Lionhearts | hp. ✓

BONUS CHAPTER | You're a Wizard, Hagrid.

Hagrid smiled to himself, the laughter and chatter of the afternoon echoing in his mind as he shuffled back to his hut after helping to clean up the party -- with the help of his newly employed magic. With Fang at his heels, he swung open the door to his new hut and stepped inside. The hut wasn't actually a hut, but rather a spacious cottage for his size with domed roofing, stone walls, three rooms, shuttered windows, and garden boxes on his windows for whatever he wanted to grow. He filled a kettle with some water, hung it over the fireplace, and used his wand to light a fire on the logs. He could just as easily boil the water with his magic, but some habits die hard -- he much preferred the routine.

Fang rumbled low in his throat -- not a growl, but an sound of recognition. Hagrid turned to follow his line of sight and found a figure sitting on the darker side of the hut. She was small compared to the frame of his massive chair, her thinness reflected the trauma that still lingered on her body, and her hair was a deep-brown color now to mask the fiery red temper she found had much escaped her in the past year. Many things were different about her, but he knew those bright green eyes and the warmth of her smile well -- even if both echoed with the trauma that may never escape her.

"You didn't t-think I'd miss this, did you? ...The s-strange little orphan girl and the keeper of keys and grounds at Hogwarts...we've come a l-long way, haven't we, old f-friend?"

"Dear me, Lily Potter." He smiled with all his might. His heart beamed in his chest. "It's good to see ye."

She smiled back at him. The fire finally caught the log in its entirety and the room was filled with warmth and light. It illuminated her features and he was hyperaware of how pale she seemed from lack of sunlight.

"So how does it feel?" She smiled, her eyes glittering with memories from the past. "You're a wizard, Hagrid."

"It feels amazing. I never thought I'd see the day. Dumbledore was always good to me, ye know, and I was able to help many younglings grow up to become fine witches and wizards. I thought that's all was destined for me, ye know? But thanks to you...the wrongs of the past have been righted. It's a real dream."

Lily stood from her chair and joined him by the fire. She sat on the floor and he plopped down on a chair opposite from her.

"This is all y-you, Hagrid. The magic, graduating from Hogwarts -- it's simply the rights you've earned from all of the good y-you've done throughout your life. It was you who rescued Harry and me from Godric's Hollow; you who returned us to the wizarding world;you who stuck by us as a friend and m-mentor as we acclimated to this s-strange world. It's a right that s-should've never been stolen from you."

"Thank ye, Lily." He smiled softly. She averted her gaze to the firelight so she didn't have to acknowledge how long his stare lingered on her -- long enough to realize this wasn't the Lily he met all of those years ago. She was different.

Her lips curved up wistfully as she thought of something he once said to her and Harry long ago. "I am what I am, and I'm not ashamed of it. I know I'm d-different, Hagrid. I know y-you see it -- I can see it in your eyes. I didn't a-attend your celebration because--"

"--Ye don't owe me an explanation, Lily. I know. I understand. I was there that day. I remembered how it felt when I thought we'd lost ye -- when ye did show up, in the state ye were in...all I could think was that it was a miracle. And it was, wasn't it, eh? The Girl Who Lived, truly."

"How do you do it, Hagrid?"

"What d'you mean?"

"I have hope. I've always had hope, e-even when I was that u-unimportant little orphan girl wishing for some magical a-adventure from the confines of her b-broom closet of a bedroom. Hope isn't my p-problem. It's faith... I don't have f-faith that anything will ever be righted again. The people we've lost, the time, the truths that have come out... You stare it in the f-face and still have faith t-that it will all be okay s-somehow."

"I don't think I have any choice but to have some faith. If I didn't, I don't think I'd have gotten this far. It does no good to see the world for only the bad parts."

"I see all of it." The words escaped her lips as a strangled sigh. "I see the good and the bad, the b-beauty and the ugly. My vision has been s-stripped bare, and all I can see is the w-world for the chaos that it is. Sometimes, the chaos w-within me gets louder than the c-chaos I see in the world. There used to be a time w-when I thrived on the chaos -- I loved it. Now, I c-can't imagine ever getting that back."

"Oh, ye'll get it back. Ye might not see it now, but I sure do. It's in yer eyes, Lily. Not yer mother's eyes, but yers -- they've always been yer own, haven't they? Never quite either of yer parents, but completely you. Yer a rare one, Lily, and someone like that doesn't just vanish because bad things happen to them. Ye've always come out swinging, and this time it'll be no different...perhaps it'll just take a little longer. But that spark is still there. Oh yes."

Just as she did when she was younger, Lily offered him a warm smile through her teary eyes. She watched quietly, mulling over his words, as he poured the kettle into two tankards for tea and dished out a platter of rock cakes. They were by far the worst things she'd ever tried to eat, but a visit to Hagrid's was never complete without a rock cake.

The young woman and friendly giant sat in comfortable silence for a few moments,

"You know, Hagrid...if you d-don't count any of that stuff about dark prophecies and secret wars...you were the one who really made our time at Hogwarts i-interesting. You made it truly magical -- always k-keeping us on our toes."

Hagrid cracked a grin, "Ye think so, eh?"

For the first time in a long time, Lily cracked a grin of her own. "Fluffy the three-headed dog... following the spiders...j-joyrides on Buckbeak...secret dragon sightseeing...rides on flying motorbikes. Oh, yes. I t-think so."

"We did have lots a good times." He agreed with a happy sigh. His twinkling dark eyes cast to the fire as he tried his best to hide the tears welling in them. He didn't ever want to think of the day it would all come to an end.

"We have many more ahead of us, too. Not just Harry, Ron, Hermione, or me -- but generations of students to pass through these grounds. Albus Dumbledore knew damn well what he was doing when he made you the keeper of keys and grounds...he knew that keys weren't the only things you'd be safekeeping during your time here. The magic, the warmth, the wonder...that's all you. Looking back now, it's no wonder that..."

Fat tears the size of bullets streaked down his cheeks and into his wirey beard as he peered down at her. As she spoke, he noticed that her stutter lessened and her eyes twinkled more. Of course it did, for she was recalling some of the best times of her life. Rubeus Hagrid had been there to watch her parents grow up, to watch her grow up and become the fine, strong woman sitting in front of him today. In all the world, there was no one he would rather spend this special day with. For the first time in forever, this young woman was able to give back to the man who was always so selfless and kind. She was able to show him that while Hogwarts made an impact upon his heart, the impact he left on Hogwarts school was far greater. There was a reason for that.

"It's no wonder what...?"

Hagrid knew he wouldn't be around forever, as much as he would like to be. Hogwarts and the generations of students to come would live on, long after he was gone. He liked to think that his time here and the hearts he touched would have a lasting impact somehow. Lily Potter peered up at her old friend and smiled the very same smile he gave her long ago when he first introduced her to the world she now called home.

"It's not Hogwarts without you, Rubeus Hagrid..."

___________________________________________

Rest in Peace, Robbie Coltrane.

Rubeus Hagrid,
the noble Keeper of Keys
and Grounds at Hogwarts,
the Friendly Giant
with the pink umbrella,
the lover of dragons and
all magical creatures,
will forever live on.

May we all raise our wands in tribute.