Emma Potter

108: Hagrid's Obvious Secret

His lips were soft and they fit against mine perfectly. We both smiled through the kiss, it was sweet and soft. Not like me and Isaac had. This one felt like something. 

We broke apart. 

"Now would be the ideal time to ask you to be my girlfriend." said Draco smirking at me. 

My face fell. I did want to be his girlfriend. . .but with everything going on, it's probably not the best thing. At least, until I found a way to ease it in. 

"Dray, I would love to be your girlfriend" I said, smiling "but, there's so much going on. I mean, someone could die, and we've just made up and--" I paused "it just seems so fast."

To my surprise he smiled. "I get it" he said "so here's a suggestion; I'll ask you to be my girlfriend next year. When things would have calmed down. Or the year after. You set the pace, and I'll follow."

"Next year sounds perfect" I said.

"Perfect" agreed Draco "shall we go in?"

When the Weird Sisters finished playing at midnight, everyonegave them a last, loud round of applause and started to wend theirway into the entrance hall. Many people were expressing the wish that the ball could have gone on longer, but I was perfectlyhappy to be going to bed; it was a tiring evening, fun, but tiring. 

I bid Hermione good night, and was going to meet Ron and Harry. I had just caught up to them when--

"Hey — Harry!"

 It was Cedric Diggory.I could see Cho waiting for him inthe entrance hall below. 

"Yeah?" said Harry coldly as Cedric ran up the stairs toward him. 

Cedric looked as though he didn't want to say whatever it was infront of Ron, who shrugged, looking bad-tempered, and continuedto climb the stairs.He looked at me, I raised my eyebrows back. I wasn't going anywhere. 

 "Listen . . ." Cedric lowered his voice as Ron disappeared. "Iowe you one for telling me about the dragons. You know thatgolden egg? Does yours wail when you open it?" 

"Yeah," said Harry.

 "Well . . . take a bath, okay?"

 "What?" 

"Take a bath, and — er — take the egg with you, and — er —just mull things over in the hot water. It'll help you think. . . . Trustme. 

Harry and I stared at him. Was he quiet alright?

"Tell you what," Cedric said, "use the prefects' bathroom.Fourth door to the left of that statue of Boris the Bewildered on thefifth floor. Password's 'pine fresh.' Gotta go . . . want to say goodnight —" 

He grinned at Harry again and hurried back down the stairs toCho. 

Everybody got up late on Boxing Day. The Slytherin common room was much quieter than it had been lately, manyyawns punctuating the lazy conversations. Hermione's hair wasbushy again at lunch; she confessed to Harry and me that she had used liberalamounts of Sleekeazy's Hair Potion on it for the ball, "but it's waytoo much bother to do every day," she said matter-of-factly. 

Ron and Hermione seemed to have reached an unspoken agreement not to discuss their argument. They were being quite friendlyto each other, though oddly formal. Ron and Harry wasted no timein telling Hermione and me about the conversation they had overheard between Madame Maxime and Hagrid, but we didn't seem tofind the news that Hagrid was a half-giant nearly as shocking asRon did. 

"Well, I thought he must be," I said, shrugging. "I knew hecouldn'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 towardwerewolves. . . . It's just bigotry, isn't it?"