 all 
three of them kept breaking off and glancing Out of the tower window. 
"There's a light on in Hagrid's window," Harry said suddenly. 
Ron looked at his watch. 
"If we hurried, we could go down and see him. It's still quite early..." 
I don't know," Hermione said slowly, and Harry saw her glance at him. 
"I'm allowed to walk across the grounds, " he said Pointedly. "Sirius 


Black hasn't got past the dementors yet, has he?" 
So they put their things away and headed out of the portrait hole, glad 


to meet nobody on their way to the front doors, as they weren't entirely 
sure they were supposed to be out. 
The grass was still wet and looked almost black in the twilight. When 

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they reached Hagrid's hut, they knocked, and a voice growled, "C'min." 


Hagrid was sitting in his shirtsleeves at his scrubbed wooden table; his 
boarhound, Fang, had his head in Hagrid's lap. One look told them that 
Hagrid had been drinking a lot; there was a pewter tankard almost as big 
as a bucket in front of him, and he seemed to be having difficulty 
getting them into focus. 


"'Spect it's a record," he said thickly, when he recognized them. "Don' 
reckon they've ever had a teacher who lasted on'y a day before." 


"You haven't been fired, Hagrid!" gasped Hermione. 


"Not yet," said Hagrid miserably, taking a huge gulp of whatever was in 
the tankard. "But's only a matter o' time, i' n't it, after Malfoy..." 


"How is he?" said Ron as they all sat down. "It wasn't serious, was it?" 


"Madam Pomfrey fixed him best she could," said Hagrid dully, "but he's 
sayin' it's still agony... covered in bandages... moanin'.. 


"He's faking it, " said Harry at once. "Madam Pomfrey can mend anything. 
She regrew half my bones last year. Trust Malfoy to milk it for all it's 
worth." 


"School gov'nors have bin told, o' course," said Hagrid miseribly. "They 
reckon I started too big. Shoulda left hippogriffs fer later... done 
flobberworms or summat.... Jus' thought itdmake a good firs' lessons all 
my fault...." 


"It's all Malfoy's fault, Hagrid!" said Hermione earnestly. 


"We're witnesses," said Harry. "You said hippogriffs attack if you 
insult them. It's Malfoy's problem that he wasn't listening. We'll tell 
Dumbledore what really happened." 


"Yeah, don't worry, Hagrid, we'll back you up," said Ron. 


Tears leaked out of the crinkled corners of Hagrid's beetle-black eyes. 
He grabbed both Harry and Ron and pulled them into a bone-breaking hug. 


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"I think you've had enough to drink, Hagrid," said Hermione firmly. She 
took the tankard from the table and went outside to empty it. 


"At, maybe she's right," said Hagrid, letting go of Harry and Ron, who 
both staggered away, rubbing their ribs. Hagrid heaved himself out of 
his chair and followed Hermione unsteadily outside. They heard a loud 
splash. 


"What's he done?" said Harry nervously as Hermione came back in with the 
empty tankard. 


"Stuck his head in the water barrel," said Hermione, putting the tankard 
away. 


Hagrid came back, his long hair and beard sopping wet, wiping the water 
out of his eyes. 


"That's better," he said, shaking his head like a dog and drenching them 
all. "Listen, it was good of yeh ter come an' see me, I really --


Hagrid stopped dead, staring at Harry as though he'd only just realized 
he was there. 


"WHAT D'YEH THINK YOU'RE DOIN', EH?" he roared, so suddenly that they 
jumped a foot in the air. "YEH'RE NOT TO GO WANDERIN' AROUND AFTER 
DARK, 
HARRY! AN, YOU TWO! LETTIN' HIM!" 


Hagrid strode over to Harry, grabbed his arm, and pulled him to the 
door. 


"C'mon!" Hagrid said angrily. "I'm takin' yer all back up ter school, 
an' don' let me catch yeh walkin' down ter see me after dark again. I'm 
not worth that!" 


CHAPTER SEVEN 


THE BOGGART IN THE WARDROBE 


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Malfoy didn't reappear in classes until late on Thursday morning, when 
the Slytherins and Gryffindors were halfway through double Potions. He 
swaggered into the dungeon, his right arm covered in bandages and bound 
up in a sling, acting, in Harry's opinion, as though he were the heroic 
survivor of some dreadful battle. 

"How is it, Draco?" simpered Pansy Parkinson. "Does it hurt much?" 

"Yeah," said Malfoy, putting on a brave sort of grimace. But Harry saw 
him wink at Crabbe and Goyle when Pansy had looked away. 

"Settle down, settle down," said Professor Snape idly. 

Harry and Ron scowled at each other; Snape wouldn't have said "settle 
down" if they'd walked in late, he'd have given them detention. But 
Malfoy had always been able to get away with anything in Snape's 
classes; Snape was head of Slytherin House, and generality favored his 
own students above all others. 

They were making a new potion today, a Shrinking Solution. Malfoy set up 
his cauldron right next to Harry and Ron, so that they were preparing 
their ingredients on the same table. 

"Sir," Malfoy called, "sir, I'll need help cutting up these daisy roots, 
because of my arm --" 

"Weasley, cut up Malfoy's roots for him," said Snape without looking up. 

Ron went brick red. 

"There's nothing wrong with your arm," he hissed at Malfoy. 

Malfoy smirked across the table. 

"Weasley, you heard Professor Snape; cut up these roots." 

Ron seized his knife, pulled Malfoy's roots toward him, and began to 
chop them roughly, so that they were all different sizes. 

"Professor," drawled Malfoy, "Weasley's mutilating my roots, sit." 

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Snape approached their table, stared down his hooked nose at the roots, 
then gave Ron an unpleasant smile from beneath his long, greasy black 
hair. 

"Change roots with Malfoy, Weasley." 
"But, sit --!" 
Ron had spent the last quarter of an hour carefully shredding his own 


roots into exactly equal pieces. 
"Now," said Snape in his most dangerous voice. 
Ron shoved his own beautifully cut roots across the table a, Malfoy, 


then took up the knife again. 


"And, sir, I'll need this shrivelfig skinned," said Malfoy, his voice 
full of malicious laughter. 
"Potter, you can skin Malfoy's shrivelfig," said Snape, giving Harry the 


look of loathing he always reserved just for him. 
Harry took Malfoy's shrivelfig as Ron began trying to repair the damage 
to the roots he now had to use. Harry skinned the shrivelfig as fast as 


he could and flung it back across the table at Malfoy without speaking. 
Malfoy was smirking more broadly than ever. 
"Seen your pal Hagrid lately?" he asked them quietly. 
"None of your business," said Ron jerkily, without looking up. 
"I'm afraid he won't be a teacher much longer," said Malfoy in a tone of 


mock sorrow. "Father's not very happy about my injury --" 
"Keep talking, Malfoy, and I'll give you a real injury," snarled Ron. 
"- he's complained to the school governors. And to the Ministry of 


Magic. Father's got a lot of influence, you know. And a lasting injury 
like this" -- he gave a huge, fake sigh -- "who knows if my arm'll ever 

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be the same again?" 

"So that's why you're putting it on," said Harry, accidentally beheading 
a dead caterpillar because his hand was shaking in anger. "To try to get 
Hagrid fired." 

"Well," said Malfoy, lowering his voice to a whisper, "partly, Potter. 
But there are other benefits too. Weasley, slice my caterpillars for 
me." 

A few cauldrons away, Neville was in trouble. Neville regularly went to 
pieces in Potions lessons; it was his worst subject, and his great fear 
of Professor Snape made things ten times worse. His potion, which was 
supposed to be a bright, acid green, had turned -


"Orange, Longbottom," said Snape, ladling some up and allowing to splash 
back into the cauldron, so that everyone could see. 

"Orange. Tell me, boy, does anything penetrate that thick skull of 
yours? Didn't you hear me say, quite clearly, that only one -tat spleen 
was needed? Didn't I state plainly that a dash of leech juice would 
suffice? What do I have to do to make you understand, Longbottom?" 

Neville was pink and trembling. He looked as though he was on the verge 
of tears. 

"Please, sir," said Hermione, "please, I could help Neville put it right 
--" 

"I don't remember asking you to show off, Miss Granger," said Snape 
coldly, and Hermione went as pink as Neville. "Longbottom, at the end of 
this lesson we will feed a few drops of this potion to your toad and see 
what happens. Perhaps that will encourage you to do it properly." 

Snape moved away, leaving Neville breathless with fear. 

"Help me!" he moaned to Hermione. 

"Hey, Harry," said Seamus Finnigan, leaning over to borrow Harry's brass 
scales, "have you heard? Daily Prophet this morning -- they reckon 

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Sirius Black's been sighted." 


"Where?" said Harry and Ron quickly. On the other side of the table, 
Malfoy looked up, listening closely. 
"Not too far from here," said Seamus, who looked excited. "It was a 


Muggle who saw him. 'Course, she didn't really understand. The Muggles 
think he's just an ordinary criminal, don't they? So she phoned the 
telephone hot line. By the time the Ministry of Magic got there, he was 
gone." 


"Not too far from here... " Ron repeated, looking significantly at 
Harry. He turned around and saw Malfoy watching closely. "What, Malfoy? 
Need something else skinned?" 


But Malfoy's eyes were shining malevolently, and they were fixed Harry. 
He leaned across the table. 
Black single-handed, Potter?" 
"Thinking Of trying to catch 
"Yeah, that's right," said Harry offhandedly. 


Malfoys thin mouth was curving in a mean smile. 
"Of course, if it was me," he said quietly, "I'd have done something 
before now. I wouldn't be staying in school like a good boy, I'd be