snappy start to a sentence, Bozo, we just need to find a story to fit it..."
"Trying to ruin someone else's life?" said Harry loudly.
A few people looked around. Rita Skeeter's eyes widened behind her jeweled spectacles as she saw who had spoken.
"Harry!" she said, beaming. "How lovely! Why don't you come and join..."
"I wouldn't come near you with a ten-foot broomstick." said Harry furiously. "What did you do that to Hagrid for, eh?"
Rita Skeeter raised her heavily penciled eyebrows. "Our readers have a right to the truth, Harry. I am merely doing my..."
"Who cares if he's half-giant?" Harry shouted. "There's nothing wrong with him!"
The whole pub had gone very quiet. Madam Rosmerta was staring over from behind the bar, apparently oblivious to the fact that the flagon she was filling with mead was overflowing.
Rita Skeeter's smile flickered very slightly, but she hitched it back almost at once, she snapped open her crocodile-skin handbag, pulled out her Quick-Quotes Quill, and said, "How about giving me an interview about the Hagrid you know. Harry? The man behind the muscles? Your unlikely friendship and the reasons behind it. Would you call him a father substitute?"
Hermione stood up very abruptly, her butterbeer clutched in her hand as though it were a grenade.
"You horrible woman." she said, through gritted teeth, "You don't care, do you, anything for a story, and anyone will do, wont they? Even Ludo Bagman..."
"Sit down, you silly little girl, and don't talk about things you don't understand." said Rita Skeeter coldly, her eyes hardening as they fell on Hermione. "I know things about Ludo Bagman that would make your hair curl...not that it needs it." she added, eyeing Hermione's bushy hair.
"I am sure you know all sorts of things Rita Skeeter..." Y/n said rising dangerously to look down at her. "I am certain you have dug your way through file after file just to find a little dirt on anyone who intrigues you. You use peoples misfortunes to sell a cheap story without a care about what happens to them after, but you know what Rita Skeeter, that might work for you now, but one day someone will find something out about you and when they do not a single person will be there to defend you. You make me sick..." He tore his sight from her. "And all of you!" He addressed the silent pub now. "How many years has Hagrid been a friendly face to you all? A drinking companion? A loyal patron? Yet at the slightest inconvenience you jump ship and stay silent rather than defend him..."
The pub goers and Madam Rosemerta all sported a guilty look now and could not look at Y/n.
"Let's go." said Hermione now as Y/n finished and she grabbed his arm. "C'mon. Harry...Ron..." She called to the other two.
As they left many people were staring at them. Harry glanced back as they reached the door. Rita Skeeter's Quick-Quotes Quill was out, it was zooming backward and forward over a piece of parchment on the table.
"She'll be after you again Y/n.. and you next Hermione." said Ron in a low and worried voice as they walked quickly back up the street.
"Let her try!" said Hermione defiantly, she was shaking with rage as she let go of Y/n's arm. "I'll show her! Silly little girl, am I? Oh, I'll get her back for this. First Harry, then Hagrid... "
"You both don't want to go upsetting Rita Skeeter." said Ron nervously. "I'm serious, Hermione, she'll dig up something on you..."
"My parents don't read the Daily Prophet. She can't scare me into hiding!" said Hermione, now striding along so fast that jogging was all Harry, Y/n and Ron could do to keep up with her. The last time they had seen Hermione in a rage like this, she had hit Draco Malfoy around the face. "And Hagrid isn't hiding anymore! He should never have let that excuse for a human being upset him! Come on!"
Breaking into a run, she led them all the way back up the road, through the gates flanked by winged boars, and up through the grounds to Hagrid's cabin.
The curtains were still drawn, and they could hear Fang barking as they approached.
"Hagrid!" Hermione shouted, pounding on his front door. "Hagrid, that's enough! We know you're in there! Nobody cares if your mum was a giantess, Hagrid! You can't let that foul Skeeter woman do this to you! Hagrid, get out here, you're just being..."
The door opened. Hermione said, "About ti..!" and then stopped, very suddenly, because she had found herself face to face, not with Hagrid, but with Albus Dumbledore.
"Good afternoon." he said pleasantly, smiling down at them.
"Professor Dumbledore, sir." Y/n said surprised to see him as his own simmering temper calmed down now.
"We...we wanted to see Hagrid." said Hermione in a rather small voice.
"Yes, I surmised as much." said Dumbledore, his eyes twinkling. "Why don't you come in?"
"Oh...um...okay." said Hermione.
She, Y/n, Ron and Harry went into the cabin. Fang launched himself upon Harry the moment he entered, barking madly and trying to lick his ears. Harry fended off Fang and looked around.
Hagrid was sitting at his table, where there were two large mugs of tea. He looked a real mess. His face was blotchy, his eyes swollen, and he had gone to the other extreme where his hair was concerned, far from trying to make it behave, it now looked like a wig of tangled wire.
"Hi, Hagrid." said Harry.
Hagrid looked up.
"'Lo." he said in a very hoarse voice.
"More tea, I think." said Dumbledore, closing the door behind Harry, Ron, Y/n and Hermione, drawing out his wand, and twiddling it. A revolving tea tray appeared in midair along with a plate of cakes. Dumbledore magicked the tray onto the table, and everybody sat down. There was a slight pause, and then Dumbledore said, "Did you by any chance hear what Miss Granger was shouting, Hagrid?"
Hermione went slightly pink, but Dumbledore smiled at her and continued. "Hermione, Harry, Y/n and Ron still seem to want to know you, judging by the way they were attempting to break down the door."
"Of course we still want to know you!" Harry said, staring at Hagrid. "You don't think anything that Skeeter cow... sorry, Professor." he added quickly, looking at Dumbledore.
"I have gone temporarily deaf and haven't any idea what you said. Harry." said Dumbledore, twiddling his thumbs and staring at the ceiling.
"Er-right." said Harry sheepishly. "I just meant...Hagrid, how could you think we'd care what that-woman-wrote about you?"
Two fat tears leaked out of Hagrid's beetle-black eyes and fell slowly into his tangled beard.
"Living proof of what I've been telling you, Hagrid." said Dumbledore, still looking carefully up at the ceiling. "I have shown you the letters from the countless parents who remember you from their own days here, telling me in no uncertain terms that if I sacked you, they would have something to say about it..."
"Not all of 'em." said Hagrid hoarsely. "Not all of 'em wan me ter stay."
"Really, Hagrid, if you are holding out for universal popularity, I'm afraid you will be in this cabin for a very long time." said Dumbledore, now peering sternly over his half-moon spectacles. "Not a week has passed since I became headmaster of this school when I haven't had at least one owl complaining about the way I run it. But what should I do? Barricade myself in my study and refuse to talk to anybody?"
"Yeh...yeh're not half-giant!" said Hagrid croakily.
"An excellent point." said Professor Dumbledore. "My own brother, Aberforth, was prosecuted for practicing inappropriate charms on a goat. It was all over the papers, but did Aberforth hide? No, he did not! He held his head high and went about his business as usual! Of course, I'm not entirely sure he can read, so that may not have been bravery..."
"What about me then Hagrid." Y/n spoke up now. "I am a Grindelwald...My family as a majority have committed worse actions than the giants. People loathe me for their actions but do I let these words stop me from coming to Hogwarts? No. Because I have my friends who will always be there for me and inspire me to be the person I want to be, not the person the wizarding world chooses to see me as. Forget about what anyone else may think, Professor Dumbledore is right when he says you cannot please everyone. But we the people who care about you most do not care whether you are a Human, a half giant or even a full giant, to us you are Hagrid, Our friend."
Hagrid gulped. More tears leaked out down his cheeks and into his tangled beard.
"Come back and teach, Hagrid." said Hermione quietly. "Please come back, we really miss you."
Dumbledore stood up. "I refuse to accept your resignation, Hagrid, and I expect you back at work on Monday." he said. "You will join me for breakfast at eight-thirty in the Great Hall. No excuses. Good afternoon to you all."
"Professor Dumbledore." Y/n said bowing his head respectfully.
"Oh and Grindelwald, lovely speech in Hogsmeade." Dumbledore added and left the cabin, pausing only to scratch Fang's ears.
Y/n wondered how on earth Dumbledore knew so quickly but then he remembered, this was Dumbledore.
When the door had shut behind him, Hagrid began to sob into his dustbin-lid-sized hands. Hermione kept patting his arm, and at last, Hagrid looked up, his eyes very red indeed, and said. "Great man, Dumbledore...great man."
"Yeah, he is." said Ron. "Can I have one of these cakes, Hagrid?"
"Help yerself," said Hagrid, wiping his eyes on the back of his hand. "Ar, he's righ', o' course - yeh're all righ'...I bin stupid... my ol' dad woulda bin ashamed o' the way I've bin behavin'." More tears leaked out, but he wiped them away more forcefully, and said. "Never shown you a picture of my old dad, have I? Here..."
Hagrid got up, went over to his dresser, opened a drawer, and pulled out a picture of a short wizard with Hagrid's crinkled black eyes, beaming as he sat on top of Hagrid's shoulder. Hagrid was a good seven or eight feet tall, judging by the apple tree beside him, but his face was beardless, young, round, and smooth, he looked hardly older than eleven.
"Tha was taken jus' after I got inter Hogwarts," Hagrid croaked. "Dad was dead chuffed, thought I migh' not be a wizard, see, 'cos me mum...well, anyway. 'Course, I never was great shakes at magic, really but at least he never saw me expelled. Died, see, in me second year..."
"I am sorry Hagrid." Y/n said sympathetically.
"Dumbledore was the one who stuck up for me after Dad went. Got me the gamekeeper job. Trusts people, he does. Gives 'em second chances. Tha's what sets him apar' from other heads, see. He'll accept anyone at Hogwarts, s'long as they've got the talent. Knows people can turn out okay even if their families weren'... well...all tha' respectable." He looked at Y/n cautiously not wanting to be rude but Y/n took no offence s he smiled and nodded quietly in agreement. "But some don understand that. There's some who'd always hold it against yeh. There's some who'd even pretend they just had big bones rather than stand up an' say I am what I am, an' I'm not ashamed. 'Never be ashamed,' my ol' dad used ter say, 'there's some who'll hold it against you, but they're not worth botherin' with. ' An' he was right. I've bin an idiot. I'm not botherin' with her no more, I promise yeh that. Big bones... I'll give her big bones."
Harry, Ron, Y/n and Hermione looked at one another nervously. Harry would rather have taken fifty Blast-Ended Skrewts for a walk than admit to Hagrid that he had overheard him talking to Madame Maxime, but Hagrid was still talking, apparently unaware that he had said anything odd.
"Yeh know wha, Harry?" he said, looking up from the photograph of his father, his eyes very bright. "When I firs' met you, you reminded me o' me a bit. Mum an' Dad gone, an' you was feelin' like yeh wouldn' fit in at Hogwarts, remember? Not sure yeh were really up to it... an' now look at yeh, Harry! School champion!" He looked at Harry for a moment and then said, very seriously. "Yeh know what I'd love. Harry? I'd love yeh ter win, I really would. It'd show 'em all... Yeh don have ter be ashamed of what yeh are. It'd show 'em Dumbledore's the one who's got it righ', lettin' anyone in as long as they can do magic. How you doin' with that egg, Harry?"
"Great." said Harry looking to Y/n for a moment. "Really great."
Hagrid's miserable face broke into a wide, watery smile. "Tha's my boy...you show 'em, Harry, you show 'em."
Y/n wanted to remind Hagrid that he was here too but when he saw how much better the half giant was looking he decided to let it be. He knew Harry and Hagrid had a deep friendship. He had been the person who introduced Harry to the wizarding world.
"Harry... Y/n whispered to him as Ron and Hermione were talking to Hagrid now. "We will try Cedric's clue tonight."
Harry nodded looking determined about the egg for the first time in weeks.
Night soon came and both Y/n and Harry were in the dormitory preparing for their planned visit to the prefects bathroom. Harry was reluctant to take Cedric's advice until Y/n pointed out that they had not made any progress themselves.
The Invisibility Cloak would, of course, be essential, and as an added precaution, Harry thought he would take the Marauders Map, which, next to the cloak, was the most useful aid to rule-breaking Harry owned. The map showed the whole of Hogwarts, including its many shortcuts and secret passageways and, most important of all, it revealed the people inside the castle as minuscule, labeled dots, moving around the corridors, so that Harry would be forewarned if somebody was approaching the bathroom.
"I have our eggs." Y/n said holding up both his and Harry's golden egg.
"Right it's time." Harry said looking at his watch. He put on the cloak around himself and Y/n, Then both crept back downstairs, and, just as they had done on the night when Hagrid had shown them the dragons, waited for the portrait hole to open. This time it was Ron who waited outside to give the Fat Lady the password.,
"Good luck." Ron muttered, climbing into the room as Y/n and Harry crept out past him.
The moonlit corridors were empty and silent, and by checking the map at strategic intervals, Harry was able to ensure that they wouldn't run into anyone they wanted to avoid. When they reached the statue of Boris the Bewildered, a lost-looking wizard with his gloves on the wrong hands, he located the right door, leaned close to it, and muttered the password, "Pine fresh." just as Cedric had told them.
The door creaked open. Y/n and Harry slipped inside, Harry bolted the door behind him, and pulled off the Invisibility Cloak, looking around.
His immediate reaction was that it would be worth becoming a prefect just to be able to use this bathroom. It was softly lit by a splendid candle-filled chandelier, and everything was made of white marble, including what looked like an empty, rectangular swimming pool sunk into the middle of the floor. About a hundred golden taps stood all around the pools edges, each with a differently colored Jewel set into its handle. There was also a diving board. Long white linen curtains hung at the windows, a large pile of fluffy white towels sat in a corner, and there was a single golden-framed painting on the wall. It featured a blonde mermaid who was fast asleep on a rock, her long hair over her face. It fluttered every time she snored.
Y/n and Harry moved forward, both looking around, their footsteps echoing off the walls.
Magnificent though the bathroom was and quite keen though Harry was to try out a few of those taps now he was here, Harry couldn't quite suppress the feeling that Cedric might have been having him on. How on earth were they supposed to help solve the mystery of the egg?
Nevertheless, Y/n had grabbed a pair of towels and handed one to Harry who put, the cloak, the map, and the egg at the side of the swimming-pool-sized bath, then knelt down and turned on a few of the taps.
He could tell at once that they carried different sorts of bubble bath mixed with the water, though it wasn't bubble bath as Harry had ever experienced it. One tap gushed pink and blue bubbles the size of footballs, another poured ice-white foam so thick that Harry thought it would have supported his weight if he'd cared to test it, a third sent heavily perfumed purple clouds hovering over the surface of the water. Harry and Y/n amused themselves for a while turning the taps on and off, particularly enjoying the effect of one whose jet bounced off the surface of the water in large arcs. Then, when the deep pool was full of hot water, foam, and bubbles, which took a very short time considering its size, Both boys turned off all the taps, turned away from one another and pulled off their pajamas, slippers, and dressing gown, and slid into the water.
It was so deep that Y/n's feet barely touched the bottom, He watched as Harry actually did a couple of lengths before swimming back to the side. Both silently decided to take a moment to enjoy the hot soapy water before they would begin on their eggs.
"So...why were you avoiding Hermione?" Harry asked making conversation out of some he had been curious about.
"I was rather hoping you would have forgotten about that with the events of today." Y/n admitted.
"You said we could talk about it later." Harry reminded him.
Y/n sighed. "I did." He nodded. "Very well, I am a man of my word but what I tell you stays between you and I. Understood?"
Harry nodded in understanding as he prepared to listen.
"Ron and Neville were not the first to ask Hermione to the ball after Krum had. I was..."
"You asked Hermione?" Harry started.
"Yes." Y/n confirmed. "She told me that Viktor had already asked her first, and that she did not think I would ask her. When I heard she was going with Viktor it made me feel rather unhappy and angry." Y/n admitted.
Harry knew what Y/n meant, it was how he felt whenever he thought about Cedric with Cho Chang.
"At the Yule ball itself, I happened to come across her, We talked, We danced. We...kissed... Until Viktor returned to spoil the moment that is." Y/n told Harry now.
"Wow." Harry said shocked by this. "So are you and Hermione..."
"No. We are not dating Harry." Y/n said. "We spoke this morning and decided to continue as we have been until the end of the tournament."
But this confused Harry. "I don't understand, If you like each other and you want to be with her then why aren't you with her?" He asked.
"Because what happens if I do not make it to the end of this tournament Harry?" Y/n said being brutally honest for once. "We just about about got through the first task by the skin of our teeth. I do not to put Hermione through any more grief than I have to if I fail to..." But he broke off and sighed.
Harry understood this. "Well...we better get started on the second task." He said as if giving Y/n an option to end the topic.
"Yes. Let us begin." Y/n nodded recovering.
Harry stretched out his arms, and lifted his egg in his wet hands, and opened it. The wailing, screeching sound filled the bathroom, echoing and reverberating off the marble walls, but it sounded just as incomprehensible as ever, if not more so with all the echoes. He snapped it shut again, worried that the sound would attract Filch, wondering whether that hadn't been Cedric's plan and then, making him jump so badly that he dropped the egg, which clattered away across the bathroom floor, someone spoke.
"I'd try putting it in the water, if I were you."
Harry had swallowed a considerable amount of bubbles in shock. He stood up, sputtering, and Y/n looked up to see the ghost of a very glum-looking girl sitting cross-legged on top of one of the taps. It was Moaning Myrtle, who was usually to be heard sobbing in the S-bend of a toilet three floors below.
"Myrtle!" Harry said in outrage, "I'm... we're not wearing anything!"
The foam was so dense that this hardly mattered, but Y/n had a nasty feeling that Myrtle had been spying on them from out of one of the taps ever since they had arrived.
"I closed my eyes when you both got in." she said, blinking at them through her thick spectacles. "You both haven't been to see me for ages."
"Yeah... well..." said Harry, bending his knees slightly, just to make absolutely sure Myrtle couldn't see anything but his head, "We're not supposed to come into your bathroom, are we? It's a girls' one."
"You didn't used to care." said Myrtle miserably. "You used to be in there all the time."
"We got told off for going in there. "said Harry, which was half-true, Percy had once caught them coming out of Myrtles bathroom.
"We thought It would be better not to come back after that." Y/n said backing up Harry. The last thing they needed was her wailing.
"Oh... I see..." said Myrtle, picking at a spot on her chin in a morose sort of way. "Well... anyway... I'd try the egg in the water. That's what Cedric Diggory did."
"Have you been spying on him too have you?" said Y/n slightly disturbed.
"What d'you do, sneak up here in the evenings to watch the prefects take baths?" Harry added.
"Sometimes." said Myrtle, rather slyly. "But I've never come out to speak to anyone before."
"I cannot say I am honored..." said Y/n.
"You keep your eyes shut! and Y/n you turn away." Y/n did so as Harry made sure Myrtle had her glasses well covered before hoisting himself out of the bath, wrapping the towel firmly around his waist, and going to retrieve the egg. Once he was back in the water, Myrtle peered through her fingers and said. "Go on, then... open it under the water!"
Harry and Y/n looked at one another.
"It is not like we have any better ideas..." Y/n sighed.
Harry lowered the egg beneath the foamy surface and opened it...and this time, it did not wail. A gurgling song was coming out of it, a song whose words he and Y/n couldn't distinguish through the water.
"You both need to put your heads under too," said Myrtle, who seemed to be thoroughly enjoying bossing them around. "Go on!"
"On three then." Harry said. "One...two...three!"
Y/n took a great breath and slid under the surface. now, Both he and Harry were sitting on the marble bottom of the bubble-filled bath, he heard a chorus of eerie voices singing to him from the open egg in his hands:
"Come seek us where our voices sound,
We cannot sing above the ground,
And while you re searching, ponder this,
We've taken what you'll sorely miss,
An hour long you'll have to look,
And to recover what we took,
But past an hour... the prospect's black,
Too late, it's gone, it wont come back..."
Y/n and Harry let themselves float back upward and broke the bubbly surface, shaking hair out of their eyes.
"Hear it?" said Myrtle.
"Yeah...'Come seek us where our voices sound...' and if I need persuading...hang on, I need to listen again..."
"No. I remember it all." Y/n said running a hand through his hair to comb it out of the way. "We cannot hear their voices on the ground... voices that could only be heard underwater, then... they must belong to something that lives underwater. The only water around here is the Black Lake."
"That's what Diggory thought." Mrytle said. "He lay there talking to himself for ages about it. Ages and ages...nearly all the bubbles had gone..."
"Underwater..." Harry said slowly. "What lives in the lake, apart from the giant squid?"
"Is it possible...that merpeople live in the lake." Y/n proposed now.
"Oooh, very clever Grindelwald." Mrytle said, her thick glasses twinkling. "It took Diggory much longer than that! And that was with her awake too." Myrtle jerked her head toward the mermaid with an expression of great dislike on her glum face. "Giggling and showing off and flashing her fins..."
"Thats it, isn't it?" said Harry excitedly. "The second task's to go and find the merpeople in the lake and..."
"Harry, We still have another problem." Y/n said. "It sounds like we are going to into the lake for an hour searching for something."
"An hour..." Harry said his excitement slowly dying away. "How are we supposed to breathe?"
At this, Myrtle's eyes filled with sudden tears again. "Tactless!" she muttered, groping in her robes for a handkerchief.
"What's tactless?" said Harry bewildered.
"Talking about breathing in front of me!" she said shrilly, and her voice echoed loudly around the bathroom. "When I can't...when I haven't...not for ages..."
She buried her face in her handkerchief and sniffed loudly. Y/n knew Myrtle had always been dramatic about being dead, but none of the other ghosts he knew made such a fuss about it.
"Sorry." Harry said impatiently. "I didn't mean... I just forgot..."
"Oh yes, very easy to forget Myrtle's dead." said Myrtle, gulping, looking at him out of swollen eyes. "Nobody missed me even when I was alive. Took them hours and hours to find my body. I know, I was sitting there waiting for them. Olive Hornby came into the bathroom. 'Are you in here again, sulking, Myrtle?' she said, 'because Professor Dippet asked me to look for you...' And then she saw my body...ooooh, she didn't forget it until her dying day, I made sure of that... followed her around and reminded her, I did. I remember at her brother's wedding..."
But Y/n wasn't listening to Myrtle, he was thinking about the merpeople's song again. 'We've taken what you II sorely miss.' That sounded as though they were going to steal something of his, something he had to get back. What were they going to take?
"...and then, of course, she went to the Ministry of Magic to stop me stalking her, so I had to come back here and live in my toilet."
"Good." said Harry vaguely. "Well, I'm a lot further on than I was...Shut your eyes again, will you? I'm getting out."
"You go ahead Harry. I am going to stay here a while longer." Y/n told him.
"Are you sure?" Harry asked. "How are you going to get back to the common room without being spotted?"
"I will manage. I want to think more about this clue." Y/n said grabbing his own egg from the side now.
"Well, alright." Harry said and retrieved his egg from the bottom of the bath, climbed out, dried himself, and pulled on his pajamas and dressing gown again.
"Will you come and visit me in my bathroom again sometime?" Moaning Myrtle asked mournfully as Harry picked up the Invisibility Cloak.
"Er...I'll try," Harry said, though privately thinking the only way he'd be visiting Myrtle's bathroom again was if every other toilet in the castle got blocked. "See you. Myrtle...thanks for your help."
"Bye, 'bye." she said gloomily, and as Harry put on the Invisibllity Cloak he saw her zoom back up the tap.
"Oh by the way Harry..." Y/n called out with Myrtle gone.
"Yeah?" Harry replied indicating he was still there.
"Mine is bigger..." Y/n grinned.
"You know Ron's right you are a git sometimes..." Harry sighed and left a chuckling Y/n alone.