Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - J. K. Rowling [288]
“Oh yes, tiny!” said Hermione, with a kind of hysterical sarcasm. “Absolutely minuscule!”
“He was bein’ kicked around by all o’ them — I jus’ couldn’ leave him —”
“Did Madame Maxime want to bring him back?” asked Harry.
“She — well, she could see it was right importan’ ter me,” said Hagrid, twisting his enormous hands. “Bu’ — bu’ she got a bit tired of him after a while, I must admit … so we split up on the journey home. … She promised not ter tell anyone though. …”
“How on earth did you get him back without anyone noticing?” said Harry.
“Well, tha’s why it took so long, see,” said Hagrid. “Could on’y travel by nigh an’ through wild country an’ stuff. ’Course, he covers the ground pretty well when he wants ter, but he kep’ wantin’ ter go back. …”
“Oh Hagrid, why on earth didn’t you let him!” said Hermione, flopping down onto a ripped-up tree and burying her face in her hands. “What do you think you’re going to do with a violent giant who doesn’t even want to be here!”
“Well, now — ‘violent’ — tha’s a bit harsh,” said Hagrid, still twisting his hands agitatedly. “I’ll admit he mighta taken a couple o’ swings at me when he’s bin in a bad mood, but he’s gettin’ better, loads better, settlin’ down well. …”
“What are those ropes for, then?” Harry asked.
He had just noticed ropes thick as saplings stretching from around the trunks of the largest nearby trees toward the place where Grawp lay curled on the ground with his back to them.
“You have to keep him tied up?” said Hermione faintly.
“Well … yeah …” said Hagrid, looking anxious. “See — it’s like I say — he doesn’ really know his strength —”
Harry understood now why there had been such a suspicious lack of any other living creature in this part of the forest.
“So what is it you want Harry and Ron and me to do?” Hermione asked apprehensively.
“Look after him,” said Hagrid croakily. “After I’m gone.”
Harry and Hermione exchanged miserable looks, Harry uncomfortably aware that he had already promised Hagrid that he would do whatever he asked.
“What — what does that involve, exactly?” Hermione inquired.
“Not food or anythin’!” said Hagrid eagerly. “He can get his own food, no problem. Birds an’ deer an’ stuff … No, it’s company he needs. If I jus’ knew someone was carryin’ on tryin’ ter help him a bit … teachin’ him, yeh know …”
Harry said nothing, but turned to look back at the gigantic form lying asleep on the ground in front of them. Grawp had his back to them. Unlike Hagrid, who simply looked like a very oversize human, Grawp looked strangely misshapen. What Harry had taken to be a vast mossy boulder to the left of the great earthen mound he now recognized as Grawp’s head. It was much larger in proportion to the body than a human head, almost perfectly round and covered with tightly curling, close-growing hair the color of bracken. The rim of a single large, fleshy ear was visible on top of the head, which seemed to sit, rather like Uncle Vernon’s, directly upon the shoulders with little or no neck in between. The back, under what looked like a dirty brownish smock comprised of animal skins sewn roughly together, was very broad, and as Grawp slept, it seemed to strain a little at the rough seams of the skins. The legs were curled up under the body; Harry could see the soles of enormous, filthy, bare feet, large as sledges, resting one on top of the other on the earthy forest floor.
“You want us to teach him,” Harry said in a hollow voice. He now understood what Firenze’s warning had meant. His attempt is not working. He would do better to abandon it. Of course, the other creatures who lived in the forest would have heard Hagrid’s fruitless attempts to teach Grawp English. …
“Yeah — even if yeh jus’ talk ter him a bit,” said Hagrid hopefully. “ ’Cause I reckon, if he can talk ter people, he’ll understand more that we all like him really, an’ want him to stay. …”
Harry