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The story of Fred and George's flight to freedom was retold so often over the next few days that Blair could tell it would soon become the stuff of Hogwarts legend, and she was happy for the twins and that they finally bought the joke shop. Fred and George had made sure that nobody was likely to forget them very soon. The swamp had now filled the corridor on the fifth floor, and Umbridge questioned Blair on how to remove it, but Blair feigned innocence, saying she didn't know. 

Blair and Harry's Firebolts were now in the dungeons where, it was rumored, an armed security troll guarded them. Somebody managed to slip a niffler into Umbridge's office. It leapt on Umbridge on her reentrance and tried to gnaw the rings off her stubby fingers. Also, Dungbombs and Stinkpellets were dropped so frequently that students performed Bubble-Head Charms before leaving lessons.

There were some strange things happening to the Slytherins as well. Warrington looked as though he had been coated in cornflakes. Parkinson had grown a lion's mane, courtesy of Blair, and Crabbe and Goyle had eaten her Bumbling Butter Pops, but these Butter Pops were the ones that had gone wrong so it would take long before they heal.

It became clear just how many Skiving Snackboxes and Skulking Sandwiches Fred and George had managed to sell before leaving Hogwarts. Umbridge would enter her classroom only for her students to faint, vomit, develop fevers or spot blood from their nostrils. She attempted to trace the mysterious symptoms to their source, but the students told her stubbornly they were suffering "Umbridge-itis." After putting four successive classes in detention and failing to discover their secret she was forced to give up and allow the bleeding, swooning, sweating, and vomiting students to leave her classes in droves.

But not even the users of the Snackboxes could compete with that master of chaos, Peeves, who seemed to have taken Fred's parting words deeply to heart. He caused disasters all around the school, and haunted Umbridge whenever he was taking a break from his mischief-making.

None of the staff but Filch seemed to be stirring themselves to help her. Indeed, a week after Fred and George's departure Blair witnessed Professor McGonagall walking right past Peeves, who was determinedly loosening a crystal chandelier, and could have sworn she heard her tell the poltergeist out of the corner of her mouth, "It unscrews the other way."

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

The four of them were charming their teacups while in Charms and caught sight of Montague's parents who were marching up to Umbridge's office because Montague still had not recovered from his sojourn in the toilet. Hermione was worried about him, but Blair, Harry and Ron immediately eased her concerns and told her he'll be fine.

Ron was worried that Mrs. Weasley would be mad at him since Fred and George had gone and he didn't even try stopping them.

"Well, if she does say that it'll be very unfair, you couldn't have done anything!" said Hermione. "But I'm sure she won't, I mean, if it's really true they've got premises in Diagon Alley now, they must have been planning this for ages..."

"Yeah, but that's another thing, how did they get premises?" said Ron, hitting his teacup so hard with his wand that its legs collapsed again and it lay twitching before him. "It's a bit dodgy, isn't it? They'll need loads of Galleons to afford the rent on a place in Diagon Alley, she'll want to know what they've been up to, to get their hands on that sort of gold..." Blair and Harry exchanged glances. They didn't know what to do. If they should speak up about it or not.

"Well, yes, that occurred to me too," said Hermione, allowing her teacup to jog in neat little circles around Blair's, who kept on chasing Hermione's. "I've been wondering whether Mundungus has persuaded them to sell stolen goods or something awful..."

"He hasn't," said Harry curtly.

"How do you know?" said Ron and Hermione together.

"Because —" Blair hesitated, but the moment to confess finally seemed to have come. There was no good to be gained in keeping silent if it meant anyone suspected that Fred and George were criminals. Harry nodded at her. "Because they got the gold from us. Harry and I gave them our Triwizard winnings last June."

There was a shocked silence, then Hermione's teacup jogged right over the edge of the desk and smashed on the floor. "Oh, Blair, Harry, you didn't!" she said.

"Yes, we did," said Harry mutinously. "And we don't regret it either — we didn't need the gold, and they'll be great at a joke shop..."

"But this is excellent!" said Ron, looking thrilled. "It's all your faults, Blair, Harry — Mum can't blame me at all! Can I tell her?"

"Yeah, I suppose you'd better," said Blair dully. "'Specially if she thinks they're receiving stolen cauldrons or something..."

Hermione said nothing at all for the rest of the lesson, but Blair had a shrewd suspicion that her self-restraint was bound to crack before long. Sure enough, once they had left the castle for break and were standing around in the weak May sunshine, she fixed Blair and Harry with a beady eye and opened her mouth with a determined air.

Harry interrupted her before she had even started. "It's no good nagging us, it's done," Harry said firmly. "Fred and George have got the gold — spent a good bit of it too, by the sounds of it — and I can't get it back from them and I don't want to. So save your breath, Hermione."

"I wasn't going to say anything about Fred and George!" Hermione said in an injured voice. Ron snorted disbelievingly and Hermione threw him a very dirty look. Blair smacked Ron on the back of his head, and Ron glared at her.

"No, I wasn't!" Hermione said angrily. "As a matter of fact, I was going to ask Blair and Harry when they're going to go back to Snape and ask for Occlumency lessons again!"

Blair's heart sank. Once they had exhausted the subject of Fred and George's dramatic departure, which admittedly had taken many hours, Ron and Hermione had wanted to hear news of Sirius. 

As Blair and Harry had not confided in them the reason they had wanted to talk to Sirius in the first place, it had been hard to think of things to tell them. They had ended up saying to them truthfully that Sirius wanted Blair and Harry to resume Occlumency lessons. Blair had been regretting this ever since; Hermione would not let the subject drop and kept reverting to it when they least expected it.

"You can't tell me you've stopped having funny dreams," Hermione said now, "because Ron told me last night you were muttering in your sleep again... and I heard you too, Blair."

Harry threw Ron a furious look. Ron had the grace to look ashamed of himself while Blair's eyes widened. "What did we say?"

"You were only muttering a bit, Harry," Ron mumbled apologetically.

"Something about 'just a bit farther.'" Hermione said.

"We dreamed we were watching you lot play Quidditch," Harry lied brutally. "We were trying to get you to stretch out a bit farther to grab the Quaffle."

"And you did save it, Ronnie," said Blair, smiling at him, trying to avoid Hermione's gaze. Ron's ears went red. Blair had not, of course, dreamed anything of the sort. Last night she had once again made the journey along the Department of Mysteries corridor. She had passed through the circular room, then the room full of clicking and dancing light, until she found herself again inside that cavernous room full of shelves on which were ranged dusty glass spheres...

Blair had hurried straight toward row number ninety-seven, turned left, and ran along it... It had probably been then that she had spoken aloud... Just a bit farther... for she could feel her conscious self struggling to wake... and before she had reached the end of the row, she had found herself lying in bed again, gazing up at the canopy of her four-poster.

"You are trying to block your mind, aren't you?" said Hermione, looking beadily at them. "You are keeping going with your Occlumency?"

"Of course I am," said Harry.

"Don't worry, Mione, we're keeping our minds clear," said Blair, staring at Hermione's shoulder. The truth was that she was so intensely curious about what was hidden in that room full of dusty orbs that she was quite keen for the dreams to continue.

The problem was that with just under a month to go until the exams and every free moment devoted to studying, her mind seemed saturated with information when she went to bed so that she found it very difficult to get to sleep at all. When she did, her overwrought brain presented her most nights with stupid dreams about the exams. She also suspected that part of her mind — the part that often spoke in Hermione's voice — now felt guilty on the occasions it strayed down that corridor ending in the black door, and sought to wake him before he could reach journey's end.

"You know," said Ron, whose ears were still flaming red, "if Montague doesn't recover before Slytherin play Hufflepuff, we might be in with a chance of winning the Cup."

"Yeah, I s'pose so," said Blair

"I mean, we've won one, lost one — if Slytherin lose to Hufflepuff next Saturday —"

"Yeah, that's right," said Harry.

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

The final match of the Quidditch season, Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw, was to take place on the last weekend of May. Although Slytherin had been narrowly defeated by Hufflepuff in their last match, Gryffindor was not daring to hope for victory, due mainly (though of course nobody said it to him) to Ron's abysmal goalkeeping record. He, however, seemed to have found a new optimism.

"I mean, I can't get any worse, can I?" Ron told Blair, Harry and Hermione grimly over breakfast on the morning of the match. "Nothing to lose now, is there?"

"You know," said Hermione, as she, Blair and Harry walked down to the pitch a little later in the midst of a very excitable crowd, "I think Ron might do better without Fred and George around. They never exactly gave him a lot of confidence..."

Luna Lovegood overtook them with what appeared to be a live eagle perched on top of her head, but she had a red and gold scarf wrapped around her neck as she walked towards Ron. "Well, at least he's got Luna." said Hermione, watching the eagle flapping its wings as Ron blushed and smiled at the girl.

They found seats in the topmost row of the stands. It was a fine, clear day. Ron could not wish for better, and Blair found herself hoping against hope that Ron would not give the Slytherins cause for more rousing choruses of "Weasley Is Our King."

Lee, who had been very dispirited since Fred and George had left, was commentating as usual. As the teams zoomed out onto the pitches he named the players with something less than his usual gusto. "... Bradley... Davies... Chang," he said.

"And they're off!" said Lee. "And Davies takes the Quaffle immediately, Ravenclaw Captain Davies with the Quaffle, he dodges Johnson, he dodges Bell, he dodges Spinnet as well... He's going straight for goal! He's going to shoot — and — and —" Lee swore very loudly. "And he's scored."

Blair, Harry and Hermione groaned with the rest of the Gryffindors. Predictably, horribly, the Slytherins on the other side of the stands began to sing: Weasley cannot save a thing, He cannot block a single ring...

"Blair, Harry," said a hoarse voice in Blair's ear. "Hermione..." Blair looked around and saw Hagrid's enormous bearded face sticking between the seats; apparently he had squeezed his way all along the row behind, for the first and second years he had just passed had a ruffled, flattened look about them.

For some reason, Hagrid was bent double as though anxious not to be seen, though he was still at least four feet taller than everybody else. "Listen," he whispered, "can yeh come with me? Now? While ev'ryone's watchin' the match?"

"Er... can't it wait, Hagrid?" asked Harry. "Till the match is over?

"No," said Hagrid. "No, Harry, it's gotta be now... while ev'ryone's lookin' the other way... Please?" Hagrid's nose was gently dripping blood. His eyes were both blackened. Blair had not seen him this close up since his return to the school; he looked utterly woebegone.

"'Course," said Blair at once, " 'course we'll come..." She, Harry and Hermione edged back along their row of seats, causing much grumbling among the students who had to stand up for them. The people in Hagrid's row were not complaining, merely attempting to make themselves as small as possible.

"I 'ppreciate this, you three, I really do," said Hagrid as they reached the stairs. He kept looking around nervously as they descended toward the lawn below. "I jus' hope she doesn' notice us goin'..."

"You mean Umbridge?" said Blair. "She won't, she's got her whole Inquisitorial Squad sitting with her, didn't you see? She must be expecting trouble at the match."

"Yeah, well, a bit o' trouble wouldn' hurt," said Hagrid, pausing to peer around the edge of the stands to make sure the stretch of lawn between there and his cabin was deserted. "Give us more time..."

"What is it, Hagrid?" said Hermione, looking up at him with a concerned expression on her face as they hurried across the lawn toward the edge of the forest.

"Yeh — yeh'll see in a mo'," said Hagrid, looking over his shoulder as a great roar rose from the stands behind them. "Hey — did someone jus' score?"

"It'll be Ravenclaw," said Harry heavily.

"Good... good..." said Hagrid distractedly. "Tha's good..." They had to jog to keep up with him as he strode across the lawn, looking around with every other step. When they reached his cabin, Hermione turned automatically left toward the front door; Hagrid, however, walked straight past it into the shade of the trees on the outermost edge of the forest, where he picked up a crossbow that was leaning against a tree. When he realized they were no longer with him, he turned.

"We're goin' in here," Hagrid said, jerking his shaggy head behind him.

"Into the forest?" said Hermione, perplexed.

"Yeah," said Hagrid. "C'mon now, quick, before we're spotted!"

Blair, Harry and Hermione looked at each other, then ducked into the cover of the trees behind Hagrid, who was already striding away from them into the green gloom, his crossbow over his arm. Blair, Harry and Hermione ran to catch up with him.

Hagrid explained that he had to bring a crossbow because the centaurs were angry at him. The whole herd was kicking Firenze to death, and it was good that Hagrid was there to save him, but it just made the centaurs angrier at him. They went deeper into heart of the forest where it was as dark as dusk. Their robes were snagged by branches and thickets of thorn, and they all but Hagrid were covered in small cuts and scratches. There were several sounds all around, but the absence of creatures struck Blair as rather ominous.

"Hagrid, would it be all right if we lit our wands?" said Hermione quietly.

"Er... all righ'," Hagrid whispered back. "In fact..." He stopped suddenly and turned around; Hermione walked right into him and was knocked over backward. Blair caught her just before she hit the forest floor.

"Maybe we bes' jus' stop fer a momen', so I can... fill yeh in," said Hagrid. "Before we ge' there, like."

"Good! Thanks, baby," said Hermione, as Blair set her back on her feet. They all murmured "Lumos!" and their wand tips ignited. Hagrid's face swam through the gloom by the light of the two wavering beams and Blair saw that he looked nervous and sad again.

"Righ," said Hagrid. "Well... see... the thing is..." He took a great breath. "Well, there's a good chance I'm goin' ter be gettin' the sack any day now," he said. Blair, Harry and Hermione looked at each other, then back at him.

"But you've lasted this long —" Hermione said tentatively. "What makes you think —"

"Umbridge reckons it was me that put tha' niffler in her office."

"And was it?" said Hermione.

"No, it wasn't!" said Blair indignantly.

Hagrid smiled appreciatively before continuing. "On'y anythin' ter do with magical creatures an' she thinks it's got somethin' ter do with me. Yeh know she's bin lookin' fer a chance ter get rid of me ever since I got back. I don' wan' ter go, o' course, but if it wasn' fer... well... the special circumstances I'm abou' ter explain to yeh, I'd leave righ now, before she's go' the chance ter do it in front o' the whole school, like she did with Trelawney."

Blair, Harry and Hermione made noises of protest, but Hagrid overrode them with a wave of one of his enormous hands. "It's not the end o' the world, I'll be able ter help Dumbledore once I'm outta here, I can be useful ter the Order. An' you lot'll have Grubbly-Plank, yeh'll — yeh'll get through yer exams fine..." His voice trembled and broke.

"Don' worry abou' me," he said hastily, as Hermione made to pat his arm. He pulled his enormous spotted handkerchief from the pocket of his waistcoat and mopped his eyes with it. "Look, I wouldn' be tellin' yer this at all if I didn' have ter. See, if I go... well, I can' leave withou'... withou' tellin' someone... because I'll — I'll need you three ter help me. An' Ron, if he's willin'."

"Of course we'll help you," said Blair at once. "What do you want us to do?" Hagrid gave a great sniff and patted Blair wordlessly on the shoulder with such force that Blair was knocked sideways into a tree.

"I knew yeh'd say yes," said Hagrid into his handkerchief, "but I won'... never... forget... Well... c'mon... jus' a little bit further through here... Watch yerselves, now, there's nettles..."

They walked on in silence for another fifteen minutes. Blair had opened her mouth to ask how much farther they had to go when Hagrid threw out his right arm to signal that they should stop. "Really easy," he said softly. "Very quiet, now..."

They crept forward and Blair saw that they were facing a large, smooth mound of earth nearly as tall as Hagrid. Trees had been ripped up at the roots all around the mound, so that it stood on a bare patch of ground surrounded by heaps of trunks and boughs that formed a kind of fence or barricade, behind which Blair, Harry, Hermione, and Hagrid now stood.

"Sleepin'," breathed Hagrid.

Sure enough, Blair could hear a distant, rhythmic rumbling that sounded like a pair of enormous lungs at work. She glanced sideways at Hermione, who was gazing at the mound with her mouth slightly open. She looked utterly terrified. Harry was looking at it curiously, not quite sure what it was.

"Hagrid," Hermione said in a whisper barely audible over the sound of the sleeping creature, "who is he?"

Blair found this an odd question... "What is it?" was the one she had been planning on asking.

"Hagrid, you told us," said Hermione, her wand now shaking in her hand, "you told us none of them wanted to come!" Blair looked from her to Harry, who also looked confused, to Hagrid and then, as realization hit her, she looked back at the mound with a small gasp of horror. 

The great mound of earth, on which she, Harry, Hermione, and Hagrid could easily have stood, was moving slowly up and down in time with the deep, grunting breathing. It was not a mound at all. It was the curved back of what was clearly...

"Well — no — he didn' want ter come," said Hagrid, sounding desperate. "But I had ter bring him, Hermione, I had ter!"

"But why?" asked Hermione, who sounded as though she wanted to cry. "Why — what — oh, Hagrid!"

"I knew if I jus' got him back," said Hagrid, sounding close to tears himself, "an' — an' taught him a few manners — I'd be able ter take him outside an' show ev'ryone he's harmless!"

"Harmless!" said Hermione shrilly, and Hagrid made frantic hushing noises with his hands as the enormous creature before them grunted loudly and shifted in its sleep. "He's been hurting you all this time, hasn't he? That's why you've had all these injuries!"

"He don' know his own strength!" said Hagrid earnestly. "An' he's gettin' better, he's not fightin' so much anymore —"

"So this is why it took you two months to get home!" said Hermione distractedly. "Oh Hagrid, why did you bring him back if he didn't want to come, wouldn't he have been happier with his own people?"

"They were all bullyin' him, Hermione, 'cause he's so small!" said Hagrid.

"Small?" said Hermione. "Small?"

"Hermione, I couldn' leave him," said Hagrid, tears now trickling down his bruised face into his beard. "See — he's my brother!" Hermione simply stared at him, her mouth open.

"Hagrid, when you say 'brother,' " said Harry slowly, "do you mean — ?"

"Well — half-brother," amended Hagrid. "Turns out me mother took up with another giant when she left me dad, an' she went an' had Grawp here —"

"Grawp?" said Blair.

"Yeah... well, tha's what it sounds like when he says his name," said Hagrid anxiously. "He don' speak a lot of English... I've bin tryin' ter teach him... Anyway, she don' seem ter have liked him much more'n she liked me... See, with giantesses, what counts is producin' good big kids, and he's always been a bit on the runty side fer a giant — on'y sixteen foot —"

"Oh yes, tiny!" said Hermione, with a kind of hysterical sarcasm. "Absolutely minuscule!"

"He was bein' kicked around by all o' them — I jus' couldn' leave him —"

"Did Madame Maxime want to bring him back?" asked Blair.

"She — well, she could see it was right importan' ter me," said Hagrid, twisting his enormous hands. "Bu' — bu' she got a bit tired of him after a while, I must admit... so we split up on the journey home... She promised not ter tell anyone though..."

"How on earth did you get him back without anyone noticing?" said Harry.

"Well, tha's why it took so long, see," said Hagrid. "Could on'y travel by nigh an' through wild country an' stuff. 'Course, he covers the ground pretty well when he wants ter, but he kep' wantin' ter go back..."

"Oh Hagrid, why on earth didn't you let him!" said Hermione, flopping down onto a ripped-up tree and burying her face in her hands. "What do you think you're going to do with a violent giant who doesn't even want to be here!"

"Well, now — 'violent' — tha's a bit harsh," said Hagrid, still twisting his hands agitatedly. "I'll admit he mighta taken a couple o' swings at me when he's bin in a bad mood, but he's gettin' better, loads better, settlin' down well..."

"What are those ropes for, then?" Blair asked. She had just noticed ropes thick as saplings stretching from around the trunks of the largest nearby trees toward the place where Grawp lay curled on the ground with his back to them.

"You have to keep him tied up?" said Hermione faintly.

"Well... yeah..." said Hagrid, looking anxious. "See — it's like I say — he doesn' really know his strength —" Blair understood now why there had been such a suspicious lack of any other living creature in this part of the forest.

"So what is it you want Blair, Harry, Ron and me to do?" Hermione asked apprehensively.

"Look after him," said Hagrid croakily. "After I'm gone." Blair, Harry and Hermione exchanged miserable looks, Blair uncomfortably aware that she had already promised Hagrid that he would do whatever he asked.

"What — what does that involve, exactly?" Hermione inquired.

"Not food or anythin'!" said Hagrid eagerly. "He can get his own food, no problem. Birds an' deer an' stuff... No, it's company he needs. If I jus' knew someone was carryin' on tryin' ter help him a bit ... teachin' him, yeh know..."

Blair said nothing, but turned to look back at the gigantic form lying asleep on the ground in front of them. Grawp had his back to them. Unlike Hagrid, who simply looked like a very oversize human, Grawp looked strangely misshapen.

"You want us to teach him," Blair said in a hollow voice. She now understood what Firenze's warning had meant. His attempt is not working. He would do better to abandon it. Of course, the other creatures who lived in the forest would have heard Hagrid's fruitless attempts to teach Grawp English...

"Yeah — even if yeh jus' talk ter him a bit," said Hagrid hopefully. " 'Cause I reckon, if he can talk ter people, he'll understand more that we all like him really, an' want him to stay..." Blair looked at Hermione, who peered back at her from between the fingers over her face then at Harry, who had an uneasy smile.

"Kind of makes you wish we had Norbert back, doesn't it?" Blair said and Harry and Hermione gave very shaky laughs.

"Yeh'll do it, then?" said Hagrid, who did not seem to have caught what Blair had just said.

"We'll..." said Blair, already bound by her promise. "We'll try, Hagrid..."

"I knew I could count on yeh, Blair," Hagrid said, beaming in a very watery way and dabbing at his face with his handkerchief again. "An' I don' wan' yeh ter put yerself out too much, like... I know yeh've got exams... If yeh could jus' nip down here in yer Invisibility Cloak maybe once a week an' have a little chat with him... I'll wake him up, then — introduce you —"

"Wha — no!" said Hermione, jumping up, "Hagrid, no, don't wake him, really, we don't need —"

But Hagrid had already stepped over the great trunk in front of them and was proceeding toward Grawp. When he was around ten feet away, he lifted a long, broken bough from the ground, smiled reassuringly over his shoulder at Blair, Harry and Hermione, and then poked Grawp hard in the middle of the back with the end of the bough.

The giant gave a roar that echoed around the silent forest. Birds in the treetops overhead rose twittering from their perches and soared away. In front of Blair, Harry and Hermione, meanwhile, the gigantic Grawp was rising from the ground, which shuddered as he placed an enormous hand upon it to push himself onto his knees and turned his head to see who and what had disturbed him.

"All righ', Grawpy?" said Hagrid in a would-be cheery voice, backing away with the long bough raised, ready to poke Grawp again. "Had a nice sleep, eh?" Blair, Harry and Hermione retreated as far as they could while still keeping the giant within their sights. Grawp knelt between two trees he had not yet uprooted. He raised dirty knuckles as big as cricket balls to his eyes, rubbed vigorously, then, without warning, pushed himself to his feet with surprising speed and agility.

"Oh my..." Blair heard Hermione squeal, terrified, beside her. Blair wrapped an arm around her, trying to comfort her, and she felt Hermione relax a little and hug her back. The trees to which the other ends of the ropes around Grawp's wrists and ankles were attached creaked ominously. He was, as Hagrid had said, at least sixteen feet tall. 

Gazing blearily around, he reached out a hand the size of a beach umbrella, seized a bird's nest from the upper branches of a towering pine and turned it upside down with a roar of apparent displeasure that there was no bird in it — eggs fell like grenades toward the ground and Hagrid threw his arms over his head to protect himself.

"Anyway, Grawpy," shouted Hagrid, looking up apprehensively in case of further falling eggs, "I've brought some friends ter meet yeh. Remember, I told yeh I might? Remember, when I said I might have ter go on a little trip an' leave them ter look after yeh fer a bit? Remember that, Grawpy?"

But Grawp merely gave another low roar; He had now seized the top of the pine tree and was pulling it toward him, evidently for the simple pleasure of seeing how far it would spring back when he let go.

"Now, Grawpy, don' do that!" shouted Hagrid. "Tha's how you ended up pullin' up the others —" And sure enough, Blair could see the earth around the tree's roots beginning to crack.

"I got company fer yeh!" Hagrid shouted. "Company, see! Look down, yeh big buffoon, I brought yeh some friends!"

"Oh Hagrid, don't," moaned Hermione, but Hagrid had already raised the bough again and gave Grawp's knee a sharp poke. The giant let go of the top of the pine tree, which swayed menacingly and deluged Hagrid with a rain of needles, and looked down.

"This," said Hagrid, hastening over to where Blair, Harry and Hermione stood, "is Blair, Grawp! Blair Wood! And Harry! Harry Potter! They migh' be comin' ter visit yeh if I have ter go away, understand?" The giant had only just realized that Blair, Harry and Hermione were there. They watched, in great trepidation, as he lowered his huge boulder of a head so that he could peer blearily at them.

"An' this is Hermione, see? Her —" Hagrid hesitated. Turning to Hermione he said, "Would yeh mind if he called yeh Hermy, Hermione? On'y it's a difficult name fer him ter remember..."

"No, not at all," squeaked Hermione.

"This is Hermy, Grawp! An' she's gonna be comin' an' all! Is'n tha' nice? Eh? Three friends fer yeh ter — GRAWPY, NO!" Grawp's hand had shot out of nowhere toward Hermione — Blair seized her and pulled her and Harry backward behind the tree, so that Grawp's fist scraped the trunk but closed on thin air.

"BAD BOY, GRAWPY!" Blair heard Hagrid yelling, as Hermione clung to Blair behind the tree, shaking and whimpering.

"VERY BAD BOY! YEH DON' GRAB — OUCH!" Blair poked her head out from around the trunk and saw Hagrid lying on his back, his hand over his nose. Grawp, apparently losing interest, had straightened up again and was again engaged in pulling back the pine as far as it would go.

"Righ'," said Hagrid thickly, getting up with one hand pinching his bleeding nose and the other grasping his crossbow. "Well... there yeh are... Yeh've met him an' — an' now he'll know yeh when yeh come back. Yeah... well..." He looked up at Grawp, who was now pulling back the pine with an expression of detached pleasure on his boulderish face; the roots were creaking as he ripped them away from the ground...

"Well, I reckon tha's enough fer one day," said Hagrid. "We'll — er — we'll go back now, shall we?" Blair, Harry and Hermione nodded. Hagrid shouldered his crossbow again and, still pinching his nose, led the way back into the trees. Nobody spoke for a while, not even when they heard the distant crash that meant Grawp had pulled over the pine tree at last.

Hermione's face was pale and set. Blair could not think of a single thing to say even as she exchanged glances with Harry. What on earth was going to happen when somebody found out that Hagrid had hidden Grawp in the forest? And she had promised that she, Harry, Ron, and Hermione would continue Hagrid's totally pointless attempts to civilize the giant... How could Hagrid, even with his immense capacity to delude himself that fanged monsters were lovably harmless, fool himself that Grawp would ever be fit to mix with humans?

"Hold it," said Hagrid abruptly. He pulled an arrow out of the quiver over his shoulder and fitted it into the crossbow. Blair, Harry and Hermione raised their wands; now that they had stopped walking, they too could hear movement close by.

"Oh blimey," said Hagrid quietly.

"I thought that we told you, Hagrid," said a deep male voice, "that you are no longer welcome here?" A man's naked torso seemed for an instant to be floating toward them through the dappled green half-light. This centaur had a proud, high-cheekboned face and long black hair. Like Hagrid, he was armed: A quiverful of arrows and a long bow were slung over his shoulders.

"How are yeh, Magorian?" said Hagrid warily. The trees behind the centaur rustled and four or five more emerged behind him. Blair recognized Bane, whom she had met nearly four years ago on the same night she had met Firenze. Bane gave no sign that he had ever seen Blair or Harry before.

"So," he said, with a nasty inflection in his voice, before turning immediately to Magorian. "We agreed, I think, what we would do if this human showed his face in the forest again?"

" 'This human' now, am I?" said Hagrid testily. "Jus' fer stoppin' all of yeh committin' murder?"

"You ought not to have meddled, Hagrid," said Magorian. "Our ways are not yours, nor are our laws. Firenze has betrayed and dishonored us."

"I dunno how yeh work that out," said Hagrid impatiently. "He's done nothin' except help Albus Dumbledore —"

"Firenze has entered into servitude to humans," said a gray centaur with a hard, deeply lined face.

"Servitude!" said Hagrid scathingly. "He's doin' Dumbledore a favor is all —"

"He is peddling our knowledge and secrets among humans," said Magorian quietly. "There can be no return from such disgrace."

"If yeh say so," said Hagrid, shrugging, "but personally I think yeh're makin' a big mistake —"

"As are you, human," said Bane, "coming back into our forest when we warned you —"

"Now, you listen ter me," said Hagrid angrily. "I'll have less of the 'our' forest, if it's all the same ter you. It's not up ter you who comes an' goes in here —"

"No more is it up to you, Hagrid," said Magorian smoothly. "I shall let you pass today because you are accompanied by your young —"

"They're not his!" interrupted Bane contemptuously. "Students, Magorian, from up at the school! They have probably already profited from the traitor Firenze's teachings..."

"Nevertheless," said Magorian calmly, "the slaughter of foals is a terrible crime... We do not touch the innocent. Today, Hagrid, you pass. Henceforth, stay away from this place. You forfeited the friendship of the centaurs when you helped the traitor Firenze escape us."

"I won' be kept outta the fores' by a bunch of mules like you!" said Hagrid loudly.

"Hagrid," said Hermione in a high-pitched and terrified voice, as both Bane and the gray centaur pawed at the ground, "let's go, please lets go! Hagrid moved forward, but his crossbow was still raised and his eyes were still fixed threateningly upon Magorian.

"We know what you are keeping in the forest, Hagrid!" Magorian called after them, as the centaurs slipped out of sight. "And our tolerance is waning!"

Hagrid turned and gave every appearance of wanting to walk straight back to Magorian again. "You'll tolerate him as long as he's here, it's as much his forest as yours!" he yelled, while Blair, Harry and Hermione pushed with all their might against Hagrid's moleskin waistcoat in an effort to keep him moving forward. 

Still scowling, he looked down; his expression changed to mild surprise at the sight of the three of them pushing him. He seemed not to have felt it. "Calm down, you three," he said, turning to walk on while they panted along behind him. "Ruddy old nags though, eh?"

"Hagrid," said Hermione breathlessly, skirting the patch of nettles they had passed on their way there, "if the centaurs don't want humans in the forest, it doesn't really look as though Blair, Harry and I will be able —"

"Ah, you heard what they said," said Hagrid dismissively "They wouldn't hurt foals — I mean, kids. Anyway, we can' let ourselves be pushed around by that lot..."

"Nice try," Harry murmured to Blair and Hermione, who looked crestfallen. At last they rejoined the path and after another ten minutes, the trees began to thin. They were able to see patches of clear blue sky again and hear, in the distance, the definite sounds of cheering and shouting.

"Was that another goal?" asked Hagrid, pausing in the shelter of the trees as the Quidditch stadium came into view. "Or d'you reckon the match is over?"

"I don't know," said Hermione miserably. Blair raised her hands and healed Hermione and Harry's arms and faces while looking down, thankful that no one saw her face yet due to the darkness.

"Thanks, Aika," said Harry appreciatively.

"Thank you, baby," said Hermione, smiling at her. Blair grinned at them, trying to hold back the pain from the numerous scratches that now appeared on her faces and arms.

"I reckon it's over, yeh know!" said Hagrid, still squinting toward the stadium. "Look — there's people comin' out already — if you two hurry yeh'll be able ter blend in with the crowd an' no one'll know you weren't there!"

"Good idea," said Blair. "Well... see you later, then, Hagrid..."

"I don't believe him," said Hermione in a very unsteady voice, the moment they were out of earshot of Hagrid. "I don't believe him. I really don't believe him..."

"Calm down," said Harry.

"Calm down!" she said feverishly. "A giant! A giant in the forest! And we're supposed to give him English lessons! Always assuming, of course, we can get past the herd of murderous centaurs on the way in and out! I — don't — believe — him!"

"We haven't got to do anything yet!" Blair tried to reassure her in a quiet voice, as they joined a stream of jabbering Hufflepuffs heading back toward the castle. "He's not asking us to do anything unless he gets chucked out and that might not even happen —"

"Oh come off it, you two!" said Hermione angrily, stopping dead in her tracks so that the people behind her had to swerve to avoid her. "Of course he's going to be chucked out and to be perfectly honest, after what we've just seen, who can blame Umbridge?" There was a pause in which Harry glared and Blair frowned at her, and her eyes filled slowly with tears.

"You didn't mean that," said Blair quietly.

"No... well... all right... I didn't," she said, wiping her eyes angrily. "But why does he have to make life so difficult for himself — for us?"

"I dunno —"

Weasley is our King,

Weasley is our King,

He didn't let the Quaffle in,

Weasley is our King...

"And I wish they'd stop singing that stupid song," said Hermione miserably, "haven't they gloated enough?"

A great tide of students was moving up the sloping lawns from the pitch. "Oh, let's get in before we have to meet the Slytherins," said Hermione.

Weasley can save anything,

He never leaves a single ring

That's why Gryffindors all sing:

Weasley is our King.

"Mione..." said Blair slowly. The song was growing louder, but it was issuing not from a crowd of green-and-silver-clad Slytherins, but from a mass of red and gold moving slowly toward the castle, which was bearing a solitary figure upon its many shoulders...

Weasley is our King,

Weasley is our King,

He didn't let the Quaffle in,

Weasley is our King...

"No!" said Hermione in a hushed voice.

"YES!" said Blair and Harry loudly.

"BLAIR! HARRY! HERMIONE!" yelled Ron, waving the silver Quidditch Cup in the air and looking quite beside himself. "WE DID IT! WE WON!" 

They beamed up at him as he passed; there was a scrum at the door of the castle and Ron's head got rather badly bumped on the lintel, but nobody seemed to want to put him down. Still singing, the crowd squeezed itself into the entrance hall and out of sight. Blair, Harry and Hermione watched them go, beaming, until the last echoing strains of "Weasley Is Our King" died away. Then they turned to each other, their smiles fading.

"We'll save our news till tomorrow, shall we?" said Harry.

"Yes, all right," said Hermione wearily. "I'm not in any hurry..."

They climbed the steps together. At the front doors the three instinctively looked back at the Forbidden Forest. Blair was not sure whether it was her imagination or not, but she rather thought she saw a small cloud of birds erupting into the air over the treetops in the distance, almost as though the tree in which they had been nesting had just been pulled up by the roots.

Blair, Harry and Hermione exchanged glances and then went back on their way. As they turned the corner, they saw Cedric, looking as if he was waiting for someone. He straightened up when he saw the trio. 

"Har, Blair, Hermione," said Cedric, smiling slightly at them. The three smiled back at him.

"Hey, Ced," said Blair teasingly, nudging Harry, who blushed a deep shade of red. "I think Mione and I will just go somewhere. Have a great time."

Blair pulled Hermione away and chuckled when she saw the two boys were grinning softly at each other. She could remember her and Hermione being that way before

"Oh, those two... I bet they're going to get married as soon as we graduate," said Blair.

"You're thinking of marriage already?" said Hermione, giggling. "I think it'll be a year after graduation though."

Blair smirked at her. "Do you want to bet?"

"A galleon it is then." And the two of them shook hands. Blair suddenly remembered something and frowned.

"What's wrong, Blair?" said Hermione worriedly.

Blair stared at her for a few moments before tugging on her hand. "Come on."

Blair started leading Hermione to some place, and Hermione drowned in her feelings of worry and nervousness. She didn't know what made Blair's mood drop suddenly. Did she do something wrong? Did she say something that hurt Blair? She knew she could be quite frank at times and she could hurt other people's feelings without her knowledge. 

Hermione's heart dropped. Did she want to break up? Did she not love Hermione anymore? Did she maybe have feelings for Cho Chang or Lavender or any of her other admirers? She felt tears coming into her eyes and blinked them away. It couldn't be. She couldn't lose Blair. She didn't want to. Blair was the best thing that happened to her. Losing Blair would mean losing a huge part of herself.

Finally, coming into one of the empty classrooms, Blair stopped, and when she turned around, her eyes widened. "Mione?"

Hermione didn't realize that the tears had fallen from her face. Blair cupped her face and wiped her tears away, looking at her worriedly. "What's wrong, love?"

Hermione locked eyes with Blair through her tears. "D-Do you not love me anymore?"

Blair's jaw dropped open before she started chuckling. "Of course not. I- Ow!" Hermione started hitting Blair's arm with tears streaming down her face. She felt like an idiot for doubting Blair, but she couldn't help but think that because of Blair's sudden mood change.

"Look- Ow! Wait- Ow! I-" Blair couldn't take it anymore and she leaned in and kissed Hermione passionately, pouring in all the love she had for Hermione, reassuring all of the Granger's worries. Blair loved Hermione with all she was. Hermione was her everything, and she would never fall out of love with her even if Hermione would one day do so.

Hermione kissed back with the same force. She could taste her tears in that kiss, but she wasn't focusing on that. She was focusing on the taste of Blair's lips, the feeling of their lips moving together in rhythm. Hermione stopped thinking and started feeling. She felt all of the love Blair had for her, and she too felt the same feelings for Blair. She was sure then. She loved Blair Wood with all she had. She was in love with Blair Wood. No more doubts.

"Mione, I love you," said Blair when they pulled away. "And I always will." 

She kissed Hermione on the forehead and smiled softly. "I just wanted to talk because Ginny said you thought I've been distant lately."

Hermione looked down, feeling more ashamed than ever. Blair cupped Hermione's face and looked her in the eyes. "I'm sorry, love. I just wanted to apologize. I didn't want you to feel that I don't love you anymore. I promise that if I have problems I'll tell you, and if you have problems, tell me too, all right?"

Hermione wiped away her tears and nodded before standing on her tiptoes and kissing Blair's cheek. "Thank you, baby. I'm sorry too. I-I'm yours."

"I love you too," said Blair, grinning before she pulled Hermione into a tight hug. Hermione sighed before smiling and hugging Blair back, burying her face into Blair's chest. She knew now she loved Blair. But why was it still so hard for her to say those three words? Maybe it was because words couldn't express how much she loved Blair or maybe because she had just come to terms with it, but one thought made Hermione feel better, and she repeated it into her mind. 'I'm in love with Blair Wood.'

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