Hogwarts Advanced Guide

Chapter 444 Tom's Bizarre Adventures
It didn't take long for Harry to come to Hagrid's cabin.

"You're here." Hagrid opened the door and said hoarsely when Harry lifted the Invisibility Cloak and appeared in front of him.

"Yeah - Ron and Hermione can't make it, they're sorry."

"No - it doesn't matter but you're here, it'll be very touching, Harry"

Hagrid sobbed loudly.He made himself a black oversleeve, which seemed to be made of a strip of tattered oilcloth dipped in shoe polish.His eyes were red and swollen, and Harry patted his elbow reassuringly, the highest part he could reach without much effort.

"What's that on your shoulder? A snake?"

"Oh, yes, I met it at the castle," Harry dropped his voice suddenly, "you know, I can talk to them, and I think it wants to see the unicorn too - by the way, what's its name?"

"Harvey, I'll name him Harvey." Hagrid sobbed, "It's such a good child, it just trusts strangers too much, so it will be targeted by that bad guy Quirrell."

"Where is it buried? In the woods?" Harry asked, wanting to shift the conversation to Harvey's funeral instead of Hagrid's tale of how pitiful he was, and Professor Slughorn was about to come out if he wasted any more time.

"God, no," said Hagrid, wiping his tears with the corner of his shirt. "Harvey was defiled, he wasn't accepted by the Clan, he couldn't be buried with his other friends, he was expelled, even though it wasn't his fault at all, he just made mistakes that all animals make."

Harry nodded. He didn't think it was a big deal, but Hagrid obviously cared.

"I tried to convince them, even the horsemen, but since what happened with Firenze, they don't want to talk to me anymore. They think Firenzee is their disgrace, and Dumbledore and I are evil beings who tempt them." Hagrid cried louder, his head buried in his arms.

All Harry could do was pat his elbow and say (Tom was rolling his eyes at them incessantly, as if this seemed to him a completely unnecessary emotion, not necessary for a unicorn), "Hagrid, I ran into Professor Slughorn on the way."

"No trouble?" said Hagrid, looking up in horror. "I know it's my fault you shouldn't have left the castle at night—"

"No, no, when he heard what I was doing, he said he wanted to say goodbye to Harvey too. He went to change, and I think he said he'd bring some wine to honor Harvey."

Harry walked to the back window and saw a rather tragic scene. Outside lay a pure white unicorn lying on its side, with its limbs bent, looking extremely miserable.

"Is it buried here, Hagrid, in your garden?"

"Behind the pumpkin patch, I think," Hagrid choked out, "I've dug - the grave. Just thought we should say something - good memories - the years -"

His voice broke off in a tremor.There was a knock at the door, and he turned to open it, pinching his nose with a spotted bandanna.Slughorn stepped through the door hastily, bottles in his arms and a black scarf around his neck.

"Hagrid," he said in a low, solemn tone, "I'm sorry."

"That's very kind of you," said Hagrid, "thank you very much, and thank you for not having Harry locked up."

"Never dreamed," said Slughorn. "Sad night, sad night. Where is the poor animal?"

"Outside," said Hagrid in a trembling voice, "it reminds me of Aragog. He was also a lovely child, but one day, he suddenly disappeared, leaving only endless ashes. He was killed."

Tom on Harry's shoulders slid into his shirt against his back, making Harry shiver involuntarily.

"Hagrid, I think Aragog is a tragedy, but we're mostly about Harvey today, aren't we?"

"Oh, Harvey is—?" Slughorn asked suspiciously.

"That's the poor little guy, he hasn't been a man for long. Too much damage has been done to him before," said Hagrid in a trembling voice. "Outside, he's out there, and we—shall we start?"

The three of them walked into the back garden, where the moon shone dimly between the trees and mixed with the light from Hagrid's window, illuminating the dead body of Harvey lying on the edge of a large pit next to a mound of fresh dirt ten feet high.

Tom slipped off Harry's body at some point. He straightened up his upper body, raised his head vigorously, and looked at the unicorn Harvey in the pit by the moonlight.

"It's beautiful," said Slughorn, stepping into the unicorn's head, where the milky eyes stared blankly at the sky, and the horn on its forehead was motionless in the moonlight.Slughorn stooped before it, as if examining the shaggy, snow-white body.

"Everyone can see their beauty," said Hagrid, looking into Slughorn's back, tears streaming from the corners of his wrinkled eyes. "We're all sad about it, every one of us, and it's cruel to a unicorn as pure as it is."

"Dear Hagrid, I have to admit you're right." Slughorn stepped back from the corpse. "Well, I don't know if I'm going to take the liberty—I don't want to be hard-hearted at this point, but unicorns are quite rare, especially on them—may I have a little hand?"

It seemed that he was worried about Hagrid's misunderstanding, and at the end Slughorn added, "You know me too, this is purely academic research."

"It's no use keeping it now anyway, is it?" sobbed Hagrid.

Slughorn quickly took out a small bottle from his pocket, "Exactly what I thought, I always carry a few small bottles with me, just for this kind of situation, it's an old habit of the Potions teacher."

"I wish you could see him back then." Hagrid watched Slughorn walk up to Harvey again, tears running down his wrinkles.

"Oh my God—"

Slughorn took out a small saw from his pocket and aimed it at the horn on top of Harvey's head.There was a rustling sound in the garden, and Hagrid turned his head away, not daring to look at the painful scene.

Slughorn sawed off Harvey's horns, took the vial and poured a large vial full of blood around its neck.The silver liquid glistened inside.

Slughorn returned contentedly to Hagrid, the bottle glinting and disappearing under his cloak.Hagrid wiped his eyes again, "Now... the funeral?"

Hagrid nodded, stepped forward, picked up Harvey, roared, and rolled him into the black pit.There was a terrible crunch as the body hit the bottom of the pit, and Hagrid cried again.

Both Harry and Tom knew it was sad for Harvey's tragedy.Harvey could have died with dignity, but Slughorn brutally sawed off his horn.

"Of course, you can't bear it, because you know it best." Slughorn only reached Hagrid's elbow, but he patted him anyway, "Let me say a few words."

Tom was spitting out red letters. If Hera knew about this, he would definitely try to get these materials from Slughorn, because the smile on his face was too obvious. If it wasn't for Harvey's funeral, he would have laughed out loud.

Slughorn said in slow, solemn tones, "Farewell, Harvey, poor one of the unicorns, one of whom fate has draped, your long and loyal friendship will not be forgotten by those who knew you! Though your flesh may rot, your spirit shall remain in the quiet and good place of the Forest House. May your soul be purified, and may your human friends be comforted in their mourning."

"That's... well said!" Hagrid howled, and threw himself on the dunghill, crying even harder.

But Harry clearly heard a voice saying: "Hehe, the executioner's speech is really ridiculous, ridiculous"

Harry tried hard to find the source of the sound, and finally fixed his sight on Tom who was spitting out the red letter. His mind was full of doubts, but he understood that the more important thing now was to get that memory from Slughorn, rather than to explore the secrets of a snake. His intuition told him that he had enough time to figure everything out.

"Okay, okay." Slughorn said with a wave of his wand, and the huge mound of dirt rose up and pressed dully on the body of the dead Harvey, forming a smooth mound. "Let's go in and have a drink, hold him on his side, Harry is right, Hagrid. OK."

They helped Hagrid to a chair in front of the table, and Fang, who had been hiding in the basket during the funeral, came softly over now and put his heavy head on Harry's lap as usual, but he bared his teeth hard at Tom who was beside him, and he didn't seem to like Tom very much.

But this is normal, and how many creatures would like poisonous snakes?
Slughorn opened the bottle of wine he had brought.

"I've checked them all, and there's no poison." Slughorn assured Harry that the recent poisoned alcohol incident had taught him a great lesson, and now he would check every bottle of wine himself before opening them. He poured most of the bottle into Hagrid's bucket-sized cup. "After your poor friend Robert's accident, I let the house-elf taste every bottle of wine."

"You misremembered Ron's name." Harry said in his heart, but he tactfully didn't say it, he didn't want to spoil everyone's sex, and now it seems that Ron's name is important?
But if Hermione knew about it, she would be very, very, very angry, even if it was Slughorn.She has always been committed to protecting the rights of house elves, but now their human rights are being trampled on by Slughorn.So, Harry decided never to mention it to Hermione.

"One for Harry," Slughorn said, pouring the second bottle into each of the two quilts. "One for me, okay," he held up his glass, "for Harvey!"

"Harvey!" said Harry and Hagrid together.

Slughorn and Hagrid both took swigs, but Harry didn't.Tom was lying on the side cabinet, looking at everything in front of him, he understood what Harry was going to do: Harry was going to pour Slughorn down, and then get the memory from his mind!That's right, that's it, Hera's plan is now clear!It's perfect!
It didn't take long for Hagrid and Slughorn to get drunk, and they talked shoulder to shoulder about the good old days, while Harry just kept refilling the glass to fill up the empty glass.From what creatures lived in the Forbidden Forest to the breeding of Bowtruckles, there was almost nothing they couldn't talk about.

After about an hour, Tom was yawning from boredom, and Hagrid and Slughorn began to toast indulgently: for Hogwarts, for Dumbledore, for the elves, except for Hera—

"Harry Potter!" roared Hagrid, gulping down fourteen barrels of wine and drooling.

If Hera knew all this, he would be very sorry that they would rather drink for Harry than for Hera.

"Barry Walter - whoever - well - sort of means that," Hagrid muttered, gulping down his drink.Slughorn drank a large glass of wine with him.

Not long after, Hagrid tearfully stuffed the entire unicorn's tail into Slughorn's hand, who yelled "For Friendship! For Generosity! For Ten Galleons!" and pocketed it.

Tom could swear that Hagrid absolutely wanted Slughorn to keep that tail as a keepsake, and he made it clear that it was the tail that Harvey once shed.

For a moment Hagrid and Slughorn sat side by side, with their arms around each other's shoulders, and sang a soothing and sad song about a dying wizard, Odo.

Tom sneaked up on Harry's arm, stuffed his head into Harry's coat pocket, and slid his tail wildly down Harry's back, tickling Harry.

"Good men don't live long," muttered Hagrid, climbing onto the table, a little cross-eyed, while Slughorn was still trilling. "My father died so young. So did your parents, Harry."

Huge tears rolled from the corners of Hagrid's wrinkled eyes again, and he grabbed Harry's arm and shook it.

"...the best bunch of wizards their age I've ever seen. Terrible. Terrible."

Slughorn was singing some sad ballad, but Tom couldn't hear it, and it was hanging on Harry, and he fell asleep. Walking around with Hera during the day was tiring enough.
"It's terrible, it's really terrible." Hagrid snorted, rolling his unkempt head into his arms and snoring lowly.

"Sorry," Slughorn said, belching, "I've never been out of tune."

"Hagrid wasn't talking about you singing," said Harry softly, "he was talking about the death of my parents."

"Oh," said Slughorn, suppressing a hiccup, "oh, yes, that was—very awful, awful. terrible. terrible."

Harry leaned forward suddenly, waking up Tom who was hanging on him. He gritted his teeth and complained, "Is it so late to let people rest? Avada—Avada—"

"You know what happened to my parents, don't you? Professor Slughorn? Don't you? Professor Slughorn?"

(End of this chapter)