Annabeth Chase the Triwizard Champion

Chapter Twenty Three

Grubbly-Plank, on the other hand, seemed to be paying more attention to the education more than the unicorn's comfort. Her back was turned away from the unicorn, trusting a bunch of fourteen year old girls she didn't know to treat it appropriately.

How long was Hagrid going to hide?

***

It had been a week. A week, and still Hagrid was holed up in his cabin, hiding from the world. That weekend they were allowed to go to Hogsmead, but Annabeth let Vera and Freddie go on without her. She had a half-giant to visit.

"I just want to talk," she said through the huge door to Hagrid's cabin, her fist aching from knocking. When there was no answer, she sighed, frustrated. "Fine," she muttered. "I'll find another way in."

A broken window lock and a bit of shimmying later, Annabeth entered through the window to find Hagrid sitting at a big table, cradling a mug the size of a small barrel.

"What do you want?" Hagrid muttered, not looking up.

"To talk," Annabeth said. "Can I sit?"

Hagrid stared at her for a second, as if he couldn't believe Annabeth wasn't screaming at him. Hesitantly, he nodded.

As Annabeth walked over, she lifted the hem of her robes, revealing the long scar that ran down her leg.

"Do you want to know how I got this?" she asked, setting herself in a chair (whose seat reached her waist) across from Hagrid's. Hagrid didn't say anything, so Annabeth continued. "A giant gave this to me."

Hagrid barely reacted. "So yeh did come to yell."

"No." Annabeth leaned forward. "I came because a giant also saved my life."

This time Hagrid did look up. "What?"

"I was on a camping trip with my friends," Annabeth said. She had already figured out how to spin this to take out the mythological factors of the story, but even then, it was the first time she'd talked about it to someone who wasn't there. "We were hiking up a mountain. The trip was supposed to last about a week. Did you meet Percy over the break?"

Hagrid nodded slowly. "Kid was hanging around the Beauxbatons horses. I thought they was going to eat him."

"Yeah. Well, he was there too, and... the two of us got separated from the rest of the group. We fell... really far down, into a hotspot for dangerous creatures. It wasn't looking good at all." Annabeth took a deep breath. "We knew this mountain, and we knew where we could get back to our friends, but... it was far, and we were already injured. But we walked anyway."

Hagrid was watching her now, his eyebrows furrowed in concern.

"At some point... a group of manticores found us. We got away, but... Percy was badly injured. He was barely conscious. I wasn't much better. We needed help. Instead, we got a dragon. One that we were in no shape to fight. That's when Damason found us."

"The giant?" Hagrid said quietly.

Annabeth nodded. "He killed the dragon. We thought he was going to kill us, but instead... he brought us to his house. He gave us food, he healed Percy, he kept us comfortable. All he wanted in return was our story."

"He was alone?"

"He was cast out. He wasn't aggressive enough for them. He gave us a safe place to sleep, and he gave us survival packs and sent us on our way. We would have died without him. But he wasn't done." Annabeth took a shaky breath. "Percy and I, we were almost out. We were so close, and then... Damason's father found us. He was huge, Hagrid. Almost sixty feet tall, with pitch black skin. He was going to kill us."

"How did yeh... how did yeh survive?"

Annabeth smiled sadly, but the smile dissolved a second later. "Damason came. He rode in on a dragon's back, with his weapon raised in the air. He fought his own father for us, and we... we ran. We got back to our friends, but... we never found out what happened to Damason. We don't know if he's even alive."

"I'm so sorry," Hagrid said quietly. "But... Why are yeh telling me this?"

"I'm telling you this, Hagrid, because I know how bad giants can be. And if someone like Damason could come from someone like his father, then I promise you, it doesn't matter if Fridwulfa is your mother. Take it from me, your parents don't define you. You choose who you want to be, Hagrid, and you are one of the kindest, most caring people I've ever met."

"Thank yeh, but... you couldn't understand, Annabeth. Yeh're fully human. Yeh don't know what it's like, being a half breed."

Annabeth almost laughed. If only she was fully human. Even the idea that she was was so foreign to her that she just found it funny.

"What?"

"Hagrid..." Annabeth knew that telling mortals about the Greek gods was frowned upon, mostly because it put them in danger, but Hagrid wasn't mortal. And if he was half-giant, then he definitely knew about them already, which meant that he knew about demigods. And Hagrid was the last person Annabeth thought would attack her, and something about this just seemed... right.  "You know about the Greek gods, right?"

"Of course I do," Hagrid said hoarsely. "Mom used to tell me horrible stories about them... but I guess she was biased."

"She probably was," Annabeth agreed, "but they still did terrible things. Hagrid, what if I told you that I'm half-human, too? That i've been hunted all my life for it?"

"Yeh're what?"

"My mother is Athena," Annabeth said carefully. "She's—"

A knock on the door cut Annabeth off. With a look to Hagrid, Annabeth slid off her chair to answer it. She froze when the opened door revealed Dumbledore.

"I must confess, I heard the last few minutes of that conversation," he said merrily.

"How long have you been standing here?" Annabeth asked, eyes narrowed. She could spin this. She could explain it in a way that didn't give her away.

"As I said, the last few minutes," Dumbledore said. He had a twinkle in his eye. "Though I did suspect your parentage long before today. You needn't worry; your secret is safe with me, and, I can say, Hagrid."

"Professor Dumbledore," Hagrid croaked, still not getting up. "What're you doing here?"

"The same, I assume, as Miss Chase," Dumbledore said. "To talk to you, Hagrid."

"I'm going to go," Annabeth said slowly. "Think about what I said, Hagrid."

***

"Oh course we still want to know you!" Harry said, staring at Hagrid. How could he think otherwise? "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 just said, Harry," Dumbledore said, twiddling his thumbs and staring at the ceiling.

"Er— right," Harry said sheepishly. "I just meant— Hagrid, how could you think we'd care what that— woman— wrote about you?"

"Living proof of what I've been telling you, Hagrid," Dumbledore said. "I have shown you the letters from the countless parents who remember you from their school days, and you heard what Miss Chase said—"

"Annabeth was here?" Harry said incredulously. "What was she doing here?"

"Came to talk," Hagrid said. "Told me a story about— ah, I shouldn't say."

So Annabeth came here, to talk to Hagrid, just like they were doing? With that and the note she had given him a week ago, Harry was really starting to think that Annabeth Chase might be someone he'd want to know better.