Guys, did you know Nundus were like GIANT, I mean, swallowing 3 people whole. Holly crap, they're big. Im not going off the movie Nundu, but the book Nundu. My gosh.
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Evening had settled over Hogwarts by the time Lucian left the castle.
Most of the school had already chosen how to spend the hours before curfew. Some were in the library with their heads down. Some were in their common rooms, talking too loudly about Lockhart or about him. Lucian wanted neither. He walked the corridors alone, hands in his pockets, and took the path that led out past the greenhouses and down toward the dark line of the Forbidden Forest.
He passed a pair of Ravenclaws on the staircase and heard his name die in one of their mouths. He passed a portrait that tried to ask him where he was going and did not stop to answer. The castle was full of people who wanted something from the Bloodthorne. A story. A favour. Proof that the Sorting had not been a trick. None of them were on his way.
The grounds were quieter than the castle. A few students still lingered near the lake, but none of them called out to him, and he did not slow down to give them the chance. The air smelled of wet grass and woodsmoke. Ahead of him, set a little apart from everything else, stood a hut that looked small from a distance and larger the closer he came. Pumpkins crowded the garden. A crossbow leaned against the wall. Smoke rose from the chimney in a steady thread.
Hagrid's hut.
Lucian stopped at the door and looked at it for a longer moment than he needed to. He had walked into a Great Hall that bowed to his name. He had stood in a Slytherin common room and told a house not to test him. Neither of those things had sat in his chest the way this did. He was not afraid of the half-giant. He was afraid of asking for something and being told no by the one person at Hogwarts who might actually understand why he was asking. If Hagrid turned him away, the forest stayed a rumour and Lockhart stayed a weekly punishment. Lucian didn't think he could live with that.
He raised his fist and knocked.
A voice came through the wood, deep enough to move the planks.
"Coming!"
The door opened. Hagrid filled it. He had clearly expected someone else. Dumbledore, perhaps. A professor. Harriet. His eyes dropped, found the green trim on Lucian's robes, then the scar, and the welcome he had been about to give stalled in his mouth. For a moment neither of them spoke. Behind Hagrid the hut was warm and crowded with the evidence of a life that did not bother to tidy itself for visitors.
"Hello," Lucian said.
Hagrid cleared his throat. "Er. Evenin'. What can I do for yeh, Yer Majesty?"
"Lucian is fine. I'd rather not be called by a title every time I knock on a door. It's pompous, and it makes conversations longer than they need to be."
Hagrid blinked. Some of the stiffness left his shoulders, not all of it, but enough that he no longer looked as if he were bracing for a formal complaint.
"Right. Lucian, then." He glanced past the boy at the empty path, then back. "What brings yeh out here?"
"I wanted to talk to you."
That, more than the name, seemed to catch Hagrid off balance. He stepped aside anyway.
"Well. Come in, if yeh like. Ain't some ancient castle yeh're probably used to. But it's home."
Lucian stepped over the threshold. The hut smelled of tea, smoke, damp dog, and something sweet baking under a cloth on the table. A massive pink umbrella stood in a stand by the door. Coats hung from pegs that had given up on being level. Fang lifted his head from the hearthrug, took one look at the visitor, and decided the visitor was not worth standing up for.
Lucian turned in a slow circle.
"It's a fine home," he said. "You should be proud of it."
Hagrid's ears went red at the tips. "Thank yeh. Most folk don't say that. Most folk don't come by, neither, 'less they want somethin' or they've been sent."
He lowered himself into a chair that creaked under him and nodded at the one opposite. Lucian sat. Fang's tail thumped once against the rug and went still.
"I've heard a lot about you," Lucian said. "Enough to think we might have the same interest."
"Oh?" Hagrid leaned forward, wary and curious at the same time. "An' what's that?"
"Magical creatures."
The wariness eased. Hagrid's whole face changed when the subject landed, the way some men changed when someone finally mentioned the thing they actually cared about.
"Have yeh, now."
"I have. And I came to ask if you would take me into the Forbidden Forest. Show me what's in there. I want to see the creatures, not read about them in a book written by a man who thinks a smile is a defensive spell."
Hagrid's eyebrows climbed. He sat back, and the chair complained in a purely ordinary way.
"Blimey. Ain't many students come askin' fer that. Most of 'em are happy never ter set foot past the trees." He rubbed his beard. "I'd be glad yeh're interested. Truly. But the forest is forbidden fer a reason. It ain't safe fer a second-year ter go wanderin' in just ter have a look. I learned that last year, when I took a few students in on a detention. Didn't go the way anyone wanted."
Lucian raised an eyebrow. "A detention in the Forbidden Forest. That's one way to teach a lesson."
"Weren't my idea," Hagrid said, though he did not sound entirely sorry. "Point is, I don't reckon I'd be allowed. Dumbledore's strict about it. Students ain't meant ter go in."
"I can ask Professor Snape for permission."
Hagrid looked doubtful. "Snape?"
"He's my Head of House. If he says yes, the objection gets thinner." Lucian shrugged. "I'm also planning to stop attending Lockhart's class. After today, I don't see the point. If I want to stay sane while I'm here, I either skip him or send him packing, and I'm trying not to use my name to do the second one."
Hagrid frowned. "That ain't very responsible. Skippin' class. Professor Lockhart was hired by the Headmaster. I trust Dumbledore. If he thinks the man's fit ter teach, then—"
"Uh huh."
The words were perfectly polite. The meaning was not. Hagrid did not catch it. He nodded as if Lucian had agreed with him, and Lucian let the misunderstanding stand. Arguing about Dumbledore's judgment was not why he had walked down here.
"I'm not afraid of the forest," Lucian said. "And I'm not new to creatures. I've been handling them since I was a lot smaller than I am now."
"Handlin' them," Hagrid repeated. "What sort?"
"Have you ever dealt with a Wampus cat?"
Hagrid shook his head and gave a short laugh. "Too dangerous fer me. I'd like ter see one, mind. Heard stories. They'll kill yeh faster than yeh can get a wand up, if yeh're unlucky. Or even if yeh ain't."
"You're right." Lucian's mouth curved. "Have you ever encountered a Nundu?"
Hagrid barked a laugh that shook the tea mugs. "Never. Nor planned on it. That's not a creature yeh encounter. That's a creature yeh hear about and then walk the other way."
Lucian smiled. It was not a cruel smile. It was the smile of someone who already knew how the next minute was going to go.
"I've handled both at the same time."
Hagrid laughed, barked through the walls. Then he saw that Lucian was not laughing with him, and the sound died. His face settled into something sterner.
"It ain't right ter lie about that sort o' thing. Not ter me. I don't mind a tall tale, but Nundus ain't a joke."
"I'm not lying," Lucian said. "Two of my closest friends are a Nundu and a Wampus cat. Pets, if you want the word. I don't like it. They aren't pets."
Hagrid shook his head. "Lad—"
Lucian sighed. He reached into his robes. A fine chain crossed his chest and disappeared into an inner pocket. What he drew out looked, at first, like a pocket watch: round, dark metal, worn smooth at the edges. He clicked it open. There was no clock face. There was a dark opening, round and depthless, like a hole cut into nothing.
"Bruce," he called.
Nothing happened.
Hagrid stared at the watch, then at Lucian, then at the watch again.
"He's a soft one," Lucian said. "Don't get too scared when he comes out. He likes making an entrance, and he's bad at judging the size of rooms."
Hagrid opened his mouth.
A blur of yellow and spotted black filled the half-giant's hut, making everyone feel smaller, even the half-giant
One moment the hut contained a boy, a half-giant, and a boarhound. The next it contained a leopard the size of the furniture. Bruce hit the floor, already lowering himself, shoulders rolling, yellow and black fur drinking the firelight. His head was broad. His paws were wrong for any ordinary cat, too heavy, too sure. The air around him smelled faintly of something sweet and rotten, the ghost of a breath that could have dropped a room if he had meant it to. He did not mean it to. He turned once, found Lucian, and laid his head across the boy's lap with a sound that was almost a grumble.
Fang made a noise like a kettle and crawled under the table.
Hagrid had gone completely still. His hands were braced on the arms of the chair. His mouth was open. For a few seconds he did not seem to remember that breathing was a thing he did.
Lucian scratched behind one of Bruce's ears. The Nundu's eyes half-closed.
"This is Bruce," Lucian said. "He's young. A cub, still, by their count. He's been with me about five years."
Hagrid laughed. It came out thin. Then he stopped laughing, because the leopard in front of him had not vanished when he blinked.
"How," he whispered, as if volume might provoke the beast, "did yeh do that?"
"I've got a talent for creatures. Magical and otherwise. It isn't the same as knowing them. That's why I came to you. I want to learn what's actually in that forest, and I want a reason to be anywhere except Lockhart's classroom while he's telling people his favourite colour is a defensive strategy."
Hagrid had not moved. Lucian looked at him, then at Bruce, then back.
"You can pet him. He won't mind."
"I—" Hagrid swallowed. "Yeh sure?"
"I'm sure."
Hagrid rose slowly. The chair stayed where it was, which was a mercy. He took one step, then another, and set a hand the size of a serving plate on Bruce's shoulder. The fur was dense and warm. Bruce made a sound that was, unmistakably, a purr, if a purr could rattle the cups on the shelf. Hagrid's face broke into a grin he did not seem able to stop.
"He ain't bad at all," he said. "Look at him. Soft as anythin'."
"He's an exception," Lucian said, and the ease left his voice. "Remember that. Bruce is safe because he decided to be, and because he knows me. Do not do this with another Nundu. Not in the forest. Not anywhere. If you see one that isn't him, you leave. Their breath will kill you before you finish deciding whether to run."
Hagrid nodded at once. His hand was still on Bruce's shoulder. "Aye. I hear yeh. Blimey. This is… this is somethin'. Five years, yeh said?"
"Since I was small enough that he could have swallowed me and called it an accident." Lucian scratched the spot between Bruce's ears. The purr deepened. "He didn't. That's usually how I decide who stays."
Hagrid laughed again, properly this time, and wiped one eye with the back of his wrist. "Yeh're a strange lad. I mean that kindly. Slytherin, an' yeh come down here ter ask about the forest, an' yeh've got a Nundu sleepin' on yeh like a kneazle." He looked at Fang, who had not come out from under the table. "Don't yeh go tellin' anyone I said the kneazle part."
He looked at the watch, at the leopard, at the boy under the leopard's head, and some last piece of skepticism gave up.
"If yeh can get permission from Professor Snape," Hagrid said, "then yeh can come out with me. I'll see what I can do. Can't promise the deeper parts. Not right off. But I can show yeh the edges, and a few things that don't mind bein' seen."
"Thank you."
Lucian clicked the watch open again. "Back you go, Bruce."
Bruce's ears flicked. He did not move. The weight of his head stayed where it was, and one paw stretched out across the rug as if claiming the hut for the evening.
"I know," Lucian said. "You'll get visits. Soon. I can't walk you through the corridors, and you won't fit back through the door if you decide to stay."
Bruce grumbled. Then he rose, slow and reluctant, and stepped into the dark circle of the watch as if the opening had been made to his measure. The hut felt abruptly too large. Fang emerged from under the table, sniffed the air, and sneezed.
Lucian closed the watch and slipped it back into his pocket.
"I'll go see Snape now," he said, standing. "Before you talk yourself out of it."
Hagrid walked him to the door. The half-giant still looked a little dazed, and a little happier than he had when he opened it.
"Yeh're welcome back," he said. "Even if Snape says no. Tea's usually on."
"I'll hold you to that."
Lucian stepped out into the evening. The forest stood black at the edge of the grounds. Behind him, Hagrid remained in the doorway a moment longer, one hand on the frame, staring at the place where a Nundu had been.
Lucian lifted a hand in farewell and started back toward the castle.
He had not wanted Hogwarts. He still did not, not really. But the path back felt shorter than the path out, and for the first time since the train he had the beginning of a reason to stay through a term. A forest. A half-giant who knew creatures. A class he fully intended to abandon.
He was making friends. The thought surprised him enough that he almost smiled.
Snape could wait until he reached the dungeons. The evening could keep the rest.