"Did you fight them?" Harry asked, a little worried and a little excited.
"I hadn't wanted to get tangled up with them. Dumbledore said not to. But Olympe's temper was a bit... well, fiery?" Hagrid said rather awkwardly.
"She acted so fast I didn't have time to stop her. The Death Eaters had made her furious. Ah, French girls, they're all rather... well, like fire."
"I've seen that for myself." Ron nodded.
"Hmm?" Lavender's ears pricked up at once. Everyone else looked at him too.
"That Delacour girl," Ron said rather awkwardly when he saw everyone looking at him. "She was writing to Bill all summer..."
"So that's why Bill was using his owl so often," Harry said in realization.
Given the unusual circumstances, everyone had rarely used owls over the summer holidays. Only Bill had used his regularly, seemingly completely unafraid of Ministry of Magic surveillance. As it turned out, he really had nothing to fear.
After all, what could the Ministry of Magic do if it read love letters between a young man and woman? It would only get an unwanted helping of their lovey-dovey romance.
"We fought the Death Eaters," Hagrid said, steering the conversation back.
"But their magic wasn't much good, and it was nighttime, in the woods, so most of their spells missed me. Well, one Petrificus Totalus hit me and turned one of my arms to stone. Then I smashed his head open with that arm."
Hagrid spoke as though he were talking about crushing an ant. "Olympe took care of three, and so did I. One of them ambushed Olympe, so I snapped his neck."
Harry and the others had no doubt that Hagrid could easily snap someone's neck. He could even subdue a horse or a cow with ease, using one hand.