Hagrid released Fang from his grip, and the enormous boarhound immediately charged toward Ron with overwhelming enthusiasm.
Ron's eyes widened in horror.
"Don't let him near me!"
Fang completely ignored the request.
The giant dog bounded forward happily, clearly intending to lick Ron's entire face clean.
"This is Ron!" Harry said quickly between laughs, trying to rescue his friend before Fang flattened him. "He's my mate!"
"Oh, yeh don't need ter worry," Hagrid said casually. "Fang's just caught a familiar smell."
His eyes drifted from Ron's bright red hair to the freckles scattered across his face.
"Fang! Come here now!"
The dog circled Ron one last time, tilting his head in confusion as though genuinely puzzled by the familiar scent coming from this smaller Weasley.
"Woof."
After one final sniff, Fang obediently trotted back to Hagrid's side and collapsed onto the floor with a satisfied grunt.
Ron finally let out a relieved breath.
"Hagrid," he asked cautiously while keeping a respectable distance from Fang, "have you met other Weasleys before?"
Hagrid snorted as he pulled the kettle off the fire.
"Met 'em?" he said darkly. "Took me years ter survive Fred an' George."
At once, the image of two identical troublemakers seemed to appear in his mind.
"The twins nearly drove me mad runnin' around the Forbidden Forest."
Ron immediately perked up.
"Oh, those two!" he said proudly. "Don't worry, Hagrid. I'll write to Mum and tell her they've been causing trouble again."
Then he quickly straightened up and corrected himself.
"Ahem... I mean... I'll make sure they don't trouble you anymore, Mr. Hagrid."
Everyone instantly understood exactly what would happen if Molly Weasley received such a letter.
The room fell briefly silent in collective sympathy for Fred and George.
Hagrid looked genuinely touched.
"Well... thanks fer that."
Only after everyone settled around the table did Hagrid finally have a chance to properly examine the group.
His gaze slowly moved across the students.
Then it stopped on Draco.
Hagrid blinked.
"Harry," he said suspiciously, "what're yeh doin' hangin' around with a Slytherin?"
The atmosphere shifted instantly.
Then Hagrid's eyes moved toward Leo, noticing the silver-and-green trim on his robes.
"And Nicholas too," he muttered with obvious confusion. "Honestly, I still can't understand why someone smart like yeh got sorted into Slytherin instead o' Ravenclaw. What was the Sorting Hat thinkin'?"
He shook his head before suddenly realizing how harsh that sounded.
"Now hold on," Hagrid added quickly. "I'm not sayin' yeh're bad, Leo! Yeh're a good lad. I just mean—well—Slytherin's..."
He awkwardly waved his hands around.
"...got a reputation."
Leo smiled faintly.
He understood perfectly well that Hagrid wasn't trying to insult him personally. The man was simply protective of Harry.
Still, he answered calmly.
"Hagrid, we're all Hogwarts students. It isn't really fair to divide people so absolutely based on their House."
He leaned casually against the table.
"Every House has good people and bad people. Slytherin isn't automatically evil just because some Dark Wizards came from there."
Draco, who had tensed the moment Hagrid spoke, slowly relaxed after hearing Leo defend their House.
Then he frowned thoughtfully.
To his own surprise, he realized he genuinely agreed.
Hagrid stared uncertainly between the two boys.
Meanwhile, Draco rose from his chair with practiced elegance.
"Draco Malfoy," he introduced himself formally, giving a slight bow. "Eldest son of the Malfoy family. A pleasure to meet you, Mr. Hagrid."
Then he straightened and spoke firmly.
"Slytherin represents ambition, determination, and resourcefulness. Those qualities aren't evil."
His pale gray eyes remained steady.
"As Leo said, every House has strengths. Judging all Slytherins as future Dark Wizards is unfair."
For several seconds, Hagrid simply stared at him.
Apparently, hearing reasonable words come from Lucius Malfoy's son was enough to slightly damage reality.
Before the awkward silence could deepen, Rose enthusiastically slapped the table.
"Exactly!"
She pointed dramatically at Hagrid.
"And I'm not calling Draco 'Ferret Boy' anymore if he keeps talking like this."
Draco looked deeply offended.
Rose ignored him completely.
"You can't label an entire House as evil," she continued confidently. "Sure, Slytherin produced Dark Wizards before. But other Houses have produced terrible people too."
Hagrid opened his mouth.
Then closed it again.
Because annoyingly enough, they actually made sense.
Across the table, Ron looked deeply conflicted.
His entire childhood had been filled with warnings about Slytherin House. His parents, older brothers, and nearly every adult he trusted had treated Slytherins as future Dark Wizards waiting to happen.
But now?
Leo had shared food with Harry on the train.
Rose got along with practically everyone.
Even Draco—while still arrogant and occasionally annoying—wasn't acting remotely like an evil Dark Wizard.
Ron suddenly found himself trapped between everything he had been taught and everything he was currently seeing.
Hermione, meanwhile, looked thoughtful rather than conflicted.
Raised in the Muggle world, she trusted observation more than assumptions. She remembered something Leo had said during one of their study sessions in the library.
"It's better to question books than blindly believe everything written inside them."
The sentence had stayed with her ever since.
Because of it, Hermione instinctively approached most things with skepticism and independent thought.
After carefully considering the situation, she found herself agreeing with Leo and Draco almost entirely.
Harry's thoughts were much simpler.
Ever since receiving his Hogwarts letter, his life had changed completely.
Hagrid had rescued him from the Dursleys and celebrated his birthday.
The Weasleys had welcomed him warmly.
On the train, Leo had shared food with him without hesitation. Hermione had become his first real friend. Neville was kind despite his nervousness. Even Draco, though argumentative and irritating, no longer seemed nearly as terrible as Harry had originally assumed.
At this point, Harry honestly didn't care much about House stereotypes.
The only Slytherin he truly disliked was Carlo.
And that was mostly because Carlo enjoyed bullying Neville.
As for Rose, she somehow managed to get along with almost everyone.
The room gradually fell quiet as everyone drifted into their own thoughts.
Leo silently considered how difficult it would be to improve relationships between the Houses.
Draco seemed to be reevaluating many of the beliefs he had grown up with.
Ron looked as though he was mentally preparing for the impossible task of explaining all this to his family someday.
Hermione appeared focused, perhaps already thinking about how irrational prejudice spread so easily.
Harry simply smiled quietly while reflecting on his life at Hogwarts so far.
Then—
Knock. Knock. Knock.
The sudden sound at the door immediately interrupted everyone's thoughts.
Rose, who had clearly become bored during the serious discussion, perked up first.
"Ooh, who's that?"
Leo's eyes brightened slightly.
Garcia must have arrived.
He immediately stood and turned toward Hagrid with a smile.
"Hagrid, we actually prepared a small dinner for tonight, and we'd like you to join us."
Then he gestured toward the open space outside the hut.
"We were also hoping to borrow a bit of land beside your cabin for the evening. Is that alright?"
....
Join my P@treon and get 60+ advanced chapters.
Link: p*atreon.com/0LordSilvere0 (Remove the *)
Free members get 2 chapters free.
Join Right Now