Chapter 34: Hagrid's Invitation
Though Halloween had not yet arrived, late autumn at Hogwarts already carried a bleak chill.
There were no classes on Friday afternoon, which ought to have meant a pleasant stretch of time for Slytherins to lounge by the common room fire or bury themselves in serious reading at the library.
Instead, Tamara Riddle was intercepted in a corridor overlooking the courtyard.
"Hagrid wants to see you."
Harry Potter scratched at his untidy hair with visible awkwardness. Beside him, Ron Weasley stood tense and watchful, glaring past Harry at Draco, who hovered behind Tamara.
Harry and Ron visited Hagrid's hut from time to time. The half giant always greeted them warmly, pressed hot tea on them, offered rock cakes that could have broken teeth, and then talked for hours.
"He said he was curious about you, and... I thought, since we are friends now, maybe we could all have tea together," Harry said, earnest as ever.
Ever since Draco had tricked them with that midnight duel, Harry and the others had learned very well what Slytherin malice looked like.
But Tamara was different.
She had gone out in the middle of the night to warn them. In their eyes, she was probably the only good person in Slytherin.
Before Tamara could answer, Draco wrinkled his nose in disgust as if he had caught the smell of something rotten.
"That great oaf? The gamekeeper in that wooden shack?" Draco sneered. "Merlin's beard, Potter, your taste is hopeless. The place must be full of fleas and mud."
"Who are you calling a great oaf?" Ron snapped, his face flushing red.
Tamara watched the argument with a blank expression.
Go to Hagrid's hut?
Absurd.
She had no interest in visiting that sort of place.
More importantly, this was Hagrid, the very person Tom Riddle had framed all those years ago. Why would she willingly go and face him?
"No," Tamara said coldly, turning away. "I have more important things to do."
The moment she took a step, the mechanical voice exploded in her mind again, crackling with a harsh edge.
[Ding! Warning! Detected that the host is attempting to evade historical responsibility.]
A special quest window sprang up before her eyes.
[Special Bond Quest Triggered: Debt of History]
[Quest Background: Fifty years ago, it was 'you' who despicably opened the Chamber of Secrets, released the Basilisk, caused the death of a student, and ultimately framed Rubeus Hagrid, then only a student.]
[Result: Hagrid was expelled from Hogwarts. His life was ruined, and he could only remain at Hogwarts as the gamekeeper.]
[Although your current body is Tamara, the sins of the soul cannot be escaped. This is an ineradicable stain on your life's record.]
[Quest Objective: Accept the invitation, visit Hagrid's hut, and eliminate Hagrid's hostility toward the surname 'Riddle,' raising his favourability to 'Friendly.']
[Failure Penalty: Dream of Hagrid's large tearful face every night for one month.]
Tamara stopped dead.
Her eyelid twitched.
That penalty alone was enough to make her feel ill.
"...Damn it," she muttered under her breath.
"Tamara?" Draco looked at her in confusion. "Come on. Leave these two idiots."
Tamara drew a slow breath and forced down the disgust curdling in her chest. When she turned back, her face had rearranged itself into cold politeness.
"I have reconsidered," she said calmly to Harry. "Since it is an invitation from an elder, refusing would indeed be rather rude."
"What?" Draco stared. "You are actually going?"
"You head back, Draco," Tamara said, flicking a hand. "Take the book I borrowed from the library to the dormitory for me."
"But..."
"That is an order."
Draco shrank a little at once. He looked unhappy and utterly baffled, but he still gathered up the book and obeyed, throwing Ron one last vicious glare before stalking off.
The walk to Hagrid's hut was unpleasant.
The path was slick with damp mud. The air carried the smell of rotting leaves from the edge of the Forbidden Forest, mixed with a faint rank scent that belonged to large animals.
"We are here," Harry said, knocking on the heavy wooden door.
There were loud barks from inside, followed by heavy footsteps.
"Comin'! Comin'!"
The door swung open.
Rubeus Hagrid filled nearly the entire doorway.
He wore his usual moleskin coat and held a copper kettle in one enormous hand.
"Harry! Ron! Come in!" Hagrid boomed cheerfully.
Then his eyes landed on the black haired girl standing behind them.
The moment he saw her pale, finely cut face, and the trace of cold pride in it, his smile froze.
"And this is...?"
"This is Tamara, Hagrid," Harry said quickly. "Tamara Riddle. She is the Slytherin I told you about, the one who always helps other students."
Clang.
The copper kettle slipped from Hagrid's hand and hit the floor with a crash. Scalding water splashed across the threshold.
Hagrid did not even look at it.
Harry had mentioned a Slytherin girl who helped others, someone well liked across the school. Hagrid had been curious and had said, offhandedly, that he would not mind meeting her.
He had forgotten to ask her name.
Now he stared at Tamara, and his beetle black eyes were no longer merely simple and kind. Fear filled them. Wariness. And something deeper. A pain old enough to have settled into the bones.
"Riddle?" Hagrid's voice came out dry. He even took half a step back without seeming to realise it. "You... you are from that... Riddle family?"
Memories came rushing back.
A handsome boy with a prefect badge.
A model student.
The one who had accused him of harbouring a monster and causing a girl's death.
The name that had destroyed his life.
Harry and Ron both jumped at Hagrid's reaction.
"Hagrid? What is it?"
Tamara looked at the half giant's overblown response and felt exactly what she expected to feel.
Annoyance.
Not guilt.
Still, for the quest's sake, she had to continue the performance.
"It is only a coincidence, Mr Hagrid," Tamara said, voice clear and composed. "Riddle is a very common surname in the Muggle world. I grew up in an orphanage and do not know anything about my family."
She lied without blinking.
Some talents never left a Dark Lord.
"A coincidence..." Hagrid breathed, staring at her for a long moment, as if searching her face for the shadow of someone else.
They were both striking. Both cold in their own way. But this was a girl.
At last, he wiped his face with one massive hand.
"Yeah... maybe it is a coincidence."
He bent, picked up the fallen kettle, and forced a rough smile.
"Sorry. I lost me head a bit. That name brings back bad memories, that's all."
He stepped aside and gestured them in.
"Come in, then. Come in, quick."
.....
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