"Is that so? Well, that's our Fang for you!" Hagrid's hand patted again to ruffle the boarhound's ears with affection.
He took a long, satisfied drink from his oversized teacup, then settled his attention on the group with genuine curiosity. "So then, what brings you all out here tonight?"
[Actually, I'm hoping to make something for Ariana,] Tom's whiteboard appeared, drawing everyone's attention.
Under the expectant gazes of Hermione and the others, he continued explaining his purpose. [But I'm still missing some materials for the project. I heard you're the Keeper of Keys and Grounds here, which means you probably have access to resources from the Forbidden Forest. I was hoping you might have something suitable, or at least know where I could find what I need.]
The question of the three-headed dog—the mystery that had brought Harry and his friends here in the first place remained unasked for now. They could address that later, after the more important business concluded.
"Materials from magical creatures, you mean?" Hagrid stroked his thick beard thoughtfully. "What exactly are you looking for? For Dumbledore's sake—I'd be happy to help you search for whatever you need."
Though Hagrid didn't fully understand the precise nature of the relationship between Ariana and Dumbledore, he'd guessed that their connection was significant and personal.
Given that Tom wanted to create something specifically for Ariana, this qualified as indirectly doing a favor for Dumbledore, which Hagrid would never refuse.
[I want to make her a pair of gloves,] Tom explained simply.
"Gloves, eh?" Hagrid's fingers worked through his beard as he considered the options.
"Dragon hide would be the most suitable material, really—tough, flexible, excellent magical conductivity. It's also relatively common compared to other exotic materials, since there are dragon reserves throughout the world. But unfortunately, there aren't any dragons in the Forbidden Forest, and I don't have any dragon hide in my personal collection to offer you.
Unicorn hide would do nicely as well, but those are far rarer than dragons, so that's even further out of reach"
He paused, mentally moving through the list of some of his favorite materials.
"Graphorn hide would work beautifully too—incredibly durable, resistant to most spell damage. But Graphorns though…." Then his face brightened slightly with a new possibility. "What about Acromantula silk? Would that work for your purposes?"
Hagrid hesitated instantly after saying this and glanced at Tom with a touch of embarrassment.
Acromantula silk was indeed valuable and highly prized for its strength, flexibility, and magical properties. But silk was fundamentally different from leather or hide. Weaving it into gloves would require significantly more work and specialized techniques compared to simply cutting and stitching shaped pieces from a hide.
He worried Tom might find this option inadequate or too complicated.
But he found himself in an awkward position.
On one hand, he genuinely lacked access to more suitable materials like dragon hide or Graphorn leather. On the other hand, he was deeply reluctant to harm any of his animal friends just to harvest materials, even from creatures who'd already died.
The creatures of the Forbidden Forest trusted him, coexisted peacefully with him. Betraying that trust by treating them as material sources felt wrong to him.
Most of the rare materials in his personal collection came from natural sources—things the creatures had shed naturally, like molted snake skin or naturally fallen unicorn hair, or items they'd given him voluntarily as gifts from beings intelligent enough to understand gift-giving.
He'd never actively hunted creatures for their components, never harvested materials from bodies. He did have some leather pieces, but those had been gifts from the centaur herd, offered freely rather than taken.
[Acromantula silk? That's perfectly fine, absolutely suitable for what I need,] Tom's whiteboard assured him quickly.
From Tom's perspective, the specific material type mattered less than having something to work with.
His crafting methods operated more on conceptual levels than purely physical ones.
And if Hagrid was unwilling or unable to provide anything at all, Tom had a backup plan. He could simply add the required materials to his procurement list and let Snape deal with the headache of sourcing them through official channels.
Everything would ultimately be used for Ariana anyway, and given her connection to Dumbledore, even Snape's protests would carry limited weight.
"Oh, that's a relief!" Hagrid's entire posture relaxed, the tension was draining from his shoulders. His smile returned.
He'd actually had one other option available—there was a Graphorn corpse buried in the Forbidden Forest, one he'd interred personally after the creature died of natural causes.
If Tom had insisted on leather specifically, Hagrid would have reluctantly revealed the burial location and let Tom harvest the hide himself. But he'd been dreading that possibility, uncomfortable with the idea of disturbing a grave. The fact that silk would work meant the Graphorn could rest undisturbed.
"Just wait here a moment. I'll get the silk for you right now." Hagrid rose from his chair with enthusiasm, his movements making the small hut feel even smaller as his bulk filled the space.
Under the curious gazes of his visitors, Hagrid crossed to his enormous bed and grabbed the patched, shabby quilt covering it. His large fingers moved with surprising dexterity, finding a particular loose thread at one seam. He began carefully unpicking the stitches, his movements were gentle and precise despite the size of his hands.
"Look at this—finest quality silk, every strand." His voice carried pride as he worked, carefully extracting the silvery, flexible fibers. "this is proper Acromantula silk, this is. Getting hold of it cost me no—that is to say, Aragog—I mean, it took a fair bit of effort on my part."
He held out the extracted Acromantula silk to Tom which was gleaming softly in the lamplight. "Here you go. If this isn't enough for what you need, just come back and let me know. I should be able to get more without too much trouble."
"Wait, Hagrid—" Hermione's voice cut through the casual exchange with sharp disbelief. "Are you saying you used Acromantula silk to patch your bedding?!"
Her eyes had gone wide, her expression was mixing shock with something approaching scandalized horror.
In preparation for investigating the three-headed dog mystery, she'd conducted wide research on dangerous magical creatures, which had naturally included Acromantula since they represented one of the more significant threats in the Forbidden Forest.
"Acromantula venom is the most valuable component they produce—a single pint can sell for a hundred Galleons to the right buyer," she continued, her voice was climbing with incredulity. "But the silk isn't far behind in terms of value! It's prized for its strength, magical conductivity, and rarity. Professional weavers pay extremely high prices for quality Acromantula silk. And you're using it to... to sew patches on a blanket?!"
She trailed off mid-explanation, her words dying in her throat as she registered Hagrid's expression.
She'd expected him to look shocked at having his wastefulness pointed out. People generally showed dismay when they realized they'd been squandering valuable resources through ignorance.
But Hagrid's face showed neither surprise nor regret. He simply blinked at her in mild confusion, as though puzzled about why she'd state something obvious. Then he patted the quilt with one massive hand.
"Oh, aye, I know it's worth a good deal. But what of it? These are gifts from friends. If someone gave you a present, would you turn around and sell it?"
He paused, and a slow, contented smile spread across his face.
"Besides, I only need to know one thing about this quilt: it's comfortable. It keeps me warm. It serves its purpose beautifully. That's enough for me."
Hermione's mouth opened, then closed again without producing sound.
Hermione opened her mouth, then closed it again. She found herself at a loss for words, especially when she caught the quiet light that passed through Hagrid's eyes the moment he said the word friends. Every argument she had been ready to make, every line of reasoning drawn from books and logic, lodged itself in her throat.
It was the first time she had truly felt it: how pale, how presumptuous, the standards she had learned from pages could be when held up against certain kinds of lives.
"I'm... I'm sorry, Hagrid." Her voice had dropped to something much quieter, losing its earlier certainty. Genuine remorse colored her tone now, replacing the confidence. "I wasn't thinking about what the silk meant to you. I just thought you could have a better standard of living if you'd... but that was presumptuous of me."
"Oh, don't worry about it!" Hagrid waved off the apology with cheerful dismissal, clearly harboring no resentment. He bit into one of his rock cakes, the crunch was audible across the small hut.
"I think my life is pretty wonderful just as it is, honestly. I've got food to eat, tea to drink, a solid roof over my head, and magical creatures for company. What more could a person reasonably want?"
Harry and Ron, who'd been watching this exchange with interest, recognized an opportunity opening. They caught each other's eyes briefly. Ron gave a slight nod, and Harry took the lead.
"So, Hagrid, since you know so much about magical creatures..." Harry began carefully, "maybe you could tell us about some of them? Specifically, creatures that are particularly good at guarding things?"
"Creatures for guarding?" The question immediately captured Hagrid's full attention, his enthusiasm for his favorite subject was overriding any wariness about where this line of inquiry might lead.
His eyes lit up with that particular gleam that appeared whenever he got to discuss magical animals. "Oh, certainly! There are loads of excellent options depending on what you need to protect and how you want the security to function!"
He leaned forward, warming to the topic.
"Sphinxes are brilliant guardians, for instance. They'll pose riddles to anyone trying to pass, and if you can't answer correctly, they absolutely won't let you through. Of course, if you've got someone with Dumbledore's level of magical power, they can simply subdue the Sphinx directly.
Dragons are magnificent guards too, obviously. I've told you about this before, Harry—Gringotts keeps a Ukrainian Ironbelly in their deepest vaults to protect the most valuable deposits." His expression showed wistful longing.
"And if you're protecting plants specifically, Bowtruckles make excellent guardians. They're fiercely territorial about their trees, and they're surprisingly easy to befriend if you offer them woodlice and respect their homes..."
"What about three-headed dogs?" Harry interjected quickly, recognizing that Hagrid could continue discussing creature guardians for hours if left unchecked. "How do they compare?"
"Three-headed dogs?!" The words emerged with startled emphasis, Hagrid's enthusiastic lecture was dying mid-sentence.
His smile froze on his face just for an instant but everyone in the hut noticed the change.
He grabbed his teacup and took a long drink, using the action to buy time while he composed himself. When he spoke again, his voice came out muffled.
"Three-headed dogs... well, they're rare creatures, mostly found in Greece originally. Requires specialized knowledge to handle them properly, specific techniques for keeping them calm and controlled. Rather curious that you'd ask about them specifically. What made you think of that particular creature?"
"Because there's one on the fourth floor of Hogwarts!" Ron blurted out before Harry could adopt a more tactful approach.
"BANG!"
Hagrid slammed his teacup down on the table with enough force to make everyone jump.
Tea sloshed over the rim, spreading across the wood. His expression had transformed completely, replaced by something firm and serious.
"You went into the forbidden corridor? When did this happen?"
"Just a few days ago." Harry lowered his head under Hagrid's gaze.
"We were being chased by Filch and we ran into that corridor trying to escape him. We didn't plan to go there, it just happened in the panic of trying not to get caught."
He swallowed, then continued quietly: "That's when we saw it. The massive dog with three heads. And underneath its paws, there was a trapdoor in the floor."
He finally looked up, meeting Hagrid's eyes with curiosity. "Hagrid... do you know what's being guarded down there?"