Hagrid's Past

"Right, right, Uranus must be in a good mood today, but let's leave that aside for now. Firenze, do you know where the unicorns have been lately?" Hagrid agreed with easy nonchalance, then got straight to the point. "Someone dangerous is after unicorn blood."

Hagrid had a special sort of magic about him: he effortlessly shattered what had been an atmosphere of sacred enchantment. Brian took the opportunity to deliver a practiced, conventional introduction, then added:

"That's precisely why we came here. The dangerous wizard is a man who keeps himself wrapped in a robe, and his magical power is unfathomable. I hope you'll be careful for the time being and keep an eye on the unicorns' safety."

Firenze's attitude had softened considerably, especially once he realized that the three unexpected visitors actually meant well. He said gently:

"There's no need to worry. Unicorns possess powerful magic of their own and don't need special protection. Besides, over these past two months, the unicorns have been... very safe. No one can harm them... or rather, find them."

"Why?" Brian asked, puzzled. "The way you put it... it's almost as if the unicorns aren't in the Forbidden Forest right now."

"They are in the Forbidden Forest, and yet they are not."

After delivering that cryptic statement, Firenze added solemnly to Brian,

"Remember, beware of Pluto."

"All right, I will." Brian pretended he understood, nodding in agreement.

Hagrid had warned him beforehand: "Centaurs might say things about the stars, out of nowhere and without making any sense. But whichever star they mention, and whether you understand them or not, just nod."

At the time, Brian had asked curiously, "Can't I ask them what they mean?"

"No use. They'll change the subject straightaway. Ah, I'd really rather not deal with centaurs unless I have to."

Hagrid had grumbled,

"I left Hogwarts early when I was a student, so I hardly ever went to Astronomy. Most of what I know about stars comes from those star-shaped sweets at Honeydukes-they tasted so-so, and they took them off the shelves after a while."

Brian knew little about Astronomy either. Most of his knowledge of the stars came from the Muggle world. Of everything he knew about Uranus, which Firenze had mentioned in his greeting, the fact that stood out most was that it had been the first planet humans discovered using a telescope.

The second was that the planet could occasionally be seen with the naked eye-perhaps even tonight.

Brian tried looking up at the sky. After studying it for a while, he concluded that watching the night sky in the Forbidden Forest was relaxing, but he couldn't tell any of the stars apart. He pointed at one at random and said:

"Uranus-is it that one?"

"Precisely." Firenze looked at him approvingly. "You have a deep understanding of the stars."

"...Thank you, but I was actually guessing," Brian said, a little embarrassed.

"Is that so..." Firenze thought for a while, then put it another way. "The stars favor you."

Firenze's certainty reminded Brian that Professor Flitwick had once said magic favored him. Good grief, now the stars favor me too. Magic and the stars had better find time to meet and talk this over. They might even have to fight it out.

"Couldn't I just be lucky?" he asked.

"Good luck is precisely a sign of the stars' favor."

Having said this gravely, Firenze glanced back at the smoke in the camp-it was already thinning, and his people were about to finish their divination. He hurriedly turned back and urged them,

"You must leave now. I understand the situation, and you needn't worry about the unicorns' safety. My people will be here soon. If they discover that humans have found our tribal territory, I'm afraid you won't be able to leave."

"Is it really that serious? I've never even visited your settlement," Hagrid said unhappily. "We've known each other for so many years. Is there anyone in your tribe I haven't met?"

Firenze shook his head firmly:

"Hagrid, perhaps they wouldn't do anything to you. But the same might not be true of your friend-my people are deeply offended by that fountain statue in the Ministry of Magic's entrance hall that insults centaurs. They've been discussing turning any human who dares trespass on our territory into a fountain statue as well."

"You have magic like that?" Brian asked in surprise.

"No, it isn't magic." Firenze gave a chilling answer.

On the way back to Hogwarts from the Forbidden Forest, Brian listened to Hagrid rambling on about those heartless centaurs. Then he remembered what Hagrid had said that day about leaving Hogwarts and asked curiously:

"Hagrid, could you tell me why you left school?"

Hagrid stopped walking. He was silent for a long time before he slowly said:

"...I think I can tell you about it now, Brian. You've already met Aragog, and you know he's a good little boy. When I was at school, I kept Aragog in the castle. Then one day, a girl in the castle was killed by a monster, and the Ministry of Magic decided Aragog had done it...

"I was Aragog's owner, so of course I had to answer for what he'd done... But I'm certain Aragog never did anything. He was only half the size of a trunk back then! And he'd promised me he wouldn't attack humans-how could it possibly have been him?

"But the people from the Ministry wouldn't believe me, so I had to let him escape into the Forbidden Forest... And Dumbledore did everything he could to arrange for me to stay at the castle. Oh... Dumbledore. I need to go to his office..."

Hagrid grew more agitated as he spoke, only to rein himself in abruptly at the end.

Brian reserved judgment on whether Aragog was a good little boy, and he had no idea why Hagrid suddenly needed to visit Dumbledore's office. But the explanation reminded him of something Hagrid had said when taking him to Diagon Alley.

Apparently, this was also why Hagrid had been forbidden to use magic. Aragog certainly was a monster in most people's eyes-but why had he been connected to a student's murder?

It was hard to believe. This was an Acromantula that had successfully overcome his instinct to eat people for the sake of friendship.

"Hagrid, I'm willing to believe that you and Aragog are innocent," Brian said after some thought. "But how did the Ministry come to suspect Aragog? Were they really capable of finding a single spider in a castle as huge as Hogwarts?"

Hagrid answered by pulling his Moleskin Coat tightly around himself. He looked around cautiously before murmuring in a voice as faint as a mosquito's buzz, "...It was You-Know-Who... He reported me."

"You-Know-Who went to Hogwarts too? He was even a fellow student of yours?" Brian was genuinely astonished. He already knew that You-Know-Who was the instigator of the First Wizarding War, a leading proponent of pure-blood supremacy, and an utterly evil Dark wizard whose crimes were unforgivable.

Wizards generally believed that You-Know-Who was dead, but even so, they refused to mention his name. He had inflicted far too much suffering on the wizarding world, leaving almost every wizarding family with wounds that could never heal.

And someone like that had actually won the Ministry of Magic's trust?

"The Ministry would rather believe You-Know-Who than you?" Brian asked incredulously. "Did he own the Ministry? Or were they all his lackeys?"

He remembered the circumstances that had brought him to Hogwarts. So the Ministry's ignorant, violent approach to law enforcement has been handed down through the generations?

"No, no... Tom... He was an outstanding student at Hogwarts back then... Everyone trusted him except Dumbledore, and everything that happened afterward proved Dumbledore right... Ah, never mind. Let's stop talking about this."

"No, Hagrid. As you said, the facts have already proved that You-Know-Who was a scheming man who knew how to manipulate people. He went on to start a war, and now he's even dead. Have you never thought of clearing your name?"

"I have... But there's nothing I can do... It's too hard... It's been too long. There's no evidence, Brian... Who would know what the monster that killed that student really was? You-Know-Who might have known, but he's dead! If clearing my name means You-Know-Who has to come back to life, I'd rather take this guilt to my grave!"

Hagrid's mood swung between dejection and agitation. Clearly, deep down, he wanted to clear his name.

"Even the student who died didn't know what sort of monster killed her! The Ministry asked her, but she said all she remembered was a pair of bright yellow eyes. The Ministry people all agreed she'd been frightened out of her mind!"

"Wait... The dead student... The Ministry asked her?" Brian blinked, wondering whether something was wrong with his ears. "Can the Ministry communicate with the dead? Is there magic like that? How come I've never heard of it?"

"No, that student became a ghost." Hagrid shook his head and said reminiscently, "After the Ministry banned her from following a student who'd once called her 'four-eyes,' she stayed in the Girls' Bathroom on the third floor of Hogwarts Castle."

"I think I need to meet her." After a long silence, Brian let out a breath and said calmly,

"At the very least, I ought to help her curse the Ministry a bit."

His opinion of the Ministry kept getting worse. They had no time to seek the truth, readily believed a villain, wronged an innocent man, and hastily closed the case. Yet they had time to find a student who had been mistreated, died tragically, and become a ghost, just to remind her that she was already dead and should stop caring about what had happened while she was alive.

As they were about to leave the Forbidden Forest, Brian spotted a familiar firefly glow coming from a clump of bushes. Unbelievable. Could the stars really favor me, just as the centaur said?

When he pulled Hagrid toward the bushes, they suddenly transformed into Aragog's one hundred and eighty-eighth grandson. Fang yelped and plopped down in the mud in fright. Hagrid quickly scooped him into his arms and soothed him:

"Don't be scared, don't be scared, Fang. I told you you're a coward, didn't I? But you get upset every time I say it."

Fang wiped his snot on Hagrid's coat in revenge.

Brian lowered his wand and breathed a sigh of relief. "It's you... I'd say you're the best-hidden Acromantula in the whole Forbidden Forest. But please don't do that again. I nearly attacked you."

"All right, Brian," Number One Hundred Eighty-Eight said obediently. "I thought you might need this."

He tossed out a cocoon of spider silk, which gave off the firefly glow Brian had just seen.

Number One Hundred Eighty-Eight explained:

"Once, while I was weaving a web, something suddenly tripped me, but I couldn't find what it was. It wasn't until I covered that area with silk that I found this stone that turns invisible. It feels very much like you do."