章節 12: Chapter 12: Forbidden Forest
Beta read by DOOMRAIDER
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-Hagrid's hut-
"Don know wha' ter tell yeh, laddies. I've bin cookin some o' me cakes fer years. Never seen anyone havin any issues eatin 'em." Hagrid said as he watched both me and Hermione nearly destroy our teeths from taking a single bite.
After presenting ourselves and stating that we were walking around and were curious about our school's groundskeeper—he happily invited us into his hut.
The place could be described as homey and warm. With a lit fireplace heating up a copper cauldron with some sort of soup. Pieces of ham, de-feathered pheasant with dried herbs and various other accessories hung all around the walls.
"Yeh both drink tea? I have pumpkin juice an' a bit o' water," he asked. "Though I also have some mead but yeh kids are too young ter drink any."
"Tea is fine, we don't want to disturb you too much." I said, looking at the piece of rock disguised as food.
Maybe dunking it in something hot would help me eat it in the first place.
Soon, two large mugs filled with tea were placed in front of us with Hagrid joining us sitting in his oversized wooden chair which fitted the half-giant perfectly. The floor creaked slightly under his weight, fortunately, this was his house and could easily hold the man's body weight.
"This must be me lucky year, yeh are the second pair o' kids comin' over ter visit old me. Usually, the firs' years forget tha' I exist after I lead 'em back ter the castle an' usually on'y headmaster Dumbledore an' other teachers would pay a visit."
Even if his words sounded depressive and sad, Hagrid looked happy and cheerful.
"It's a bit hard to forget about you when you are the only giant in all of Hogwarts." Hermione said, abandoning her rock cake and just going for the tea.
"And it might be because we don't see you too often. Most of the kids sometimes don't leave the castle for days and even if they did, most would just hang around somewhere nearby and not approach the Forbidden Forest."
I agreed with her words, it just happened that Hagrid's hut was located somewhere most people wouldn't visit. And it wasn't like he could relocate as he probably dealt with the dangerous critters from the forest to not approach the safe zone of Hogwarts.
"Aye, tha' is true, Hermione. Though the other three kids from Gryffindor, Ron, Neville an' Harry did pass by a few times. I gave 'em a few treats ter take away, good kids those three. It makes me happy when I see little harry make some friends, he looks more jovial here 'n his las home."
That got Hermione interested.
"You knew Harry Potter before he came to Hogwarts?"
"I did. I'm the one who brought the young lad ter his firs' visit ter the wizarding world." he said with a smile on his face.
Hagrid really was a gentle giant. With the strength to crush anyone with just his bear strength, he did care about others and wild creatures a lot. I remembered the scene when he descended from the sky in a small scooter holding a baby Harry.
If things went differently, if Dumbledore had decided to not leave Harry to grow up with the Dursleys—then Hagrid would have surely taken care of the young boy.
I realized that even if he wasn't given to the Dursleys, then Dumbledore would have just organized for another family to foster the child. Not that he didn't trust Hagrid, but the giant didn't really have any experience raising normal kids instead of wild and dangerous creatures. At least, that was what I thought his thought process to have been back then.
Who knows, maybe the Weasleys would have come forward and taken Harry under their care, even with their financial instability.
"Yeh should have seen his face, he gawked at every store, wizard an' corner. There was so much I wanted ter show 'im o' the place, however, I was on a short time limit. Duty called an' I had ter collect the essentials along with the boy an' bring 'im back ter his dung brain relatives." he said with an angry humph, showing his displeasure at Petunia's family.
Couldn't blame him, having to lock your nephew under a stair closet for years and treat him what basically amounted to a slave and a nuisance. Insulting the parents he knew nothing of without remorse.
"Was it that bad?" Hermione asked.
"Trust me young lady, when I had ter track the boy on a remote island in the middle o' nowhere. Moreover, I found the boy as thin as a toothpick. After a bit more digging around, I jus recently found tha' his so-called 'family' treated 'im with negligence an' fear. They lied ter 'im abou' his parents an' tha' chubby weasel son o' theirs stole Harry's cake! yeh should have seen me, gave the brat a pig tail, hahahaha!"
We all laughed at that scenery. It was funnier when I actually saw the scene from the movies.
"Haaa, at least he's in Hogwarts now. I jus wish he wouldn' have ter return ter the muggle side at the end o' the year. Oh well… rules are rules."
"You already worry about him going back to when we just started our first year. I haven't talked to Harry much, but I'm sure he'll learn how to handle the situation with his Muggle family after he returns." I said, knowing that boy would mature eventually and learn to fight back if he was being mistreated. Now he had magic and would build his confidence up with his friends, I refused to believe Harry would accept to get treated the same way in the past now.
"Though it still bothers me how could such a thing be allowed to take place." Hermione interjected. "I mean, Harry isn't just your average person, he is the boy who defeated 'He who must not be named' when many failed. Surely the higher officials could not allow him to leave with such people. Why wasn't he brought to the wizarding world from the beginning?"
She looked at both me and Hagrid, expecting a valid answer from one of us. Despite my knowledge of future events, I also could not answer her question.
Back then, I never bothered to ask myself why was Harry allowed to live with such unpleasant people in the first place.
Who knows, maybe I did and just didn't bother to find out the answer and just forgot about it. Back then, it was just a movie which I enjoyed watching. I wasn't a Potterhead who knew every single aspect of the world and lore.
I shook my head at Hermione's gaze.
Hagrid followed suit.
"I wish I had an answer fer yeh, Hermione. Unfortunately, headmaster Dumbledore made his decision an' I know he must've had an important reason behind it."
'Oh yeah, Hagrid seems to be very devoted to Dumbledore.'
Granted, I didn't see the old man as a villain in any way. Just a bit manipulative at times and cunning. Those weren't bad traits to have, especially when running a school like Hogwarts.
But that was from the movies and he could be vastly different in this reality.
It was entirely possible that the guy just made a mistake.
Or maybe he wanted Harry to grow up a bit jaded?
Hagrid clapped his hands together, gaining our attention.
"Anyways, keeping the unhappy thoughts aside. I'm still surprised yeh two decided ter visit me, I wasn' expecting anyone from the Slytherin House ter ever come by. Yeh know…"
"... Because most of the older kids are pricks and the younger ones just forget about you like you've said before?" I said.
Hagrid hesitated to respond, probably not wanting to hurt my feelings over the matter of my house.
"Don't worry, Hermione just recently got bullied by one of the students in our year because of her being from Muggle parents."
I talked to him about the Pansy situation with Hermione filling in with the other part of the story.
"I asked the twins for some help to prank her and even confronted her a bit. Safe to say, she'll leave her alone for the time being."
Pansy would most likely come back, one way or another. Maybe ask the older students for help, those who weren't afraid of me and Draco. Slytherin was a den of snakes, one needed to keep an eye on everyone and those who appear defeated.
"Good, though I would still be careful o' this pansy girl," said Hagrid darkly. "there's not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn' in Slytherin. You-know-who was one."
"..."
Did the giant forget he was conversing with the two Slytherins?
"Did you just forget that we're also Slytherins?"
Of course, Hermione would comment on that without hesitation.
"Oh!" Hagrid flinched when he realised his slip of the tongue
His face reddened and I could see he became very embarrassed.
"I-I'm sorry. I didn' mean tha' in a bad, not all Slytherin are bad people an' yeh definitely ar—"
"—It's alright." I calmed the man, neither mad nor offended at his words. Maybe Hermione was a bit hurt by it, but she was still young and couldn't exactly ignore all the bad comments about her
"Again, I get it. Slytherin doesn't exactly have the best reputation and there are a lot of bad wizards from our house. But I assure you that we won't become dark lords or anything like that."
Since the past one wasn't exactly dead yet.
Hagrid shook his head.
"No, wha' I jus said was uncalled fer. Yeh know, I really am enjoying our small talk here. Even when no one asked yeh ter do so, both o' yeh kids decided ter spend some o' your little time with me… an' here I go badmouthing both o' yeh. If the headmaster were ter hear me righ' now, he would have bin very disappointed in me."
I felt bad for doing this, but with such an opportunity in front of me—I couldn't just let it go.
"Hey, Hagrid. How about this, so as to not feel so bad about this little slip-up, you give us a small tour of the Forbidden Forest?"
"The forest?" he said, surprised, giving me an incredulous stare. "I don' think yeh understand the danger o' these woods, Jarius. Beings o' great power an' all kinds o' evil critters roam the area. One small turn an' yeh could find yourself in a nest o' acromantula spiders. Not tiny spiders like those surging over the leaves below. Spiders the size o' cart horses, eight-eyed, eight-legged, black, hair an' gigantic size. Or even some other species who definitely don' wan' wizards trespassing on their territory."
"Spiders the size or what!?"
Hermione freaked out at the description of the Acromantula. With reason, of course, those things aye human flesh and could easily kill us with their high numbers. It didn't matter what kind of offensive spells we could use if it meant facing against a never ending tide of spiders.
"That is why I'm asking you to give us a tour of the outer regions where it's safe. I'm sure the dangerous creatures lie much further inside the forest and we would only walk along the border and not venture any deeper. It's only for a few minutes. Surely you have some creatures you want to introduce us to, many students doesn't do their research on such creatures unless 's for homework. Most just focus on dragons, for obvious reasons."
He didn't deny it immediately this time. Pondering on my words for a few more seconds while I and Hermione waited.
The latter whispered to me, "Is this going to even work?"
"Probably, we aren't trying to do anything stupid or dangerous by collecting a spider or dragon egg. Plus I could use this opportunity to collect some potion ingredients that I can't easily get my hands on in Hogwarts."
I was already running out on some of the stuff Snape gave to me. I suspected it was because I was a Slytherin and not a Gryffindor—or else he would have most likely thrown me out of his office.
"I still think this is dangerous… but as long as Hagrid accompanies us. And with him alongside us, then I guess that wouldn't count as us breaking the rules."
No, we were definitely breaking the rules and I knew that Hermione realized that point as well. She was maybe just trying to convince herself.
"Don't worry, aside from us and Hagrid, there is no one else roaming the forest at this time of the day. The other teachers probably have a full schedule and I don't think Dumbledore is omniscient enough to check on every single student from his office."
At least I hoped so.
There were a few more Harry Potter movies which I didn't bother to watch. Either because of the lack of time or other reasons, I just never came around to seeing anything beyond the third. For all I knew, Dumbledore could easily be a god in disguise or the main villain in the end. Plot twists like these, where the good guy ends up betraying the MC and being the real villain of the story, were quite popular.
Or, Dumbledore just continued to be the good guy and helped Harry along his journey.
And that's the thing I was counting on, for his attention to be focused on the 'Boy who lived' rather than two random Slytherin kids. However, being the son of Lucius didn't exactly hide me from the spotlight…
Again, treating Dumbledore as the enemy without knowing him for real was a mistake. He could easily become an ally for all I know and my paranoia could cause me more problems than avoiding them.
"Yeh know kids, I've always had a dream o' becoming a teacher. Teaching the little ones 'bout the fascinating creatures in the woods an' makin' 'em more familiar with nature." Hagrid said, before sighing sadly.
"Unfortunately, despite me bes' efforts, I still haven' bin granted permission ter become one. Some people think tha' someone like me isn' suited fer the job an' tha' i might end up hurting someone. Bullocks, I tell ya. On'y the third years are allowed ter venture inside the 'care o' magical creatures classes'."
That gave me an idea.
"Hey, how about this. You give us a tour and we will recommend you to the headmaster. Seeing how you can properly take on the role of a teacher and give us a detailed lesson on the fauna and creatures, we can write an essay on everything we learned and show it along with our recommendation."
"That's a great idea!"
I swear that I saw Hagrid's eyes shine like a kid who opened a gift he wished for Christmas.
"Y-you would do tha' fer me?" he asked, unsure if we were telling the truth or just messing with him.
"I don't mind." Hermione said. "I'm rather curious about the forest as well and getting to learn new aspects about the magical side of the world is quite exciting."
"Same, I love to learn from you, Hagrid."
I meant every word.
The man had a heart of gold despite his wariness of the Slytherin House. And if we become acquainted and he gets to see us learning from him, maybe he'll have a better opinion in the future.
"Alright! Let's go—oh wait!" He stopped in front of the door before hurrying back to his room. "I should dress formally for this occasion!"
He rummaged around his belongings for a few minutes, causing a lot of mess before getting hold of a small wooden box.
"There it is… I've bin saving this thing fer years."
It resembled a wand case, just a tad bit bigger. As he opened the box, both me and Hermione stretched our necks forward to see what exactly he was searching for all this time.
"A tie?" Hermione said.
"Yes, I've seen how all the Hogwarts teachers dress so fancily. Professor Flitwick, Professor McGonagall an' others all have those expensive clothes on 'em. Unfortunately, I don' have tha' kind o' money an' even if I get paid decently by the headmaster, I spend most o' the money on taking care o' the creatures an' grounds around Hogwarts."
The tie in question looked like something made for a kid or clown. Having multiple bright colors from yellow, red and green. Displayed all around the fabric in circles and recipes, giving it a comical appearance.
"It looks… nice."
"Thank yeh, Hermione! I bought from a vendor who said tha' past members o' the ministry would wear summat similar fer important meetings. It was a bit expensive, but i guess tha''s normal fer this fancy stuff."
He definitely got swindled there.
{Break}
We decided to just leave the matter at rest and move on. Hagrid seemed to like the tie and even learned how to put it on, so I guess all was good.
"Now, follow me an' don' stray too far behind me unless yeh don' wan' ter end up as the main course tonight fer a bunch o' deadly monsters." he said.
We followed what looked like to be a dirt path that Hagrid might have put in place in the past. The trail went deeper into the woods, for now, neither of us spotted any special creatures aside from the regular bird and a few insects which made Hermione squeal a bit in disgust.
The woods looked normal, just like your average forest. No dark shadows in the middle of the day, no series of sounds of growls or hissing. Just birds chirping with the crunch of our feet stepping on some dried leaves.
"Mind yeh, we still haven' entered the forbidden forest. This part is still considered Hogwarts property an' most intelligent critters don' come near here often. Or if they wan' ter talk ter me, they make their presence known here."
"What type of intelligent creatures are we talking about?" Hermione asked, already taking notes.
"Plenty, like the centaurs, fer example. They are as intelligent as your regular wizard. So don' treat 'em like fools if ya ever meet one."
"Aren't they hostile towards humans?"
"They are ter those who trespass on their territory. We have an agreement between us, fer 'em not ter attack any students on this side, but some will try ter lure yeh in beyond this point an' will use it as an excuse ter capture ya. Don' trust anything tha' can talk here, an' never EVER venture anywhere beyond the path I built."
Hermione's face went a bit pale as she realized by capture, it most likely meant dying by getting eaten alive.
As we continued to walk behind Hagrid, we both decided to collect some of the plants and ingredients one would usually use for potion making. Resources were abundant here, I collected a few herbs I was familiar with and even wormwood as this ingredient was an often used one, while Hermione went for the knotgrass.
"Why do you need those for?" I asked, curious on what she was planning to work on.
"An appearance-changing potion, the Polyjuice Potion. I learned about it from one of the books in the library and wanted to try it out."
"Don't you need something belonging to the person you're trying to change to? Like a hair or something with traces."
She just gave me a smug look and came toward me.
Then proceed to ruffle my hair.
"Hey!"
I pushed her away and she showed me her hand, with a single strand of blonde hair.
"I already have what I need."
"..."
It wasn't until we arrived at a crossroad that Hagrid stopped walking.
"Yeh see the two roads leading ter different areas?" He pointed at the two paths, one leading to the left and the other to right.
The left path looked to be covered in far more leaves and branches while the one on the right was rather clean.
"The left path is hardly used, it leads ter the artimancula spider's nest an' there are other crossroads inside which connect ter various other forbidden areas o' the forest. Though yeh would also meet some other critters in the righ' path, they are harmless an' will d'you no harm; if yeh are respectful tha' is."
We chose the right path.
The trees in the forest were considered ancient, they were dense and rough looking from years of exposure to the elements. The forest was thick with trees, such as beech, oak, pine, sycamore, and yew, as well as undergrowth such as knotgrass and thorns, but there were paths, brooks, and some clearings. Some of which we passed through.
"The forest hides many secrets. Yeh can never fully understand it. Even after years o' living here, i have never really seen every single magical creature here. The dark landscape here may seem evil, but 's jus foliage blocking off the sun. An old teacher, Professor Silvanus Kettleburn used ter come here often, but even he fell prey ter the dangerous stuff around here, losing an eye, his arm an' other parts."
Eh, Silvanus Kettleburn? I never heard of such a character before. Have I seen him during the sorting ceremony? I couldn't remember, I was too focused on the people I knew about and didn't pay any attention to those I didn't recognize.
Soon, we reached another clearing, larger than the previous ones.
"I planned ter bring the students here an' have 'em meet some o' the magical creatures. From hippogriffs, abraxans, unicorns, mooncalves an' even a centaur—if they accept me request."
The bushy-haired girl kept taking notes of Hagrid's every word and even asked a few more questions.
"Aren't hippogriffs known to be dangerous?"
"Aye, now, firs' thing yeh gotta know abou' hippogriffs is, they're proud. Easily offended, hippogriffs are. Don' never insult one, 'cause it might be the las thing yeh do. Yeh always wait fer the hippogriff ter make the firs' move. 's polite. Yeh walk towards one, an' yeh bow, an' yeh wait. If he bows back, yeh're allowed ter touch 'im. If he doesn' bow, then get away from 'im sharpish, 'cause those talons hurt."
"Then isn't that a bigger concern for you students to approach such a beast…"
As they continued to talk about hippogriffs and other creatures. I searched for a spot and found a small rock to sit on. The place was quite pleasant and peaceful. If there were no danger, I would have bought a pair of headphones and listened to music till I fell asleep. That is… if I had headphones, to begin with.
I closed my eyes to enjoy the breeze against my skin. Feeling sleepy with such an atmosphere.
…ch
The place was quite high up in altitude, I could see the shoreline from where I sat.
Crun…
Maybe I could bring Draco here, a good secret spot for us to do whatever we wanted and hopefully far from any spiders. Blaze and the others were friends, but I rather not just reveal this place to everyone so easily and without Hagrid's permission.
Crunch
I wonder why Hagrid hadn't said anything as he approached me. The heavy footsteps were quite evident. Maybe he thought that I had fallen asleep.
"This place is quite beautiful, you're lucky to come here every day." I said to him, wanting to stay a bit longer.
"Heeeergh!"
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That wasn't Hagrid's voice.
I felt goosebumps spread over my body with the sudden graveled noise behind me
I jumped from my spot in fright, going for my wand and aimed it at whoever was behind me.
And to my horror, it wasn't even a person.
"Waaaaahhhhh!"
What stood before me was a creature which scared the living crap out of me.
A skeletal and reptilian-looking horse from a freaking movie!
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The next 5 chapters of Snafu, Harry Potter and my 3 other Fate fics (Fate Coiling Sword with 3 chapters, A Fake Familiar Reborn with 3 chapters and To love a sword having 4 chapters) are already available on my P@treon. With 4 more Broly chapters at /NimtheWriter. Also, I post monthly commissioned arts on each story, already posted a few on an Archer's Promise, Broly and Snafu.
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