Hagrid Was Once Framed / The Centaurs' Conduct Is Infuriating...

The Ministry of Magic tried many methods to restore his missing memories, but ultimately failed and had to give up.

Haha, of course they couldn't possibly succeed.

Because the method Scamander used to erase Dawlish's specific memories was not the Obliviate spell at all, but the venom of the Swooping Evil!

After being doused with the venom of the Swooping Evil, if Dawlish wanted to retain that memory, he would have to genuinely believe that his experience of Obscurus tortured by Harry and then being subjected to various forms of torture by Scamander was incredibly enjoyable, but this was obviously impossible.

Therefore, Fudge, who is somewhat weak-willed, will inevitably be caught in a dilemma when Harry brings up the old threat again. After all, he really can't be sure whether Harry, who seems a bit crazy, will risk everything to tell the Royal Family.

"Well... obviously, there must be some misunderstanding." After fidgeting with his top hat in his hands for a while, Fudge finally spoke with a hint of helplessness, "Just like you said, Mr. Granger, Hagrid does have that... alibi, so perhaps he's innocent."

"Fudge!!"

Fudge's words brought a smile to the faces of the three Hogwarts, but Lucius let out a disgruntled roar.

"Of course, as Minister for Magic, making this decision carries a great risk for me." Fudge then changed the subject, "Therefore, I cannot allow this situation to escalate for too long. At most a month, I hope Hogwarts can submit a case for the murderer; otherwise... I will have no choice but to take Hagrid away as a suspect."

After saying this, Fudge gave Harry a deep look, then turned and left.

However, Hagrid was ultimately able to stay...

Although it's only for one month.

(P. S. I think we shouldn't look at this from the perspective of the original book. From the perspective of the real Ministry of Magic, if Hagrid really entered Azkaban, he would definitely not have escaped unscathed. Also, since the protagonist didn't drive to school with Ron, Hagrid himself would have to orchestrate the subsequent Forbidden Forest storyline. That's all~)

Chapter 146 Hagrid was once framed.

Not long after Fudge left, Dumbledore was also leaving.

He was ordered by the incompetent board of directors to leave Hogwarts immediately after receiving the dismissal order, without even having time to pack his things.

"Harry, your performance has truly surprised and delighted me... So go for it, the whole of Hogwarts is behind you!"

Before leaving, Dumbledore left Harry these words of encouragement, entrusting everything to him.

"Hmph, I do hope that your successor Albus, can really solve the Chamber mystery, but with only a month, it's obviously impossible."

Lucius, making sarcastic remarks, seemed unsatisfied and then approached Harry: "Mr. Granger, who's always been so lucky, is now going to live in constant fear. Of course, you can write to your mentor who likes to hang out with all sorts of lowly creatures, but his grandson, Ralph Scamander, seems to be in some trouble lately, and he probably won't have time to heed your pleas for help."

This bastard even plotted against Scamander's side?

Upon hearing Lucius's words, Harry felt a surge of anger, but fortunately, his recent training in emotional control had paid off, and he was still able to remain calm.

"By the way, given the multiple attacks that have occurred at the school, all of us on the School Governor have unanimously decided, after consultation, that we will personally ensure the school's safety from now on." Before turning to leave, Lucius seemed to remember something, turning back to Harry with a sly smile. "Mr. Granger. Harry Granger, I've heard you've always disregarded school rules, but from today onwards, I hope you'll tone it down, otherwise, it'll put us on a very difficult School Governor."

He left behind these words, then turned and left triumphantly, heading straight for the distant Hogwarts Castle!

The day after Professor Sprout's attack, the monster from the Chamber of Secrets remained at large, Headmaster Dumbledore was dismissed, Hagrid was wrongly accused by Fudge, Pure-blood Family members became Hogwarts' School Governor, and the entire school was placed under martial law from that moment on...

Harry only had a month to resolve these issues.

The situation had clearly deteriorated to an unbearable degree, but even so, Harry still refused to give up!

He received important lessons yesterday, and this time... no matter how difficult it is, he is determined to overcome it!!

"Hagrid, did the headmaster just go inside?" Harry asked, turning back to Hagrid after Lucius had walked away.

"Yeah, I'm inside..." Hagrid replied in a muffled voice, still immersed in the panic and self-blame he had just experienced.

"Let's go inside and talk." Harry didn't have time to comfort Hagrid right now; he needed to find out immediately if Dumbledore had left him any more information!

After entering the room, Harry searched carefully and finally found a crystal vial filled with an unknown liquid among the clutter on the table.

For Harry, Hagrid's Hut was as familiar as his bedroom, so he had an absolute understanding of its furnishings. As Half-blood- Giant, Hagrid wouldn't use such small items, so this medicine bottle must have been left by Dumbledore!

Sure enough, as soon as Harry held the medicine bottle in his hand, a line of text quietly appeared on the blank space on the table.

Harry was right; Dumbledore had indeed left him a message and some necessary help before he left.

(Harry, my dear child, by the time you see this, I imagine you'll already be on your way to being removed from office. I can't offer much help this time, but I hope Hagrid can be of assistance. Also... the medicine bottle contains Fawkes's gift; it wanted to take on more, but unfortunately, it recently entered Nirvana, so it can only apologize to you.)

The handwriting appeared slowly, but both Harry and Hagrid could see it clearly, and they were both moved to tears.

Albus Dumbledore truly lives up to his Albus Dumbledore; even in the face of such an unexpected situation, he manages to leave Harry with as many backup plans as possible.

The liquid in the crystal vial was Fawkes's Phoenix Tear, a holy medicine capable of healing all injuries and poisons; it was clearly a talisman left by Dumbledore for Harry.

As for Fawkes not being able to fight for him personally, Harry didn't think it was a problem, because his own companions were reliable enough!

And then there's... Hagrid.

"Now that things have come to this, you don't have to hide anything from me anymore, right?" Harry asked Hagrid earnestly.

"Yes... Harry, I'm so ashamed. You trusted me so much, even going so far as to argue with Fudge, but I..." The Half-blood- Giant's voice was choked with sobs. He rubbed his eyes haphazardly and told Harry the truth of what had happened back then in a trembling voice.

"I am innocent, Aragog is innocent too, we are all wronged! By a... student named Tom Riddle!!"

As Hagrid poured out his heart in tears, the 'truth' he had been hiding finally began to surface.

In 1942, Hagrid, then a third-grader, happened to obtain an egg of an Acromantula. He hatched it, named it Aragog, and secretly kept it in a storage room in the castle dungeon.

It was at this moment that the Chamber was mysteriously opened, and attacks began to occur one after another on campus. The final victim was, of course, Myrtle Warren, an ordinary girl.

Hagrid was thus framed.

A student named Tom Riddle exposed Hagrid's keeping of the Acromantula and pinned all the blame on Aragog, insisting that the Acromantula was the culprit behind all the attacks.

In the end, Hagrid secretly released the Acromantula into the Forbidden Forest, and he himself was punished by having his wand broken and being expelled from Hogwarts.

Fortunately, Dumbledore was then a professor of Transfiguration, pleaded with Headmaster Armando Dippet, allowing Hagrid to remain at Hogwarts as the gamekeeper, a position he still holds today.

"Harry, that's my whole story. I didn't open the Chamber of Secrets, and Aragog is definitely not the monster Chamber!" Hagrid's voice was filled with anguish as he finished speaking. "But... I still know nothing about the Chamber of Secrets. Over the years, I've kept asking Aragog about the real culprit, but it has never told me. I'm sorry, Harry ... I'm going to let you and Dumbledore down this time, because I really can't help."

"Who said you can't help?" Harry raised an eyebrow. "You're taking me to the Forbidden Forest tonight. With me with you this time, I'm sure I'll be able to pick out the hidden message from that Acromantula."

That's right, that must be why Dumbledore insisted on protecting Hagrid.

Although Albus Dumbledore didn't know anything about the Chamber, he did know that Hagrid had been raising Acromantula all these years, therefore... Aragog, the suspect from back then, is now the only one who knows the truth!

Chapter 147 The Centaur's Acts Are Infuriating

As night fell and the light that had enveloped Hogwarts gradually faded, Hagrid and Harry quietly set off for the Forbidden Forest to find his old friend, Aragog the Acromantula.

Throughout the journey, Hagrid kept telling Harry about his past with Aragog.

For example, how he fed it with leftover food scraps from the table; how he hid it in the Forbidden Forest and found it a mate named Mosag, helping them establish their own colony.

And... Aragog was so kind, he never once wanted to harm Hagrid, who was human.

Regarding Hagrid's thoughts, Harry could only offer...

Innocent.

Hagrid is indeed very kind, and undoubtedly a loyal friend, but his biggest problem is that he is always naive when it comes to Fantastic Beasts.

The Acromantula is an extremely dangerous level-five creature, just like the Dragon and the Nundu. They have an incredibly high reproductive rate and a natural inclination to eat human flesh, making them a deadly threat to any wizard or ordinary human.

Yet Hagrid dared to hide such a creature in the Hogwarts dungeon storage room without any experience in taming it, which was undoubtedly playing with the safety of the entire school.

To put it bluntly, it was only because the Chamber incident happened in time that Hagrid was able to clear his name for life. Otherwise, if Aragog had been driven by his wild nature and done something he would have regretted, Hagrid would have been unable to clear his name for the rest of his life!

Therefore, even though Hagrid was innocent back then, Harry still felt that the former headmaster's decision to expel him from school was absolutely the right one.

However, as the saying goes, it's better to laugh at someone than to laugh at them. Harry can't criticize Hagrid too much in this matter. After all, the outrageous things he's done since last year are enough to get him expelled several times over.

"Hiss~"

The two made their way through the Forbidden Forest in the dark for a while, and as they passed through a dense thicket that received the moonlight, Harry suddenly heard a melodious long murmur.

"Unicorn? Great, we meet again!" Harry was overjoyed to suddenly see the familiar figure appearing beside the bushes.

The Unicorn before them was the same one Harry had rescued in the Forbidden Forest last year. It had now grown its horns back, though they looked short and thin.

It leaped happily to Harry's side, gently nuzzling its cheek against Harry chest, a human-like expression of joy on its face.

"Even Unicorn can be so affectionate..." Hagrid stared blankly at the scene, feeling both envious and regretful.

He envied Harry for being able to interact intimately with all sorts of Fantastic Beasts, whether it was a dangerous Dragon or the Unicorn in front of him that should have been afraid of people; they all liked to stick close to Harry.

But looking at myself, I've never been able to do that.

You mean the Centaur?

After a long period of interaction, the Unicorn told Harry the purpose of her visit, her eyes no longer gentle, but filled with resentment.

"Hagrid, there are Centaur around here. Could you go and talk to them?" Harry flipped onto the Unicorn's back, simultaneously taking out his Invisibility Cloak to cover his body. "Also, remember not to reveal my whereabouts when you're talking to them."

The Unicorn was clearly furious, obviously because the Centaur had said something that angered it during their casual conversation.

What could it be...?

As Harry was being carried along by the Unicorn, he kept thinking.

The Forbidden Forest at Hogwarts is like a ghostly realm at night, but it's a familiar place for Hagrid. With the help of the Unicorn's guidance, he soon 'encountered' Centaur traveling together in the forest.

"So it's you... Hagrid." A Centaur looked quite savage, tensed his bow and arrows warily until he could see Hagrid's face clearly before gradually relaxing.

"Long time no see, Bane." Hagrid greeted the burly Centaur, then turned to another Centaur with softer features. "And you too, Ronan. Are you patrolling the Forbidden Forest?"

"It's a patrol, but mainly we're following the planet's trajectory." The other Centaur, Ronan, had a melancholic voice and looked older than Bane.

"It's always about planets and such. You guys always like to believe in these kinds of nonsensical things."

Hagrid shook his head noncommittally. He had never been interested in astrological guidance, and now that he had spent more time with Harry, he increasingly felt that the Centaur' so-called Prophecy were nothing but a hoax.

"Hagrid, we respect you as the gamekeeper of Hogwarts, but that doesn't mean you can judge our Centaur customs at will!" Compared to Ronan, Bane's temper was clearly more fiery, and his words always carried a condescending tone.

"Don't do that, Bane, Hagrid is our friend," Ronan said gently. "The planetary orbits are already in a mess; friends shouldn't cause trouble at a time like this."

"The celestial alignments are chaotic... Hmph, isn't that all because of that traitor Firenze meddling in other people's business!" Bane sneered angrily. "The planetary trajectories clearly indicated that things were going in the right direction, but he insisted on being a mule driven by humans. If it weren't for his insistence on rescuing that so-called the Boy Who Lived..."

"Wait!" Bane's words made Hagrid realize something was wrong. "The Boy Who Lived... you mean Harry? Could it be that you saw Harry in the Forbidden Forest last year when you rescued the Unicorn?!"

This was definitely unexpected news for Hagrid, because during his patrol last year, he only took the somewhat annoying Malfoy into the Forbidden Forest, where he encountered the eccentric Ronan and Bane.

As for the severely injured Unicorn, Hagrid did not find its whereabouts, only spotting bloodstains in the forest.

So...

Hagrid glanced subconsciously at the Unicorn 'casually' strolling not far away, and suddenly felt as if he understood something.

Last year at that time, Harry must have arrived at the Forbidden Forest before me and even rescued the Unicorn —this Unicorn in front of me is the one that was injured back then. It's only because Harry is its savior that it's so affectionate towards Harry.

Something must have happened during the rescue, which is why Firenze, being Centaur, 'rescued' Harry again.

Of course, what Hagrid didn't know was that the claim that 'Firenze saved Harry' was just Firenze's own story to the Centaur, and not the actual situation at the time.

But what Hagrid was certain of was that Bane and the Centaur had once wanted to stand idly by while Harry was in danger!

"It turns out that the traitor Firenze was purely causing trouble!" Bane, oblivious to Hagrid's emotional shift, continued his tirade. "The stars clearly indicated that the You-Know-Who from Nowhere had returned, and he would ultimately take Harry Potter's life. But that traitor chose to help the Boy Who Lived, mingling with those humans! If he hadn't interfered, or if he had simply let me kill that kid afterward, the planetary trajectories wouldn't be in this chaotic state!"

"What did you say?!" Bane's words enraged Hagrid!

That despicable Centaur! Not only did he leave Harry in danger, but he even considered murdering Harry!

Chapter 148 The Centaur Can't Be Proud for Long

"Damn it... I never imagined that you so-called friends would harbor such thoughts about Harry!"

Deep within the Forbidden Forest, Hagrid, having learned the whole story, roared in fury, even raising his crossbow and aiming it at Bane!

At that moment, he really wanted to shoot an arrow through Bane's head.

Not only did he allow Harry to be attacked by that You-Know-Who, but he even wanted to kill Harry himself to maintain that ridiculous astrological Prophecy... Regardless of what kind of relationship Bane and Hagrid had before, at this moment, their friendship was over!

"Hagrid, I'm warning you, don't be impulsive!" Bane also raised his bow and arrow. "Don't forget, you're just a Half-blood- Giant. You don't need to worry so much about human affairs. What you should do is follow the guidance of the stars, just like us Centaur! Then you'll find that even if the You-Know-Who really returns, nothing will change."

"Astrology, Prophecy ... Bane, I've had enough of the endless lies from your Centaur!" Hagrid cocked his crossbow, his finger on the trigger trembling not at all. "This will all end. You-Know-Who ... no, Voldemort, he will fail, and he will definitely fail at Harry's hands!!"

Even Hagrid himself was unaware that he had been inspired by Harry without realizing it.

He began to see Harry not just as an extremely intelligent and mature child, but as his most important friend... just like Dumbledore!

With this support, he finally dared to overcome his inner fear and utter the name that most wizards wouldn't even dare to mention!