Lalia was swimming in what she assumed to be the Black Lake. She hadn't noticed that she wasn't forced to hold her breath. It was as if she was able to breath under water. She felt like the water was banging on her face violently. Lalia swam forward unsure was she was searching for, but feeling calm in the dark waters.
Something in the water reflected light in the girl's eye, pushing the girl to begin swimming harder towards it. It was a mirror, floating in the lake, but tied in place to the ground. Confused, Lalia looked closer at the object. Like any mirror she saw herself in it. Lalia looked closer when she realized that the version of herself in the mirror was not her reflection. The mirror showed her with her eyes closed, frozen in space, being rocked by the water.
Jumping at the image in front, Lalia woke herself up. She jumped up in bed next to Ginny, who thankfully did not wake up.
The green and red gowns on the floor alerted Lalia to what had happened. She had not taken her draught before going to bed with Ginny and had just had her first vision in months. She wanted to immediately tell the trio, but she remembered Harry's words. He did not think the visions were worth the visits from Voldemort.
Lalia realized she wasn't even sure what the vision meant and until she knew the meaning she would keep it to herself. She carefully got out of bed and wrote Ginny a note before grabbing her dress and leaving to Ravenclaw tower.
The dress was thrown onto her trunk at the end of her bed before she noticed the owl sitting in the middle of it.
Lalia walked over and offered the owl a treat before she untied the letter it carried and released it. The owl immediately flew away
Lalia,
I obviously had to give you this separately than the joint gift as your dad would actually kill me.
I've written out the instructions for the animagus potion. Follow it perfectly. If it is not bright red upon finishing, throw it out! Do not drink it, if you aren't absolutely positive it will work. I'd rather help you get ingredients multiple times than end up with a half human half animal daughter.
I'm serious,
Sirius.
P.S. I've included three Death's-Head Hawk Moth's chrysalis and a substantial amount of mandrake leafs. I will give you the untouched dew once I have it. I know where to get it in the forest by school and will hopefully be nearby soon to do so.
Instructions:
Place a mandrake leaf under your tongue for a month, avoid talking much to lessen the chance of it moving. At the end of the month, put the leaf in a phial in direct moonlight. If the moon is new or blocked, you will have to redo this step.
Add one strand of hair to the phial. Add a teaspoon of dew from a place untouched by sunlight or humans for at least seven days.
Lastly, add a chrysalis and place the phial in a dark place where it will remain undisturbed until the next lightning storm. Upon the first strike of the lightning storm, it will turn blood-red and you can drink it IN PRIVATE.
I repeat one more time. If it is not BLOOD-RED, DO NOT DRINK IT!
Lalia knew that this didn't guarantee that he would get the dew to her before the month was up, but she impatiently opened the package and placed a mandrake leaf under her tongue to begin the process.
The following week, classes had begun again and Lalia was avoiding most of her friends to avoid displacing the mandrake leaf. When she was with them it was to do homework in silence.
Her plans quickly changed upon Sue wincing during lunch while reading the Daily Prophet. She glanced at Lalia who simply raised her brow in return. With a sigh, Sue slid the paper in front of the girl.
DUMBLEDORE'S GIANT MISTAKE
Albus Dumbledore, eccentric headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy, 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 jinx-happy ex-Auror, to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts, a decision that caused many raise eyebrows at the Ministry of Magic, given Moody's well-known 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 off 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 conversation with a Daily Prophet reporter last month, he admitted breeding creatures he has dubbed "Blast-Ended Skrewts," highly dangerous crosses between manticores and fire-crabs. The creation of new breeds 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 whereabouts are currently unknown.
After reading Hagrid's identity presented in a manner similar to her own father's, Lalia simply stopped reading, throwing the paper on the table and glancing at the Slytherin table.
Lalia squinted her eyes at the boy loudly laughing with his friends. When he stood and began making his way to the entrance hall with his two pet monkeys, she stood silently and made her way after him. Lalia ignored Sue and Morag's worried cries as they scrambled up out of their seats, catching Harry's attention when he heard her name being called.
Harry hurriedly told Ron and Hermione to follow him, which they did, but not without Ron grabbing food to eat on the way. As the trio entered the entrance hall, they heard Lalia speak.
"Hey, Draco!" she called in a steel tone.
The boy turned around to face her, his face showing confusion and happiness that his cousin had finally spoken to him.
Lalia walked over to stand in front of him, Morag and Sue worriedly behind her. Without another word, Lalia suddenly had punched Draco in the jaw, causing the boy to fall into Crabbe.
"Stay away from the people I care about. I'm serious," she growled at him before turning around and seeing the trio.
Harry sent Lalia a large smile, which she simply just nodded to before leaving to Ravenclaw tower with Morag and Sue.
When she reached the tower, she realized that the mandrake leaf under her tongue was now torn to shreds in her cheek. She reached in and flung the leaf in the trash before sinking into her bed, ignoring Morag and Sue excitedly talk about what had just happened.
---
"Hi guys, back from Hogsmeade?" Lalia asked as she saw the trio approaching her. She had been going for a walk on the Hogwarts grounds when she caught sight of Hermione, Harry, and Ron.
Harry and Ron gave her quiet hellos, but Hermione just plowed by her.
"What happened?" she whispered to the boy, all three following the angry girl.
"Ran into Rita Skeeter," mumbled Ron.
Hermione led the group to Hagrid's cabin. The curtains were still drawn, and they could hear Fang barking as they approached.
"Hagrid!" Hermione shouted, pounding on his front door. "Hagrid, that's enough! We know you're in there! Nobody cares if your mum is a giantess, Hagrid! You can't let that foul Skeeter woman do this to you! Hagrid, get out here, you're just being -"
The door opened. Hermione said, "About t-!" and then stopped, very suddenly, because she had found herself face-to-face, not with Hagrid, but with Albus Dumbledore.
"Good afternoon," he said pleasantly, smiling down at them.
"We - er- we wanted to see Hagrid," said Hermione in a rather small voice.
"Yes, I surmised as much," said Dumbledore, his eyes twinkling. "Why don't you come in?"
"Oh ... um ... okay," said Hermione.
The four friends entered the cabin; Fang launched himself upon Harry the moment he entered, barking madly and trying to lick his ears. Harry fended off Fang and looked around.
Hagrid was sitting at his table, where there were two large mugs of tea. He looked a real mess. His face was blotchy, his eyes swollen, and he had gone to the other extreme where his hair was concerned; far from trying to make it behave, it now looked like a wig of tangled wire.
"Hi, Hagrid," said Harry.
Hagrid looked up.
"'Lo," he said in a very hoarse voice.
"More tea, I think," said Dumbledore, closing the door after the group, drawing out his wand, and twiddling it; a revolting tea tray appeared in midair along with a plate of cakes. Dumbledore magicked the tray onto the table, and everybody sat down. There was a slight pause, and then Dumbledore said, "Did you by any chance hear what Miss Granger was shouting, Hagrid?"
Hermione went slightly pink, but Dumbledore smiled at her and continued, "Hermione, Harry, Lalia, and Ron still seem to want to know you, judging by the way they were attempting to break down the door."
"Of course we still want to know you!" Harry said, staring at Hagrid. "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 said, Harry," said Dumbledore, twiddling his thumbs and staring at the ceiling.
"Er -right," said Harry sheepishly. "I just meant - Hagrid, how could you think we'd care what that - woman - wrote about you?"
Two fat tears leaked out of Hagrid's beetle-black eyes and fell slowly into his tangled beard.
"Living proof of what I've been trying to tell you, Hagrid," said Dumbledore, still looking carefully up at the ceiling. "I have shown you the letters from the countless parents who remember you from their own days here, telling me in no uncertain terms that if I sacked you, they would have something to say about it -"
"Not all of 'em," said Hagrid hoarsely. "Not all of 'em wan' me ter stay."
"Oh, Hagrid, my bloody family's opinion does not matter," Lalia said.
Dumbledore cleared his throat at the girl's words. Lalia merely shrugged at her friends shocked glances in response.
"Really, Hagrid, if you are holding out for universal popularity, I'm afraid you will be in this cabin for a very long time," said Dumbledore, now peering sternly over his half-moon spectacles. "Not a week has passed since I became headmaster of this school when I haven't had at least one owl complaining about the way I run it. But what should I do? Barricade myself in my study and refuse to talk to anybody?"
"Yeh - yeh're not half-giant!" said Hagrid croakily.
"Hagrid, look what I've got for relatives!" Harry said furiously. "Look at the Dursleys!"
"Yeah! I mean I've got Death Eaters for cousins," Lalia added.
"An excellent point," said Professor Dumbledore. "My own brother, Aberforth, was prosecuted for practicing inappropriate charms on a goat. It was all over the papers, but did Aberforth hide? No, he did not! He held his head high and went about his business as usual! Of course, I'm not entirely sure he can read, so that may not have been bravery ... ."
"Come back and teach, Hagrid," said Hermione quietly, "please come back, we really miss you."
Hagrid gulped. More tears leaked out down his cheeks and into his tangled beard.
Dumbledore stood up. "I refuse to accept your resignation, Hagrid, and I expect you back at work on Monday," he said. "You will join me for breakfast at eight-thirty in the Great Hall. No excuses. Good afternoon to you all."
Dumbledore left the cabin, pausing only to scratch Fang's ears. When the door shut behind him, Hagrid began to sob into his dustbin sized hands. Hermione kept patting his arm, and at last, Hagrid looked up, his eyes very red indeed, and said, "Great man, Dumbledore ... great mean ..."
"Yeah, he is," said Ron. "Can I have one of these cakes, Hagrid?"
"Help yerself," said Hagrid, wiping his eyes on the back of his hand. "Ar, he's righ', o' course - yeh're all righ' ... I bin stupid ... my ol' dad woulda bin ashamed o' the way I've bin behavin'. ..." More tears leaked out, but he wiped them away more forcefully, and said, "Never shown you a picture of my old dad, have I? Here ..."
Hagrid got up, went over to his dressed, opened a drawer, and pulled out a picture of a short wizard with Hagrid's crinkled black eyes, beaming as he sat on top of Hagrid's shoulder. Hagrid was a good seven or eight feet tall, judging by the apple tree beside him, but his face was beardless, young, round, and smooth- he looked hardly older than eleven.
"Tha' was taken jus' after I got inter Hogwarts," Hagrid croaked. "Dad was dead chuffed ... thought I migh' not be a wizar, see, 'cos me mum ... well, anyway. 'Course, I never was great shakes at magic, really ... but at least he never saw me expelled. Died, see in me second year. ...
"Dumbledore was the one who stuck up for me after Dad went. Got me the gamekeeper job ... trusts people, he does. Gives 'em second chances ... tha's what sets him apar' from other Heads, see. He'll accept anyone at Hogwarts, s'long as they've got talent. Knows people can turn out okay even if their families weren' ... well ... all tha' respectable. But some don' understand that. There's some who'd always hold it against yeh ... there's some who'd even pretend they just had big bones rather than stand up an' say - I am what I am, an' I'm not ashamed. 'Never be ashamed,' ... ."
Lalia began thinking of her own dad, who always would've never gone to Hogwarts if it wasn't for Dumbledore. She was grateful the man wasn't blinded by the views of those like her other family.
Lalia jumped and realized where she was with Hagrid's spirited voice.
"Yeh know wha', Harry?" he said, looking up from the photograph of his father, his eyes very bright, "when I firs' met you, you reminded me o' me a bit. Mum an' Dad gone, an' you was fellin' like yeh wouldn't fit in at Hogwarts, remember? Not sure yeh were really up to it ... an' now look at yeh, Harry! School champion!"
He looked at Harry for a moment and then said, very seriously, "Yeh know what I'd love, Harry? I'd love yeh ter win, I really would. It'd show 'em all ... yeh don' have ter be pureblood ter do it. Yeh on' have ter be ashamed of what yeh are. It' show 'em Dumbledore's the one who's got it righ', lettin' anyone in as long as they can do magic. How you doin' with that egg, Harry?"
"Great," said Harry. "Really great."
Hagri's miserable face broke out into a wide, watery smile.
"Tha's my boy ... you show 'em, Harry, you show 'em. Beat 'em all."