He bent down and tugged the dragon steak out of Fang’s mouth.

“Oh, Hagrid, don’t, it’s not hygien—” Hermione began, but Hagrid had already slapped the meat back over his swollen eye.

He took another fortifying gulp of tea, then said, “Well, we set off righ’ after term ended—”

“Madame Maxime went with you, then?” Hermione interjected.

“Yeah, tha’s righ’,” said Hagrid, and a softened expression appeared on the few inches of face that were not obscured by beard or green steak. “Yeah, it was jus’ the pair of us. An’ I’ll tell yeh this, she’s not afraid of roughin’ it, Olympe. 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.”

“You knew where you were going?” Harry repeated. “You knew where the giants were?”

“Well, Dumbledore knew, an’ he told us,” said Hagrid.

“Are they hidden?” asked Ron. “Is it a secret, where they are?”

“Not really,” said Hagrid, shaking his shaggy head. “It’s jus’ that mos’ wizards aren’ bothered where they are, ’s’long as it’s a good long way away. But where they are’s very difficult ter get ter, fer humans anyway, so we needed Dumbledore’s instructions. Took us abou’ a month ter get there—”

“A month?” said Ron, as though he had never heard of a journey lasting such a ridiculously long time. “But—why couldn’t you just grab a Portkey or something?”

There was an odd expression in Hagrid’s unobscured eye as he surveyed Ron; it was almost pitying.

“We’re bein’ watched, Ron,” he said gruffly.

“What d’you mean?”

“Yeh don’ understand,” said Hagrid. “The Ministry’s keepin’ an eye on Dumbledore an’ anyone they reckon’s in league with ’im, an’—”

“We know about that,” said Harry quickly keen to hear the rest of Hagrid’s story, “we know about the Ministry watching Dumbledore—”

“So you couldn’t use magic to get there?” asked Ron, looking thunderstruck, “you had to act like Muggles all the way?”

“Well, not exactly all the way,” said Hagrid cagily. “We jus’ had ter be careful, ’cause Olympe an’ me, we stick out a bit—”

Ron made a stifled noise somewhere between a snort and a sniff and hastily took a gulp of tea.

“—so we’re not hard ter follow. We was pretendin’ we was goin’ on holiday together, so we got inter France an’ we made like we I was headin’ fer where Olympe’s school is, ’cause we knew we was bein’ tailed by someone from the Ministry. We had to go slow, ’cause I’m not really ’s’posed ter use magic an’ we knew the Ministry’d be lookin’ fer a reason ter run us in. But we managed ter give the berk tailin’ us the slip round abou’ Dee-John—”

“Ooooh, Dijon?” said Hermione excitedly. “I’ve been there on holiday, did you see—?”

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<== попередня сторінка	\|	наступна сторінка ==>
Hagrid’s fingers slipped on the dragon steak and it slid squelchily on to his chest.	\|	She fell silent at the look on Ron’s face.

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