Eater. I mean, it was Voldemort's ruddy grave site!'
'I'd appreciate it if yeh didn't say that name at my table, James,' Hagrid said gently, setting a cup and saucer in front of him. His hands trembled slightly. 'I know the battle's long over, but old habits die hard, yeh unnerstand.'
Rose stirred in her seat. 'Hagrid, do you think it could've been Merlin we saw?'
Hagrid poured steaming water into the cups before he answered. Finally, he settled himself onto one of the chairs, producing a strained creak. He looked hard at Rose, and then stirred his tea with surprising delicacy.
'They say that the Headmaster's a good man with a garden,' Hagrid said, as if changing the subject. 'I don't do a whole lot of readin' myself o' course, but everyone knows that Merlin the Great was a keen one for nature and plants and such. I been hearin' stories about how he spoke to the birds an' the trees since I was a wee lad. So when he came on as Headmaster early this summer, I thought I'd go up an' make my acquaintance. I invited him to come down to the hut so I could show 'im my own little garden. Next day, sure enough, he takes me up on the offer. He traipses all over the garden, not sayin' the slightest thing. He just walks up and down, in and out, tapping that big staff o' his on my pumpkins and squashes and cabbages. Finally, he looks up, out toward the Forest. I looks too, 'cause there's something rising up out of the trees.'
Hagrid still had the teaspoon in his huge hand. Gently, he set it next to his saucer. He looked at James, Ralph, and Rose one by one. 'It was a Djinn. Like a raven, but bigger; black as night with glowing red eyes I could see from where I stood. I'd never actually seen one before, but I knew of 'em. Dark and mysterious creatures, they are; portents, according to legend. Very reclusive. I'd always been told they only come out at night, and if yeh see one on your path, it's a sure sign to turn right back 'round and run home, for the Djinn is s'posed to be a warning of horrible danger for those yeh love. Well, when I saw that black creature rise up out of the trees, I was about to call out to the Headmaster. But I knew he'd already seen it, an' he didn't seem any too worried about it. So I just watched. That black bird flew right over, wheeling once above the garden an' coming to land right on top of one of my pumpkins, right there next to the Headmaster. An' Merlin, he just watches it the whole time. The strangest thing was the way the two of 'em looked at each other. They didn't make any sounds, but it seemed to me plain as day that they was talking to each other somehow. After 'bout a minute, that Djinn looks over at me in that funny way that birds do, with their heads turned aside so one eye is pointing right at yeh. That bright red eye stared me right down, an' it was all I could do not to heave a rock at it like I was a scared kid.'
Hagrid looked imploringly at the three students at his table. 'I loves magical creatures,' he declared. 'Dragons to Skrewts. Yeh lot know that s'well as anyone! I teach Care of Magical Creatures, fer goodness sakes. But that's the way that 'orrible bird made me feel. That glowing red eye just looked at me, an' all I wanted was to put it out, make it so that it'd never look at anyone else ever again. It sent chills down me. Still does.'
Hagrid stopped and finally took a sip of his tea. He cleared his throat and went on. 'Finally, the thing took to flight again, flapping its great, greasy black wings. It flew back to the Forest and disappeared. The Headmaster watched it go, an' then he walked back over to me, still tapping his staff on the ground. He gets next to me an' turns back to the pumpkin patch, looking out over at the west corner. 'You've been having a dead spell in that corner,' he says to me. Well, it's true an' no denyin'. That west corner hasn't raised more'n thorns and thistle for five, six years. 'So I have,' I says to 'im. He looks me in the eye an' says, 'There's a fox who died with all her young, buried in her den under that corner of your garden, Mr. Hagrid. The dead spell arises from their bones, crying for a morning that'll never come. Dig them up, rebury them in the Forest, and sprinkle the earth with Sorrowshot powder. Professor Heretofore can provide some, with my compliments. That will end your trouble.''
Rose's mouth was turned down in a grimace of dismay. 'Did you do it, Hagrid?'
Hagrid glanced up at her, raising his eyebrows. 'Well, o' course I did! Found them bones and no mistake! Did just as the Headmaster said, right down to the Sorrowshot powder. An' you can see plain as day that it did the trick. That corner has my biggest Fiendscorn squash in it. A fine green Tigerstripe variety. You've seen it, o' course. But the point is…'
Hagrid stopped again and fiddled nervously with his teacup and saucer. He took another quick sip, as if to silence himself.
'What, Hagrid?' Ralph asked, exasperated. 'What's the point?'
Hagrid looked at him, as if struggling with whether to speak. Finally, he leaned slightly over the table and said in a low voice, 'The point is it seems pretty plain to me that the Djinn told the Headmaster about that dead fox an' 'er young! The point is, not only are all the old stories true about Merlin the Great talkin' to the trees and the birds, he even talks to the mystical creature-birds of the night! If that great black bird had shown its red eyes in my presence any other time, I'd have turned on my heel an' run! But Merlin, he watches the thing fly over almost as if he called it, almost as if he knows it by its ruddy first name!'
James listened with his mouth pressed into a thin line. Finally, he straightened in his chair and said as plainly as he dared, 'That doesn't mean he's evil.'
Hagrid blinked at him. 'Well, o' course not! Who said he was evil?'
James was perplexed. 'But you just said—'
'Now hold on, James, an' the rest of yeh. I want to be clear,' Hagrid said seriously. 'All I'm saying is that the Headmaster comes from a much different time, a time that would probably scare the hair off most of us. He lived in that time and worked in it. It's what he knows. Things that we would call evil an' bad in this day and age, well… let's just say things weren't so black and white in the time he comes from. That isn't to say that the Headmaster himself is bad. I've got every reason to trust him, and trust him I do! He's just a wee bit… well, wild. If you take my meaning. That's all.'
'But Hagrid,' Rose exclaimed, 'in the Mirror! We saw him with that… that awful thing in the swirling black cloak!'
'If that was the Headmaster,' Hagrid replied stubbornly, 'then he had a very good reason to be there. Yeh said yourself, Rose, that none of yeh could hear what the man said. Maybe he was confronting them. Maybe he was… well, I dunno, but the point is yeh dunno neither.'
'That's what I've been saying all along,' James said petulantly, glaring across the table at Rose.
'Fact is,' Hagrid went on, 'none of yeh know the slightest bit about what yeh was seeing from start to end. Yeh said Merlin told yeh that the Mirror showed the past and the future as well as far-off places, didn'ya? Maybe what yeh were seeing wasn't even from the here'n now. Did yeh think o' that?'
'Actually,' Ralph said thoughtfully, 'no, we hadn't.'
'But the gravesite!' Rose insisted. 'That wasn't from a long time ago! Volde—er, He Who Must Not Be Named hasn't been dead all that long! But his grave was all covered with moss and vines, so it couldn't have been from the past…'
'Let it go, Rose,' Ralph shrugged. 'You might be right, but what would we do about it anyway? All we can do is hope Merlin's as good as his word, like Hagrid says. If he is, we don't have anything to worry about. If he's not… well, what are we going to do against a bloke that can make the earth open up and swallow whole armies?'
Rose fumed but didn't respond.
A short while later, the trio finished their teas and bid Hagrid goodbye. As they left, James peered over into the west corner of the garden. Sure enough, a very large orange- and purple-striped squash rested there on its bed of leaves, still glistening with last night's rain.
'I don't care what anyone says,' Rose said gravely as they skirted the Whomping Willow, 'I don't trust him. He's not what he says he is.'
'As much as I don't agree with Rose,' Ralph answered, 'this whole thing does make our new Defence Club seem all the more important.'
'How so?' James asked.
'Well, it's obvious, isn't it? If what we saw in the Mirror was true and was from the present day, then it means some really bad stuff might be coming. We might actually have an enemy to fight. I, for one, want to be ready for that.'
'Ralph,' Rose said in a different voice, 'if I didn't find you generally thick as a brick, I'd be impressed by that.'
