Bane bid him good day at the edge of the trees and Harry let him know he'd be returning to the forest around sunset (Hagrid was always chatty when he visited the large man) so that the centaur didn't stand there waiting around for him all day. Harry then confidently made his way to Hagrid's cabin and knocked on the door as Hedwig resettled on his shoulder and wrapped her tail around his neck nearly two full times around (the occamy now close to three feet long). Hagrid answered the door just a couple of minutes later and greeted Harry nervously.
"Oh… I wasn't expectin' yeh ter visit today, James."
"Hi, Hagrid; if you're busy, I can always come back later," Harry replied as he glanced up at the huge man that was close to three times his height. "I only came to see if you'd be willing to take care of a trio of Bugbears that I accidentally orphaned when their mother attacked me in the forest. If I'd known she'd had cubs, I'd have just knocked her out instead of killing her to feed Hedwig. I can come back later if you don't have time for a visit right now."
"Ish dat Harry out dere, Hagrid!?" a slightly familiar man's voice demanded, the slight slurring of the man's words indicating that he'd been drinking; drunken idiots being something that Harry was intimately familiar with due to the handful of times that Agil had dragged him to a pub for a night of drinking before the man learned he was only a kid.
"Oh, you have company," Harry needlessly pointed out in a flat tone the moment he recognized that the voice belonged to Sirius Black; his supposed in-game godfather. "I'll come back another time."
"Oh, no, yeh don't," Hagrid gruffly rebuked as he grabbed hold of Harry's arm and dragged him into the cabin; the gamekeeper's nervousness disappearing in the blink of an eye. "It ain't gonna hurt yeh ter say hello at least instead of bein' a right grump."
Harry growled beneath his breath which set off Hedwig who hissed in agitation before Harry forced back his irritation and stopped struggling against Hagrid's hold on his arm. He then pressed his lips together as he took in the disheveled mess that was Mr. Black sitting at Hagrid's table with a Hagrid sized tankard of mead clutched between both hands. The man was currently staring at Harry with undisguised hunger, regret, and grief.
"Hello, Mr. Black; you're looking quite lovely in your drunken stupor," Harry curtly greeted after the third time Hagrid pointedly cleared his throat and pushed Harry closer to the man; the eleven year old ignoring Black's spluttered protests that he wasn't drunk. "Hagrid it was nice to see you again and I would love to stay but the centaurs are waiting for me in the forest because I asked them to lead me up into the mountains so that I could hunt down a Mountain Troll or two. I only came back to see if you could take care of the Bugbear Cubs since I don't like killing babies and it would have been far too cruel to leave them to starve to death."
Hagrid grumbled under his breath about cheeky little stubborn brats as he relieved Harry of the three cubs and set them up in a makeshift nest-box near the fireplace and Harry closed his eyes against the surge of pain that hit him over being called a brat; something that Agil had often called him during the two years he'd known the black merchant. Beating back his grief, least he show any signs of weakness in front of the two NPCs, Harry turned to leave only for Hagrid to drop a hand on his shoulder and steer him into a chair at the table.
"Have a seat, James, and tell meh what yeh've been up ter in the forest. I still can't figer why you keep sneakin' in there; don't yeh know that place is filled with dangerous critters?"
"The only truly dangerous creature in that forest is Norbert and he likes me because he still thinks Hedwig is his mother and I bring him food each time I see him," Harry dryly pointed out as he reluctantly accepted the overlarge cup of tea that Hagrid poured out for him.
"Whazza Norbert?" Mr. Black demanded as he frowned at Harry and Hagrid.
"He's the cute little dragon that Hagrid hatched out a few months back," Harry answered when Hagrid became flustered by the question. "He's finally reached the size of a small single story cabin and he's moved further up into the mountains where the game is more plentiful. And he only comes down close to the forest around castle when he's got a hankering for Acromantula."
"A dragon… you hatched a dragon… are you nuts, Hagrid?" Mr. Black blurted out (his drunken slur vanishing in an instant) as he jumped to his feet and nearly fell on his face as he tripped over the legs of the chair. The man then swung around to face Harry as he demanded, "And you willingly go into the forest knowing there is a dragon on the loose in there!?"
"At least the dragon hasn't tried to kill me, can't say the same for those that live up at the castle what with the rat turned man trying to cut me in half and the Two-Faced Voldemort hybrid thingy trying to blow me up with that stupid green spell he likes to fling around."
.
.
.
.
.
👀The novel is available in PDF, visit my Patreon store👀
🚬Patreon.com/BlackGoku222🚬