He knew something was wrong when he didn’t see her in the Great Hall. The end of the table where she normally sat alone with her head dipped was bare. He had first noticed her when they shared a charms class their second year and ended up sitting next to each other.
She wasn’t the prettiest girl to everyone. She hid behind thick glasses and a mess of long thick brown hair. Her bangs shadowed her face and hid her eyes. Her eyes were beautiful. They were brown and almost a perfect circle when they weren’t swollen with tears. She was squat, a great contrast to his height. But to him she was perfectly amazing.
To her, he was just another person to make backhanded comments about her. Her housemates, especially by Olive Hornby, constantly ridiculed her and as a result she never believed him when he was complementing her. Often he commented on her hair or eyes which she ignored. But as the years past she grew fond of him and the guarded girl let him into her life.
He was her first friend. She was his first love.
Hagrid could not shake the thought of the Ravenclaw girl from his mind. Where was she? He just wanted to see her and see what happened this morning. She always had a story about her morning and he loved to listen to them. Really he loved to just hear her talk and to see her relax. She finally was finding a voice of her own.
He walked out of the Great Hall searching for her in the halls. He spotted the back of her head up the stairs. Her hair was in pigtails, something she had only started doing this year. He thought it was adorable.
He heard voices as he approached her and soon spotted the blonde hair of Olive Hornby. He quickened his pace to get to Myrtle before Olive could break her down again. He was too late though. He was a few feet away as Myrtle started to run away and right into him, her eyes brimming with tears. He tried to wrap his arms around her and comfort her. She quickly pushed him away though.
She couldn’t let him see her like that. He maybe her best friend, but he was still a person. He was a boy too, and that just made it worse. She ripped out of his arms, which was no easy task, and ran to the bathroom.
She sat in the stall for hours on end. Olive had said really set her off this time and Myrtle had missed two classes before someone was sent to try to find her.
Olive wandered the halls not wanting to return to class nor did she really want to find Myrtle who was no doubt in the bathroom on the second floor. Whenever she got over emotional that’s where she always she went. People had started to avoid that bathroom just incase she was there. Olive checked ever floor before that one wanting to be out of class for as long as possible. Olive didn’t understand why she had to find her. It wasn’t her fault that the mousy haired girl was over emotional and couldn’t handle the truth about her self.
Classes were excused for the rest of the day and everyone was under strict orders to return to their common rooms. That night we got the news that another student was attacked. This time was different though. This time someone died. Myrtle had died.
Hagrid retreated that night to his hiding place. He retreated to the one friend that he had left, Aragog. His pet acromantula was kept safe here or so Hagrid thought. Shortly after he arrived Tom Riddle showed up. Riddle accused Aragog of killing Myrtle then attempted to kill Aragog himself.
Everyone knew of Riddle’s story that night and by the next morning there was whispering all about the Great Hall. He knew that they were talking about him. He knew that they all thought that he had killed her. The rumors started before this when the attacks first started and Riddle’s story from last night helped nothing. He tried to make himself invisible, make himself shrink. I just ended up making myself look like a large mess.
Hagrid felt sick to his stomach. Soon he couldn’t take it and got up and trudged to the common room. The Fat Lady wouldn’t open. Fear was apparent in the way she slinking away from him. Mad, Hargid demanded that he be let in. She kept saying that only house members were allowed in the common room.
Fed up with her tedious riddles he soon gave up. Hagrid couldn’t figure out how she could say that he wasn’t a member of Gryffindor? She’d been opening the door for him for the past 4 years!
He stormed down the stairs to get away from everyone, but was soon redirected by Professor Dumbledore to Dippet’s office. There was speak of expelling him and how the Ministry, along with many parents, wanted Hagrid gone.
He stood there, ignored, as they continued to talk as though he couldn’t hear them. He didn’t listen. He didn’t want to be there at least; not anymore. What Hagrid wanted was to run. He’d gotten over the being sad, now all that was left was anger. Someone had framed him for this…this vile death of…Myrtle. He was framed for the death of his best friend.
Olive has been saying that Myrtle’s ghost won’t leave her alone. Hagrid knew that Myrtle deserved so much more then what she got. She was a truly brilliant witch that had to fight with people each day just because her appearance was different. Just because she didn’t fit everyone else’s standards.
Hagrid would never hurt her and now he was being told in no uncertain terms that he killed her.
Now she was a ghost and if she found out the rumors…Hagrid’s thoughts froze as if stuck in time. If Myrtle heard the rumors…he didn’t want to think of it. He had to let her know that he didn’t do it. Make sure that she understood that all of that was just rumors.
Hagrid decided to leave right then and there. He hastened a yes to question directed at him that had something to do with grounds and gamekeeper before rushing off.
People said that she could still be heard crying from outside the second floor girls room making the lavatory rather off putting for most. But for Hagrid…he’d never been happier to hear her cry.
He slowed his pace as he stepped carefully into the girl’s lavatory. “Myrtle?” her name barely escaped the rough lips when then sobbing reduced to sniffs. “Hagrid?”
“I think I might loveyeh Myrtle.” Hagrid said it in such a rush that the words ran together. His eyes searched the lavatory trying to find her. He wasn’t sure what he was looking for exactly but he hoped to find that this was all a bad dream.
She floated through the stall staring at him. Hagrid couldn’t stop the words. Suddenly he talked, almost yelling at Myrtle, uncontrollably.
“Myrtle I didn’t kill yeh! Yeh know that I..,I care bout yeh n’ I don’t want anythin’ to happen to ew! People are sayin’ that I killed ya an’ I didn’t. I swear it Myrtle I didn’t kill ya! I love yeh and I didn’t kill yeh! Yeh know I didn’t kill ya right Myrtle?”
“Hagrid? You…” her voice cracked and it was apparent that she was about to cry. “You! You did this to me?!” Hagrid felt his heart drop. “You killed me! I trusted you and thought you cared!”
Hagrid didn’t know what to say. He wasn’t sure what to do other than get away. They had taken his friends. Riddle took Aragog away and some one, some monster, had torn Myrtle from him in life and death. So Hagrid retreated to the only place that he belonged, the only place where he could be left alone.
The Forbidden Forest.
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