章節 369: The Girl, the Brothers and the Ring

Luckily for him, Gorump was quite the tenacious fellow. Even after having lost the equivalent of a bathtubful's worth of blood, the small Giant was still hanging on for dear life. Once the misunderstanding between the two parties had been resolved, and once Hagrid had fed him enough strips of dried meat to feed a small army, Gorump was as good as new.

"Hagrid, dear brother!" Gorump sobbed, wrapping the enormous man in his arms and lifting him ten feet into the air. "I didn't mean to hit you so hard— I keep forgetting how tiny and insignificant you are!"

Daphne gaped.

"What did he mean by brother?" she exclaimed. "Is this Giant really…?"

For a moment there, Hagrid seemed hesitant to answer. Or maybe it was because Gorump was squeezing the life out of him? Eventually, though, the Giant let Hagrid back down so that they could have a proper conversation. Daphne was used to craning her neck to talk to tall people, but this was just plain ridiculous!

"This might seem hard ter believe, but…" Hagrid mumbled, "Grawpy here is me little brother. Well, half-brother. We've got the same mum; Fridwulfa's her name."

"So," said Daphne incredulously, "I suppose that makes you a Half-Giant? I… I'd never have guessed."

"Don' seem the type, do I?" said Hagrid with a rueful laugh.

Daphne shook her head.

Giants were infamous for being extremely dumb, violent and cruel creatures, who were prone to fits of irrational fury. In olden times, they would often descend from the mountains upon unsuspecting villages to devour farmers' livestock and kidnap people as emergency food supplies or as craftsmen slaves. Back then, Wizards and Witches had lived alongside Muggles, so one could easily imagine who would have got blamed when Giants randomly attacked.

And add to that their resilience to magical attacks, and was it any wonder that most Wizards feared and hated Giants?

As for Half-Giants… they were thought to be just as violent and cruel as their bloodline's origin, which was why Daphne had always believed that Hagrid had just been dropped into a cauldron of Swelling Solution as a child— or something along those lines. But Hagrid was just some bloke— he was rather nice, even. If there was one thing he could be reproached for, it was that he just plain didn't like Muggles very much.

"Please don' tell Harry, Ron n' Hermione," Hagrid implored her. "I don' wan' 'em ter know— they're not like us, they wouldn' understand..."

Daphne had a hard time imagining the Gryffindor Trio discriminating against their big friend, but if that was Hagrid's wish, she wouldn't tell anyone. Besides…

"I couldn't even if I wanted to," Daphne explained. "I've been expelled from Hogwarts; I'm currently on the run."

She then explained everything that had happened in his absence: Umbridge's slow takeover of Hogwarts, the prophecy, Dumbledore's arrest ("Dumbledore's the greatest Wizard who ever lived," Hagrid had said confidently. "I'm sure it's all sum part o' his plan."), how she and Ginny had become Undesirable No 2 and No 3… By the end of her story, Hagrid was bawling, and had her wrapped in a bear hug. He knew what it was like to be different, to be falsely accused of a crime one hadn't committed…

"Yeh jus' need ter get ter London, yeah?" he sniffled. "I can get yeh there. But I can't just leave Grawp here, he'll get lonely…"

"I WOULD BE MORE THAN HAPPY TO REMAIN HERE!" Gorump said grumpily. "THE MOUNTAINS REMIND ME OF HOME, AND I CAN SMELL DELECTABLE DEER AND FAT SHEEP!"

"Wha' did Grawp say?" Hagrid asked curiously, since he couldn't understand Giantish. "I tried teaching 'im English, but it's bin difficult…"

It was an undeniable fact that Grawp, or Gorump, as he preferred to be called, would be much happier in the Yorkshire Dales than in the dank and dark Forbidden Forest where Hagrid was planning to hide him.

"He wants to stay here, and eat sheep and deer," Daphne translated.

Unfortunately for Gorump, he was a Giant; a type of being notoriously unstealthy by nature. The Muggles would quickly notice his enormous footprints and the mysterious disappearances of their livestock, which meant that the Ministry of Magic's spies in the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food would soon learn of his existence.

In short, Gorump could not stay here, as much as he would have liked to.

And even though Daphne now had Hagrid, she still couldn't use her magic to Tree-Port directly to London. The Trace still functioned when adult Wizards were nearby; it's just that in ordinary cases, the use of magic when an adult Wizards was next to an underage magic user would go unreported. Daphne, however, was Undesirable No. 2; any usage of magic near her would instantly betray her location.

In fact, the only reason why the report of Daphne's and Ginny's first jump to Hogsmeade hadn't been forwarded to the Aurors in time was because of good old British bureaucratic inefficiency!

And so, Hagrid was forced to make a very difficult decision. He would leave Daphne to hide out here, bring Gorump back to Hogwarts, then return to take her to London with his flying motorbike.

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"Daphne!" Ginny shouted into the darkness. "Where are you!?"

The only answer she obtained in return was that of the howling of the wind. Ginny felt a twinge of annoyance; she had told Daphne in no uncertain terms to stay here and to not move an inch.

"Appare Vestigium!" Ginny hissed.

She moved her wand in a circle around her, releasing a cloud of golden particles in her wake. The Tracking Spell worked its magic; the golden dust settled on the ground, clearly outlining her own bootprints and Daphne's smaller footprints. She then raised her lit wand and watched as the golden dust glittered in her wand's light; the trail of footprints led to a nearby thicket downslope.

Satisfied that Daphne hadn't run away without her, Ginny ended her magic and admired the ring on her finger. Removing the dreadful curse that had been placed on it had been rather easy; it had turned itself off automatically upon recognizing her as its rightful master.

It wasn't the most beautiful of rings, but it had a certain attractive allure about it. The band was made of solid gold, and it was inlaid with a large black stone, upon which a symbol that Ginny couldn't identify was graven. A rune?

Perhaps Daphne would know more…