110 The fat Knigh (1/2)

Hagrid entered the Great Hall wearing his long moleskin overcoat and was absentmindedly swinging a dead

polecat from one enormous hand.

”All righ'?” he said eagerly, pausing on the way to the staff table. ”Yer in my firs' ever lesson! Right after lunch! Bin up since five gettin' everythin' ready... Hope it's okay... Me, a teacher... hones'ly...”

He grinned broadly at them and headed off to the staff table, still swinging the polecat.

”Wonder what he's been getting ready?” said Ron, a note of anxiety in his voice.

”Probably something interesting.” Arth said with a hint of excitement in his eyes.

”Well Hagrid's And your definition of interesting is different from people like us.” Ron said with a grumble.

”We all remember what happened last time Hagrid said something was cute. A three headed dog, a dragon, and a giant talking spider.”

”Oh come on, the dragon was cute.”

”The dragon attempted to burn down Hagrid's hit. And that's not the point. The point is all of them had a potential risk to kill someone.”

The hall was starting to empty as people headed off toward their first lesson. Ron checked his course schedule.

”We'd better go, look, Divination's at the top of North Tower. It'll take us ten minutes to get there...”

They finished their breakfasts hastily, said goodbye to Fred and George, and walked back through the hall. As they passed the Slytherin table, Malfoy did yet another impression of a fainting fit. The shouts of laughter followed them into the entrance hall.

The journey through the castle to North Tower was a long one. Two years at Hogwarts hadn't taught them everything about the castle, and they had never been inside North Tower before.

”There's — got — to — be — a — shortcut,” Ron panted as they climbed their seventh long staircase and emerged on an unfamiliar landing, where there was nothing but a large painting of a bare stretch of grass hanging on the stone wall.

Arth let out a grin.

”I know a short cut. Y'all want to take it?”

”NO!”