Hagrid's Tale (OP)

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Hagrid covering his swelled eye with a piece of dragon steak.

Hagrid's Tale is the twentieth chapter of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

Hagrid returns

Harry runs to the boys' dormitory to fetch the Invisibility Cloak and the Marauder's Map. He and Ron are ready to go five minutes before Hermione hurries down the stairs, wearing one of her elf hats, scarf and gloves.

The three get under the Cloak after passing through the portrait hole; Ron now has to crouch to prevent his feet from showing. They creep out of the castle, and Harry is delighted to see the lights on Rubeus Hagrid's hut shining through the windows.

They approach the hut and knock; a dog starts barking inside. Hagrid tries not to show his satisfaction with the Trio's visit ("Shoulda known... Bin home three seconds..."), but they easily see through his gruffness. When the students see his face, however, they are terrified: Harry's hair was matted with congealed blood and his left eye is in a sorry state. He has several cuts, some of which are still bleeding, and moved in a way that indicated internal injuries.

He has obviously just returned from his journey. Hagrid limps to the fire to make some tea, and refuses to answer the questions of the Trio regarding what happened to him. Hermione begs him to go see Madam Pomfrey, but he claims to be taking care of it already, and slaps a huge raw, bloody and green steak on his face.

Hagrid explains that it is dragon meat—helps with the stinging. He continues to disclose nothing of his journey, but Hermione surprises him by mentioning the giants; he gives up and decides to reveal all the details, especially after Harry offers to tell him everything about the Dementors' attack in Little Whinging (OP1) and the boy's Wizengamot trial.

The giants

Giants, says Hagrid, are not very difficult to find. Dumbledore gave him precise instructions as to where to go and how to behave (GF36). They live in the mountains; Muggles often approach the creatures, and their deaths are credited to mountaineering accidents.

He and Olympe Maxime ("yeh know, she's a fine, well-dressed woman, an' knowin' where we was goin' I wondered 'ow she'd feel abou' clamberin' over boulders an' sleepin' in caves an' tha' bu' she never complained once.") set off to the mountains soon after term ended. It took them a month to arrive; they were being followed by Ministry of Magic cronies, and were only able to lose them in Dijon, France ("Ooooh, Dijon? I've been there on holiday, did you see — ?" begins Hermione, only to be shut up by a look from Ron).

Afterwards, Hagrid was able to use magic properly. The couple ran into two mad trolls on the Polish border, and Hagrid had a disagreement with a vampire in a Minsk pub, but apart from that everything went fine. They trekked up the mountains, forfeiting the use of magic in the vicinity of giants in order to avoid animosity and to call attention to themselves; Dumbledore had warned them that there might be Death Eaters there.

Hagrid first saw the giants at night ("it was like watchin' bits o' the mountain movin'"), and waited until sunrise to approach them; they were snoring so loudly that they provoked an avalanche. The creatures are about twenty feet high, and some of them got to twenty-five; there were about seventy or eighty of them. They're all that's left of the species: wizards killed some of them, but mostly they killed each other in wars brought about by rivalries of all sorts. They are dying out faster now, because giants were not made to live in such proximity with others of their kind.

Dumbledore says wizards are to blame for the situation; they forced giants to live away from society and in the far corner of the world, and the creatures had little choice other than uniting for their own good.

The Gurg

The next morning, Hagrid and Madame Maxime approached the group, bearing gifts for the Gurg—the chief. He was, according to the gamekeeper, the biggest, the ugliest and the laziest of the entire group, and Hagrid spotted him at once.

His name was Karkus, he was about twenty-two feet high and had the weight of and he was lying in the valley, yelling for others to feed him and his wife. Hagrid and Maxime held up high the gift they had brought to the Gurg, got to him unharmed, bowed, and left the gift at Karkus' feet: a branch of Gubraithian fire (everlasting fire; Hermione is exasperated at the boys for not remembering what it is, considering Flitwick has mentioned it in class twice) bewitched by Dumbledore; this sort of spellwork isn't easy or ordinary.

Karkus, however, did not speak English. He called some giants who did in order to have them translate Hagrid's message ("A gift to the Gurg of the giants from Albus Dumbledore, who sends his respectful greetings.") and the promise that the couple would return the following day bearing more another present.

Dumbledore instructed Hagrid to approach the giants slowly, giving them time to test the first gift before bringing them the second one, and making them eager for more. "In any case, giants like Karkus — overload 'em with information an' they'll kill yeh jus' to simplify things. "

On the second day, the couple brought to the Gurg a goblin-made, indestructible battle helmet, and finally talked. Karkus had heard of Dumbledore, who voiced his opposition against the giant killings in Britain, and was interested in hearing what the Headmaster had to say; some of the other giants were listening as well, especially those who spoke some English.

Hagrid and Olympe left once more, and promised to return the following morning with another present.

This chapter summary is not done yet. Please be patient.