A/n: Ya'll are nasty as people who need Jesus, fuck I need Jesus after this lol. LEMON AHEAD!!!

"I'll be back," Hermione whispered, pecking Johnny's lips. Johnny removed his shoes, tie and jacket and chucked them on the chair beside Hermione's bed. She walked into the bathroom and came out a minute later in only a towel, with her makeup removed and her down. Johnny slowly leaned in and gently skimmed her lips with his own before finally kissing her, tentatively, slowly, like it was the first time. He took her lower lip between his and gently sucked it, earning a faint moan from Hermione. Johnny released her lips and opened his eyes to see her staring back at him with desire filled eyes.

With Hermione's side facing him, he dropped one hand to her lower back and snaked the other around the back of her neck, tilting her head to the side so he had access to the spot he knew she loved for him to kiss. He leaned in and first simply breathed on her neck, making sure she wasn't going to pull away or tell him to stop. Once he was sure, he opened his mouth and laid it directly on his target. Hermione began breathing heavily and her once firm grip on her towel became nearly non-existent. He ran his tongue along her flesh and lightly bit down, dragging his lips agonizingly slow up to her ear.

A wide range of curse words Hermione wouldn't use in a normal conversation came tumbling out of her mouth.

Johnny noticed her chest quickly rising and falling due to her heavy breathing and dragged his hand from her neck, to her collar bone, over her chest, between her still towel-clad breasts, and down to her waist. Feeling an urgency swelling in his trousers, he needed to touch her skin again.

Looking deeply in her eyes, he pulled his hand back toward him and slipped it in the front of her towel. At first he found more towel, but reaching further around he finally found her bare hip. She leaned her head into his and they both knew it was over. The fight didn't matter anymore. They wanted each other, and they wanted each other now.

Johnny grabbed a hold of the inner edge of her towel and pulled it toward him, causing the whole thing to fall around her. Hermione was instantly aware of how cool the air was not only because she shivered somewhat, but because Johnny's gaze was firmly fixed on her now exposed breasts. Glad to see he was still so in love with her body, she smiled.

With her towel still piled around her waist, Hermione turned toward Johnny and pulled him down on the bed with her. She captured his mouth and used all the emptiness, sadness, and regret she'd felt over the last week to kiss him with all the passion she had in her. Suddenly, she sat up and straddled him, pulling him up to her and quickly removing his shirt. She pushed him back down and Johnny smiled as she started kissing him again. He always loved the feel of her breasts on his chest when she was on top.

Almost as if she knew what he was thinking, Hermione pressed herself against him even further. He laid his hands flat on her back as she kissed her way from his mouth to his stubbled jaw and down to his neck. Feeling himself becoming more aroused, Johnny swiftly wrapped an arm around her and before she knew what had happened she was lying flat on the bed with Johnny hovering above her.

She gave him a knowing look and bit her lip. Just as much as he knew how to turn her on, so did she know about him. Johnny took this as a challenge. He pulled her to the edge of the bed so he was standing between her open legs. He leaned forward over her and softly grabbed her breast, squeezing it gently and running his fingers over her already erect nipples.

He took his other hand and laid it flat on the inside of her thigh. Hermione inhaled sharply at the feel of his warm hand so close to her. He slid his hand from her breast all the way down to her hip, and she moaned the whole way. As much as she was enjoying this game, she began aching to feel him inside her. She sat up to go after his belt buckle but was stopped by Johnny saying, "There'll be plenty of time for that. Lie down."

"Johnny, I..."

"Lie down."

She did as she was told and Johnny quickly moved both hands around her hips and under her ass. He leaned over and kissed her from her hip to her bikini line. Feeling her squirm with protest, Johnny knelt on the floor and spread her legs wide. Painfully slow, he slid a finger inside her.

Feeling how wet she already was he said, "God Mione, you really did miss me." She exhaled on a smile and just closed her eyes. He pulled his finger back out and slowly slid it in again amazed at how tight she was from only one week without him.

Sensing Hermione was growing frustrated with the slow progression of things, he added another finger and brought the thumb of his other hand to her clit. He began pumping his fingers in and out of her and rubbing small circles with his thumb.

After a few moments and feeling he'd given her enough to satisfy her for a bit, he withdrew his fingers from her, earning a very frustrated sigh from Hermione . She picked her head up to look at him and saw the most devilish grin he'd ever given her. "John, so help me God, if you don't..."

She stopped speaking at the feel of Johnny's tongue sliding in her. She threw her head back, grabbed two fist-fulls of sheets, and groaned at the pleasure she was feeling. Loving how easy it was to silence her, Johnny pulled his mouth up to her clit and ran his tongue over it a few times then sucked it until she groaned again.

"John, fuck!" Hermione groaned.

Once again feeling satisfied at his work, Johnny returned his fingers inside her, began pumping again, and continued to lick and suck her clit until she began to writhe under his touch. Knowing she was close, he pulled his mouth away and again massaged her with his thumb until she dove over the edge and cried out in pleasure as her release ran through her body in waves.

Johnny waited until she was finished and slowly withdrew his fingers from her, causing Hermione's hip to rock back slightly. He crawled his way up her body and looked at her relaxed face. He hadn't seen her that satisfied... ever. He kissed her on the neck and she opened her eyes and smiled at him.

"Can I take your trousers off now?"

"You read my mind, darling."

Hermione pushed him over for the second time and straddled him, this time taking the opportunity to undo his belt buckle and suit trousers. Johnny lifted his hips up so she could rid him of his trousers and underwear, and he once again flipped her over.

Hermione gave him a pout and Johnny returned a sly smirk to her. She laid her hands on his flexed arms that were holding him up. She bit her lip and smiled up at him. Johnny was simply enjoying the view. Even more so, he was enjoying having her again. All of her.

Hermione began tracing faint circles on Johnny's chest while he watched her, still supporting himself on all-fours. She grabbed his sides and slid her hands down to his thighs, making her way toward his cock. It wasn't hard to miss. There was no doubting Johnny was aroused, but she was betting she could get him more aroused.

She suddenly and swiftly maneuvered herself straight through his legs below him so her face was by his waist. Johnny looked down to see where she'd gone and found her lingering near his already throbbing cock. Before he could protest, she took of tip of him in her mouth, teasing him just like he teased her.

"Hermione, love," Johnny gasped. "You may not wanna do that."

Hermione responded by taking all eight inches in her mouth and sucking as she slid him back out, and then licking him from tip to base and back up again.

She tipped her head back to look at him upside down and she could see pure desire in his eyes. Looking back at his cock she took it in one hand and his balls in the other. She stroked him once, twice, and then took him in her mouth again, this time earning a loud grunt from Johnny as she took him in even deeper.

He knew if he was going to give Hermione anything else at that moment, he had to stop this. Now. He rocked himself slowly backward so as not to hurt either of them and jumped off the edge of the bed.

"What's the matter, Johnny?" Hermione asked coyly.

"You bloody well know what the matter is! You're trying to suck me off. And I'm not having that," he stated matter-of-factly.

"Why not?" Hermione protested.

"Because, darling, I want to be inside of you," he walked back toward the bed where Hermione was still laying and grabbed her by the waist to move her where he wanted. Once she was in position on the edge of the bed, he spread her legs wide.

Hermione's breathing once again quickened at Johnny's brash words. She was leaning up on her elbows looking at him expectantly.

With one hand on her hip, he grabbed his cock and put the tip just inside her. Hermione bit her bottom lip, knowing she was going to have to adjust to his size once again. Johnny tentatively entered her, watching her face and paying attention to her body to make sure he didn't hurt her.

Once he was sure she was adjusted to him, he pulled back out unbearably slow. They both groaned at the tightness and Johnny felt himself go weak at the knees. Leaning forward he placed his hands on the bed and began rhythmically thrusting into her, slow at first and growing faster.

Hermione again threw her head back on the bed, and arched her back at the same time. Johnny began enjoying the view and took the opportunity to kiss her perfectly round breasts, taking a nipple in his mouth. Hermione hissed as he lightly bit down shooting pleasure-pain through her whole body.

As he continued thrusting, he took one of Hermione's legs and put it up over his hip, allowing him better access to her core.

"Oh fuck, Johnny," was all she could muster. The feeling of him in her, so long and hard, left her eyes practically rolling in the back of her head.

Once she got a handle on the feeling again, she looked up to see Johnny covered in sweat from his effort. She could tell he was trying with great difficulty to hold off for her.

He took his free hand and started stroking her already over-sensitive clit. Hermione started moaning and mumbling incomprehensible things as she inched closer and closer to orgasm. One more swirl of Johnny's thumb coupled with a deep thrust sent her plummeting into her second orgasm.

Feeling her tightening around him Johnny couldn't hold off anymore. One more thrust did him in as well and he let out a guttural groan as he emptied himself into her. Once he was finished he half-collapsed on Hermione, trying to keep his weight on the bed so as not to crush her.

"Should've checked that you're still on the pill, right?" Johnny asked.

"I am, don't worry."

Hermione wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him deeply, tasting him and reveling in the satisfaction he'd just given her.

"I accept your apology," he stated out of the blue.

"Yeah? Could we have just had a good shag a week ago?"

Johnny smacked her on the arm for her comment, but he smiled and kissed her on the cheek.

Hermione returned his smile and wrapped an arm around his neck.

"Hey is this a new towel?" Johnny asked noticing it was still on the bed.

"Yes, it is! Do you like it?" Hermione remembered how nice it felt when she got out of the shower before the ball.

"I do. Do you have more?" he asked with a sparkle in his eye.

Hermione simply responded by saying, "Yes."

"You wanna go break in some more of them with me?"

Hermione gave him a knowing smile and shot up off the bed and out her door to the bathroom. Johnny quickly followed behind her, closing the bathroom door on his way in.

Everybody got up late on Boxing Day. The Gryffindor common room was much quieter than it had been lately, many yawns punctuating the lazy conversations.

"Good night?" Harry asked with a grin when he saw Johnny slide down the girls staircase in his clothes from the night before. His jacket and tie were in his hand he threw them over the back of the couch. He looked extremely laid back and more at peace than he did a month ago. His hair was still rather messy, his shirt was tucked into his trousers with his top three buttons undone and his sleeves were rolled up.

"Brilliant," Johnny said with a smile as he sat down on the chair by the fire. Hermione came down a few minutes later, yawned a good morning to Ron and Harry and kissed Johnny, before sitting in his lap.

Ron and Hermione seemed to have reached an unspoken agreement not to discuss their argument. They were being quite friendly to each other, though oddly formal. Ron and Harry wasted no time in telling Hermione and Johnny about the conversation they had overheard between Madame Maxime and Hagrid, but Hermione and Johnny didn't seem to find the news that Hagrid was a half-giant nearly as shocking as Ron did.

"Well, we thought he must be," Johnny said, shrugging. "We knew he couldn't be pure giant because they're about twenty feet tall. But honestly, all this hysteria about giants. They're not all be horrible.... It's the same sort of prejudice that people have toward werewolves.... It's just bigotry, isn't it?"

Ron looked as though he would have liked to reply, but perhaps he didn't want another row, because he contented himself with shaking his head disbelievingly while Hermione and Johnny wasn't looking.

It was time now to think of the homework they had neglected during the first week of the holidays. Everybody seemed to be feeling rather flat now that Christmas was over - everybody except Harry, that is, who was starting to feel slightly nervous.

Snow was still thick upon the grounds, and the greenhouse windows were covered in condensation so thick that they couldn't see out of them in Herbology. Nobody was looking forward to Care of Magical Creatures much in this weather, though as Ron said, the skrewts would probably warm them up nicely, either by chasing them, or blasting off so forcefully that Hagrid's cabin would catch fire.

When they arrived at Hagrid 's cabin, however, they found an elderly witch with closely cropped gray hair and a very prominent chin standing before his front door.

"Hurry up, now, the bell rang five minutes ago," she barked at them as they struggled toward her through the snow.

"Who're you?" said Ron, staring at her. "Where's Hagrid?"

"My name is Professor Grubbly-Plank," she said briskly. "I am your temporary Care of Magical Creatures teacher."

"Where's Hagrid?" Johnny repeated loudly.

"He is indisposed," said Professor Grubbly-Plank shortly.

Soft and unpleasant laughter reached their ears. Johnny turned; Draco and the rest of his Slytherin gang were joining the class. All of them looked gleeful, and none of them looked surprised to see Professor Grubbly-Plank.

"This way, please," said Professor Grubbly-Plank, and she strode off around the paddock where the Beauxbatons horses were shivering. Johnny, Harry, Ron, and Hermione followed her, looking back over their shoulders at Hagrid's cabin. All the curtains were closed. Was Hagrid in there, alone and ill?

"What's wrong with Hagrid?" Harry said, hurrying to catch up with Professor Grubbly-Plank.

"Never you mind," she said as though she thought he was being nosy.

"I do mind, though," said Harry hotly. "What's up with him?"

Professor Grubbly-Plank acted as though she couldn't hear him. She led them past the paddock where the huge Beauxbatons horses were standing, huddled against the cold, and toward a tree on the edge of the forest, where a large and beautiful unicorn was tethered.

Many of the girls "ooooohed!" at the sight of the unicorn.

"Oh it's so beautiful!" whispered Lavender. "How did she get it? They're supposed to be really hard to catch!"

The unicorn was so brightly white it made the snow all around look gray. It was pawing the ground nervously with its golden hooves and throwing back its horned head.

"Boys keep back!" barked Professor Grubbly-Plank, throwing out an arm and catching Harry and Johnny hard in the chest. "They prefer the woman's touch, unicorns. Girls to the front, and approach with care, come on, easy does it...."

Johnny, under control of his werewolf powers, flashed his red eyes at the unicorn, who softly neighed and nudged its head against Johnny's hand.

"What was that about a woman's touch, Professor?" Johnny asked smugly, stroking the unicorns mane. Grubbly-Plank grumbled as Johnny stepped back and she and the girls walked slowly forward toward the unicorn, leaving the boys watching. The moment Professor Grubbly-Plank was out of earshot. Harry turned to Ron and Johnny.

"What d'you reckons wrong with him? You don't think a skrewt -?"

"Oh he hasn't been attacked, Potter, if that's what you're thinking," said Draco softly. "No, he's just too ashamed to show his big, ugly face."

"What d'you mean?" said Johnny sharply, stopping Harry attacking the blonde.

Draco put his hand inside the pocket of his robes and pulled out a folded page of newsprint.

"There you go," he said. "Hate to break it to you. Potter...."

He smirked as Johnny snatched the page, unfolded it, and read it, with Harry, Ron, Seamus, Dean, and Neville looking over his shoulder. It was an article topped with a picture of Hagrid looking extremely shifty.

DUMBLEDORE'S GIANT MISTAKE
Albus Dumbledore, eccentric Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, has never been afraid to make controversial staff appointments, writes Rita Skeeter, Special Correspondent. In September of this year, he hired Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody, the notoriously jinx-happy ex-Auror, to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts, a decision that caused many raised eyebrows at the Ministry of Magic, given Moody's well-known habit of attacking anybody who makes a sudden movement in his presence. Mad-Eye Moody, however, looks responsible and kindly when set beside the part-human Dumbledore employs to teach Care of Magical Creatures.

Rubeus Hagrid, who admits to being expelled from Hogwarts in his third year, has enjoyed the position of gamekeeper at the school ever since, a job secured for him by Dumbledore. Last year, however, Hagrid used his mysterious influence over the headmaster to secure the additional post of Care of Magical Creatures teacher, over the heads of many better-qualified candidates.

An alarmingly large and ferocious-looking man, Hagrid has been using his newfound authority to terrify the students in his care with a succession of horrific creatures. While Dumbledore turns a blind eye, Hagrid has maimed several pupils during a series of lessons that many admit to being "very frightening."

'Johnathan Grindelwald was attacked by a hippogriff, and my friend Vincent Crabbe got a bad bite off a flobberworm," says Draco Malfoy, a fourth-year student. "We all hate Hagrid, but we're just too scared to say anything."

Hagrid has no intention of ceasing his campaign of intimidation, however. In conversation with a Daily Prophet reporter last month, he admitted breeding creatures he has dubbed "Blast-Ended Skrewts," highly dangerous crosses between manti-cores and fire-crabs. The creation of new breeds of magical creature is, of course, an activity usually closely observed by the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. Hagrid, however, considers himself to be above such petty restrictions.

"I was just having some fun," Draco says, before hastily changing the subject.

As if this were not enough, the Daily Prophet has now unearthed evidence that Hagrid is not - as he has always pretended - a pure-blood wizard. He is not, in fact, even pure human. His mother, we can exclusively reveal, is none other than the giantess Fridwulfa, whose whereabouts are currently unknown.

Bloodthirsty and brutal, the giants brought themselves to the point of extinction by warring amongst themselves during the last century. The handful that remained joined the ranks of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, and were responsible for some of the worst mass Muggle killings of his reign of terror.

While many of the giants who served He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named were killed by Aurors working against the Dark Side, Fridwulfa was not among them. It is possible she escaped to one of the giant communities still existing in foreign mountain ranges. If his antics during Care of Magical Creatures lessons are any guide, however, Frid-wulfa's son appears to have inherited her brutal nature.

In a bizarre twist, Hagrid is reputed to have developed a close friendship with the boy who brought around You-Know-Who's fall from power - thereby driving Hagrid's own mother, like the rest of You-Know-Who's supporters, into hiding. Perhaps Harry Potter is unaware of the unpleasant truth about his large friend - but Albus Dumbledore surely has a duty to ensure that Harry Potter, along with his fellow students, is warned about the dangers of associating with part-giants.

Johnny finished reading and looked up at Harry and Ron, whose mouths was hanging open.

"How did she find out?" Harry whispered.

But that wasn't what was bothering Johnny.

"What d'you mean, 'we all hate Hagrid'?" Johnny spat at Draco. "What's this rubbish about him" - he pointed at Crabbe - "getting a bad bite off a flobberworm? They haven't even got teeth!"

Crabbe was sniggering, apparently very pleased with himself.

"Well, I think this should put an end to the oaf's teaching career," said Draco, his eyes glinting. "Half-giant... and there was me thinking he'd just swallowed a bottle of Skele-Gro when he was young.... None of the mummies and daddies are going to like this at all.... They'll be worried he'll eat their kids, ha, ha...."

"You -"

"Are you paying attention over there?"

Professor Grubbly-Planks voice carried over to the boys; the girls were all clustered around the unicorn now, stroking it. Johnny was so angry that the Daily Prophet article shook in his hands as he turned to stare unseeingly at the unicorn, whose many magical properties Professor Grubbly-Plank was now enumerating in a loud voice, so that the boys could hear too.

"I hope she stays, that woman!" said Parvati when the lesson had ended and they were all heading back to the castle for lunch. "That's more what I thought Care of Magical Creatures would be like... proper creatures like unicorns, not monsters..."

"What's Johnny then?" Hermione asked shortly, knowing many people compared his lycanthropy to being a monster, even if Johnny doesn't shift on full moons.

"Even better, what about Hagrid?" Harry said angrily as they went up the steps.

"What about him?" said Parvati in a hard voice. "He can still be gamekeeper, can't he?"

Parvati had been very cool toward Harry since the ball. He supposed that he ought to have paid her a bit more attention, but she seemed to have had a good time all the same. She was certainly telling anybody who would listen that she had made arrangements to meet the boy from Drumstrang in Hogsmeade on the next weekend trip.

"That was a really good lesson," said Hermione as they entered the Great Hall. "I didn't know half the things Professor Grubbly-Plank told us about uni -"

"Look at this!" Johnny said, and he shoved the Daily Prophet article under Hermione's nose.

Hermione's mouth fell open as she read. Her reaction was exactly the same as theirs.

"How did that horrible Skeeter woman find out? You don't think Hagrid told her?"

"No," said Johnny, leading the way over to the Gryffindor table and throwing himself into a chair, furious. "He never even told us, did he? I reckon she was so mad he wouldn't give her loads of horrible stuff about me or Harry, she went ferreting around to get him back."

"Maybe she heard him telling Madame Maxime at the ball," said Hermione quietly.

"We'd have seen her in the garden!" said Ron. "Anyway, she's not supposed to come into school anymore, Hagrid said Dumbledore banned her...."

"Maybe she's got an Invisibility Cloak," said Harry, ladling chicken casserole onto his plate and splashing it everywhere in his anger. "Sort of thing she'd do, isn't it, hide in bushes listening to people."

"Like you and Ron did, you mean," said Hermione.

"We weren't trying to hear him!" said Ron indignantly. "We didn't have any choice! The stupid prat, talking about his giantess mother where anyone could have heard him!"

"We've got to go and see him," said Harry. "This evening, after Divination. Tell him we want him back... you do want him back?" he shot at Hermione.

"I - well, I'm not going to pretend it didn't make a nice change, having a proper Care of Magical Creatures lesson for once - but I do want Hagrid back, of course I do!" Hermione added hastily, quailing under Harry's furious stare.

So that evening after dinner, the four of them left the castle once more and went down through the frozen grounds to Hagrid's cabin. They knocked, and Fang's booming barks answered.

"Hagrid, it's us!" Johnny shouted, pounding on the door. "Open up!"

Hagrid didn't answer. They could hear Fang scratching at the door, whining, but it didn't open. They hammered on it for ten more minutes; Ron even went and banged on one of the windows, but there was no response.

"What's he avoiding us for?" Hermione said when they had finally given up and were walking back to the school. "He surely doesn't think we'd care about him being half-giant?"

But it seemed that Hagrid did care. They didn't see a sign of him all week. He didn't appear at the staff table at mealtimes, they didn't see him going about his gamekeeper duties on the grounds, and Professor Grubbly-Plank continued to take the Care of Magical Creatures classes. Draco was gloating at every possible opportunity.

"Missing your half-breed pal?" he kept whispering to Harry and Johnny whenever there was a teacher around, so that he was safe from their retaliation. "Missing the elephant-man?"

That was until one day in Defence Against the Dark Arts, when he whispered it in Johnny's ear, and Johnny stood causing his chair to fly back and hit Malfoy's nose.

On Saturday after the Hogsmade trip, Hermione led them all the way back up the road, through the gates flanked by winged boars, and up through the grounds to Hagrid's cabin.

The curtains were still drawn, and they could hear Fang barking as they approached.

"Hagrid!" Hermione shouted, pounding on his front door. "Hagrid, that's enough! We know you're in there! Nobody cares if your mum was a giantess, Hagrid! You can't let that foul Skeeter woman do this to you! Hagrid, get out here, you're just being -"

The door opened. Hermione said, "About ti-!" and then stopped, very suddenly, because she had found herself face-to-face, not with Hagrid, but with Albus Dumbledore.

"Oh shit," Johnny muttered, quietly laughing at Hermione's shock face.

"Good afternoon," he said pleasantly, smiling down at them.

"We er we wanted to see Hagrid," said Hermione in a rather small voice.

"Yes, I surmised as much," said Dumbledore, his eyes twinkling. "Why don't you come in?"

"Oh... um... okay," said Hermione.

She, Johnny, Ron, and Harry went into the cabin; Fang launched himself upon Johnny the moment he entered, barking madly and trying to lick his ears. Johnny fended off Fang and looked around.

Hagrid was sitting at his table, where there were two large mugs of tea. He looked a real mess. His face was blotchy, his eyes swollen, and he had gone to the other extreme where his hair was concerned; far from trying to make it behave, it now looked like a wig of tangled wire.

"Hi, Hagrid," said Johnny.

Hagrid looked up.

"'Lo," he said in a very hoarse voice.

"More tea, I think," said Dumbledore, closing the door behind Johnny, Harry, Ron, and Hermione, drawing out his wand, and twiddling it; a revolving tea tray appeared in midair along with a plate of cakes. Dumbledore magicked the tray onto the table, and everybody sat down. There was a slight pause, and then Dumbledore said, "Did you by any chance hear what Miss Granger was shouting, Hagrid?"

Hermione went slightly pink, but Dumbledore smiled at her and continued, "Hermione, Johnny, Harry, and Ron still seem to want to know you, judging by the way they were attempting to break down the door."

"Of course we still want to know you!" Johnny said, staring at Hagrid. "You don't think anything that Skeeter bitch - sorry, Professor," he added quickly, looking at Dumbledore.

"I have gone temporarily deaf and haven't any idea what you said. Johnny," said Dumbledore, twiddling his thumbs and staring at the ceiling.

"Er-right," said Johnny sheepishly. "I just meant-Hagrid, how could you think we'd care what that-woman-wrote about you?"

Two fat tears leaked out of Hagrid's beetle-black eyes and fell slowly into his tangled beard.

"Living proof of what I've been telling you, Hagrid," said Dumbledore, still looking carefully up at the ceiling. "I have shown you the letters from the countless parents who remember you from their own days here, telling me in no uncertain terms that if I sacked you, they would have something to say about it -"

"Not all of 'em," said Hagrid hoarsely. "Not all of 'em wan me ter stay."

"Really, Hagrid, if you are holding out for universal popularity, I'm afraid you will be in this cabin for a very long time," said Dumbledore, now peering sternly over his half-moon spectacles. "Not a week has passed since I became headmaster of this school when I haven't had at least one owl complaining about the way I run it. But what should I do? Barricade myself in my study and refuse to talk to anybody?"

"Yeh - yeh're not half-giant!" said Hagrid croakily.

"Hagrid, look what I've got for relatives!" Harry said furiously.

"Wow, hurtful," Johnny joked, getting whacked on the arm.

"I meant the Dursleys," Harry said.

"An excellent point," said Professor Dumbledore. "My own brother, Aberforth, was prosecuted for practicing inappropriate charms on a goat. It was all over the papers, but did Aberforth hide? No, he did not! He held his head high and went about his business as usual! Of course, I'm not entirely sure he can read, so that may not have been bravery..."

"Shots fired," Johnny muttered so no one would hear him.

"Come back and teach, Hagrid," said Hermione quietly, "please come back, we really miss you."

Hagrid gulped. More tears leaked out down his cheeks and into his tangled beard.

Dumbledore stood up. "I refuse to accept your resignation, Hagrid, and I expect you back at work on Monday," he said. "You will join me for breakfast at eight-thirty in the Great Hall. No excuses. Good afternoon to you all."

Dumbledore left the cabin, pausing only to scratch Fangs ears. When the door had shut behind him, Hagrid began to sob into his dustbin-lid-sized hands. Hermione kept patting his arm, and at last, Hagrid looked up, his eyes very red indeed, and said, "Great man, Dumbledore... great man..."

"Yeah, he is," said Ron. "Can I have one of these cakes, Hagrid?"

"Help yerself," said Hagrid, wiping his eyes on the back of his hand. "Ar, he's righ', o' course - yeh're all righ'... I bin stupid... my ol' dad woulda bin ashamed o' the way I've bin behavin'...." More tears leaked out, but he wiped them away more forcefully, and said, "Never shown you a picture of my old dad, have I? Here..."

Hagrid got up, went over to his dresser, opened a drawer, and pulled out a picture of a short wizard with Hagrid's crinkled black eyes, beaming as he sat on top of Hagrid's shoulder. Hagrid was a good seven or eight feet tall, judging by the apple tree beside him, but his face was beardless, young, round, and smooth - he looked hardly older than eleven.

"Tha was taken jus' after I got inter Hogwarts," Hagrid croaked. "Dad was dead chuffed... thought I migh' not be a wizard, see, 'cos me mum... well, anyway. 'Course, I never was great shakes at magic, really... but at least he never saw me expelled. Died, see, in me second year...."

"Dumbledore was the one who stuck up for me after Dad went. Got me the gamekeeper job... trusts people, he does. Gives 'em second chances... tha's what sets him apar' from other heads, see. He'll accept anyone at Hogwarts, s'long as they've got the talent. Knows people can turn out okay even if their families weren'... well... all tha' respectable. But some don understand that. There's some who'd always hold it against yeh... there's some who'd even pretend they just had big bones rather than stand up an' say - I am what I am, an' I'm not ashamed. 'Never be ashamed,' my ol' dad used ter say, 'there's some who'll hold it against you, but they're not worth botherin' with.' An' he was right. I've bin an idiot. I'm not botherin' with her no more, I promise yeh that. Big bones... I'll give her big bones."

"Yeh know wha, Harry?" he said, looking up from the photograph of his father, his eyes very bright, "when I firs' met you, you reminded me o' me a bit. Mum an' Dad gone, an' you was feelin' like yeh wouldn' fit in at Hogwarts, remember? Not sure yeh were really up to it... an' now look at yeh, Harry! School champion!"

He looked at Harry for a moment and then said, very seriously, "Yeh know what I'd love. Harry? I'd love yeh ter win, I really would. It'd show 'em all... yeh don' have ter be pureblood ter do it. Yeh don have ter be ashamed of what yeh are. It'd show 'em Dumbledore's the one who's got it righ', lettin' anyone in as long as they can do magic. How you doin' with that egg, Harry?"

"Great," said Harry. "Really great."

Hagrid's miserable face broke into a wide, watery smile.

"Tha's my boy... you show 'em, Harry, you show 'em. Beat 'em all."