Annabeth had figured out the egg, but according to Hermione, Harry hadn't. It was supposed to be Annabeth's job to make sure Harry got through this alive, and she wasn't going to leave this up to chance. From the small amount of time she had spent with Harry, Annabeth knew he wasn't the smartest. So, between classes, she wrote a quick note and slipped it into Harry's bag as she passed him in the hall.
Thanks for the tip about the dragons. Now it's my turn. Take the egg into the water with you.
-Annabeth
The rest of the break passed quickly, most of it spent outside. The last day came way too soon, and Percy and Annabeth decided to go out with an adventure. The Forbidden Forest was forbidden for a reason, but the woods at Camp were just like them if what Vera always said was true. So how could they not go exploring?
A few injuries and a fight with the local centaur herd (they had a lot of things to say about Chiron) later, Percy and Annabeth headed back to the Slytherin common room, where they cleaned up Percy's arm and Annabeth's cheek.
The next thing Annabeth knew, the break was over and Percy had gone back to Camp Half-Blood. She was just counting down the days until the second task when she could see him again.
School started up again with a bang, like the teachers were trying to make up for the week and a half of missed opportunities to take up everyone's time. Snow continued to fall heavily, blocking up the windows and weighing down the trees.
Literally no one was excited for Care of Magical Creatures on Wednesday, but according to Vera (who was the only person that actually liked the Skrewts), the explosions would warm them up. Annabeth noticed Malfoy and his friends looking especially smug that morning, and she wouldn't find out why until breakfast and then class, where a woman Annabeth didn't know was standing outside of Hagrid's cabin.
Annabeth had sat far down the table from where Malfoy was, but she wasn't far enough to not hear the newspaper article he was yelling for everyone to hear.
Dumbledore's giant mistake
Albus Dumbledore, eccentric headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, has never been afraid to make controversial staff appointments, writes Rita Skeeter, Special Correspondent. In September of this year, he hired Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody, the notoriously jink-happy ex-auror, to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts, a decision that caused many raised eyebrows at the Ministry of Magic, given Moody's well-know habit of attacking anybody who makes a sudden movement in his presence. Mad-Eye Moody, however, looks responsible and kindly when set beside the part-human Dumbledore employs to teach Care of Magical Creatures.
Rubeus Hagrid, who admits to being expelled from Hogwarts in his third year, has enjoyed the position of gamekeeper at the school ever since, a job secured for him by Dumbledore. Last year, however, Hagrid used his mysterious influence over the headmaster to secure the additional post of Care of Magical Creatures teacher, over the heads of many better qualified candidates.
An alarmingly large and ferocious looking man, Hagrid has been using his newfound authority to terrify the students in his care with a succession of horrific creatures. While Dumbledore turns a blind eye, Hagrid has maimed several pupils during a series of lessons that many admit to being 'very frightening.'
"I was attacked by a Hippogriff, and my friend Vincent Crabbe got a bad bite from a flobberworm," says Draco Malfoy, a fourth year student. "We all hate Hagrid, but we're just too scared to say anything."
Hagrid has no intention of ceasing his campaign of intimidation, however. In conversations with a Daily Prophet reporter last month, he admitted importing new creatures that have been dubbed 'Blast Ended Skrewts,' highly dangerous crosses between manticores and fire crabs. The importation of magical creatures is, of course, an activity usually closely observed by the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. Hagrid, however, considers himself to be above such petty restrictions.
"I was just having some fun," he says, before hastily changing the subject.
As if this were not enough, the Daily Prophet has now unearthed evidence that Hagrid is not— as he has always pretended— a pure-blood wizard. He is not, in fact, even pure human. His mother, we can exclusively reveal, is none other than the giantess Fridwulfa, whose where-abouts are currently unknown.
Bloodthirsty and brutal, the giants brought themselves to the point of extinction by warring amongst themselves during the last century. The handful that remained joined the ranks of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, and were responsible for some of the worst mass muggle killings of his reign of terror.
While many of the giants who served He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named were killed by Arours working against the Dark Side, Fridwulfa was not among them. It is possible she escaped to one of the giant communities still existing in the foreign mountain ranges. If his antics during Care of Magical Creatures lessons are any guide, however, Fridwulfa's son appears to have inherited her brutal nature.
In a bizarre twist, Hagrid is reputed to have developed a close friendship with the boy who brought around You-Know-Who's fall from power— thereby driving Hagrid's own mother, like the rest of You-Know-Who's supporters, into hiding. Perhaps Harry Potter is unaware of the unpleasant truth about his large friend— but Albus Dumbledore surely has a duty to ensure that Harry Potter, along with his fellow students, is warned about the dangers of associating with part-giants.
Of course it had been a secret that Hagrid was half giant. Giants had a horrible reputation, even among mortals. But how had Hagrid's lineage ended up in the paper? And now that it was out, what was going to happen with Hagrid? Dumbledore must have known, which didn't surprise Annabeth, but it seemed no one else had until now.
She got to Hagrid's cabin just in time to hear Ron shout, "who're you? Where's Hagrid?"
"My name is Professor Grubbly-Plank," the woman said shortly. "I am your temporary Care of Magical Creatures teacher."
"Where's Hagrid?" Harry pretty much yelled.
"He is indisposed. This way, please."
Indisposed? As the class followed Professor Grubbly-Plank, Annabeth looked over her shoulder at Hagrid's closed off cabin. How much was he letting the article get to him? Was he just going to hide in his house forever? Annabeth sighed in frustration. He was letting them win.
A chorus of high pitched gasps turned Annabeth's attention back to the front of the class, where a beautiful unicorn was tethered to a tree. Its skin was so pearly white it was almost hard to look at, and its horn and hooves were a shining gold.
Annabeth had seen unicorns before, and she didn't really understand why everyone was so obsessed with them. Sure, they were beautiful, and their horns had a few magical properties, but they didn't really do any more than a normal horse would.
"Boys keep back!" Grubbly-Plank shouted. "They prefer the woman's touch, unicorns. Girls to the front, and approach with care, come on, easy does it..."
Annabeth leaned against a tree while a swarm of girls slowly walked over to the unicorn. The poor thing was trotting in place nervously, tossing its mane as the girls surrounded it and Grubbly-Plank started listing off its magical properties.
The unicorn was starting to calm down, though it was still surrounded on all sides. No one liked being swarmed like that, and even Annabeth knew how timid unicorns were. It's why they're never seen by mortals and most wizards. Shouldn't Grubbly-Plank know that? Hagrid would have.
Hagrid's first concern in his classes was the safety and comfort of the magical creatures he was teaching about. Even with the monsters, aggressive as they were, Hagrid's priority was always safety for them. And sure, his classes were pretty dangerous (especially for Annabeth and her yummy demigod blood), but he cared so much about his job and his students. The few times people had been stung by a skrewt, Hagrid had wrapped them up himself.
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.