BECOMING PRONGSLET ⟶ Harry Potter

Chapter Five

Returning home to the cottage outside of Hogsmeade, Milo was ready to set his plan in motion. As much as he didn't want to use Hagrid, he knew he could get information out of the man and he was beginning to feel slightly desperate about it. He wondered if friends of his parents were still alive, how come they hadn't made any sort of contact? No one had reached out to Milo or Harry and it was slightly unnerving to the boy as he tried to come up with some sort of plausible explanation in his head. Milo had assumed like his parents that a lot of their friends had died in the First Wizarding War fighting against Voldemort and his followers. It really left Milo with the idea that Remus was behind the photographs and if so, where was the man and why was he avoiding contact?

Minerva seemed happy to bring Milo up to the castle but warned him that he had to remain well-behaved. He claimed that he was going to be in the library for most of the day before leaving to help Hagrid with whatever the man was working on. But Milo had another trick up his sleeve after his mother left him for the day to speak with Professor Sprout and Professor Flitwick about N.E.W.T level class schedule.

Left in the library, Milo reached into the sleeve of his shirt and pulled out the Marauder's Map. He hoped the Weasley twins wouldn't mind too much, seeing as they had little use for it until they arrived back in the castle grounds. For the time being, it would be put to great use as Milo could see where everyone including the ghosts and Peeves were in the castle. Paden rested on the boy's hand as Milo spread the map out over the book he was pretending to read. Madam Pince left him be as he was alone, unable to really cause any issues for her. 

As Minerva had said, he could see her name in the Study Hall accompanied by the name of Professor Flitwick and Professor Sprout, but plenty of others as well. It seemed the majority of the staff with the exception of Professor Dumbledore, Madam Pince, Hagrid, and Filch had gathered. He was confused as to why he saw Gilderoy Lockhart's name in the castle but he had other concerns.

He could see Hagrid working near the edge of the Forbidden Forest, bringing a smile to the boy's face as he looked down at Paden.

"Alright, Paden, this is it. Let's see what we can figure it out, shall we?"

Paden chirped in response before the boy rolled up the map, slipped it back up his sleeve and left the library table. He made his way outside without anyone seeing him and from a distance, he could see Hagrid clearly. He seemed to be clearing a pathway near the edge of the forest, pulling out gnarly roots and debris from a previous rainstorm.

"Hagrid!" Milo called to him as he waved. "Hagrid!"

The large man turned around, wiping the sweat from his brow and offering a smile in the boy's direction. "Milo!" He greeted happily. "Yer mum said you'd be comin' here fer the day!"

"Yeah, she's busy doing schedules and such, I thought we could hang out today, is that alright?"

"O' course! Like I would say no!" Hagrid chuckled. "I'm afraid I don' have much fer ya to do..."

"Well, that's fine," Milo waved it off, "I can just keep you company, along with Paden."

Hagrid looked over his shoulder and noticed the little bowtruckle peering out fearfully at him. Although Paden had seen Hagrid multiple times, he was still quite fearful of the large man's size, cautious that he could easily crush them, even if it was an accident. Milo placed himself on a large boulder as Hagrid was easily breaking the large roots with his bare hands. He was trying to figure out the best way to approach the topic without coming across too strong. But starting small talk never seemed to a strong suit of Milo's, a blunt approach normally seemed to be in his favour.