Hagrid
5th September 1971
Lily knocked on the door to the hut and a tall man with a shaggy beard opened the door.
“Hi, Hagrid! How are you,” she said brightly. Hagrid smiled broadly, “I’ve been great Lily, thank you. Come inside and introduce me to your friends.”
He walked inside, Lily following close behind. Marlene looked at Mary, she shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly and went in after. They all huddled inside the small hut. In the middle of the room sat a table.
On top of the table sat a small little reptile-like creature with a scarlet red body, and beady black eyes that looked as if it was on fire, Marlene looked closer and indeed, the little creature was in fact on fire.
“Woahh, what's that?” She said, the girls looked on in awe.
“This,” Hagrid putting on what looked to be extra thick oven mitts, “is a fire-dwelling salamander.” He cupped his hands together and leaned them next to the salamander, who scuttled into his hands. Hagrid lifted him to his face, and the salamander chittered at him.
“His name is Magnus. I found him on a side road in Diagon Alley. He was close to death, so I brought him back here and put him in the fireplace. He’s been a little menace ever since.” He said the last part of this was directed towards the reptile.
Mary and Marlene gave each other a side look, Lily must have noticed because she scowled at the two of them.
“Alright well, does anyone want rock cakes? I made ‘em myself,” The giant said, walking over to his small kitchen, he picked up a tray and brought them over to the girls. Lily was the first one to grab one directing a pointed look to Mary and Marlene. The two of them picked up a small rock cake. Marlene put it in her mouth and bit down, the cake really did live up to its name.
She swore she felt her teeth crunch on impact with the rock. She managed to grate a little off and pretend to eat it. She looked at Mary, who seemed to have made the same discovery. Lily happily crunched away on her seemingly oblivious to its rockyness.
“So, Lily, you still have not introduced me to your friends,” Hagrid said, looking at her, he directed his head towards the other two sitting awkwardly on a lumpy couch.
“I’m Marlene, but everyone calls me Marls,” She got up quickly, pocketing the rock cake in a swift movement, reaching out to shake Hagrid’s ginormous hand. “This is Mary, she’s a little shy so excuse that,” Marlene covered for Mary. “So tell me more about Magnus.”
The little salamander had started running around. She noticed the ends of almost all of Hagrid’s curtains were singed.
At one point Magnus even caught fire to the side of the couch but eventually, he calmed down and curled up into the flames of the fire. They chatted some more, and Hagrid offered them more rock cakes.
“Umm, no thank you Hagrid,” Marlene said quickly, the weight of the other rock heavy in her pocket.
The salamander rustled inside of the fire, and Hagrid’s face turned panic-stricken. Before anyone could react, the lizard had shot out of the fireplace and was doing laps around Hagrid’s hut. Lily yelped and jumped onto the couch. “Hagrid, what do we do,” She squealed frantically.
“Ah, well first everyone stay calm, if we’re all panicked he’s going to become more hyperactive,” Hagrid calmly said. “Now quick, make sure there isn’t anywhere he can escape,” but it was too late. Magnus had already spotted the open window behind Hagrid.
“One of you, toss me the oven mitts there,” He directed, Mary reached over and tossed them to him. Magnus was still zooming around the small hut. The corner of the couch had caught on fire, and Marlene managed to pat it out with the edge of her robes.
Magnus took a running leap and aimed for the still-open window behind Hagrid, who had barely managed to get the mittens on, fumbled trying to snatch the fire salamander. He missed and Magnus was able to get away.
“If we’re fast, we might be able to catch him before it gets too dangerous,” Hagrid strode towards the door, signalling for the girls to follow. They did and the four of them ran into the forest.
“At least he’s not hard to spot,” Mary said brightly, “We have a trail to follow,” Marlene giggled.
Mary was right, the little creature had indeed left a trail of burning leaves and twigs in his wake. They could see his flaming little body up ahead.
The little creature stopped suddenly. Hagrid stopped, cautious about what could have stopped Magnus.
They watched as Magnus was lifted into the air by an unknown being.
“Who goes there!” A human's voice shouted. Hagrid seemed to recognise the stranger’s voice and sighed in relief. “Don’t worry there children, I know this centaur,”
Lily’s mouth parted slightly in shock.
The stranger moved forward revealing itself, and it was just as Hagrid said. A half horse, half man now stood in front of them. He was taller than the average human being. The centaur looked old and wise, “My name is Therix,” he said. He had a deep gruff voice and a long beard.
Wearing his lower and upper half connected he wore a belt around his waist, it seemed to have a pouch full of what looked to be herbs and a small pointed stick in another loop. Along with other things that looked to have magical purposes.
“Thank you Therix,” Hagrid said, taking Magnus in his hands, “You’re welcome Hagrid. I’m just glad I found him before you, or the children had to go any deeper into this forest. Do be careful next time,” Therix said sternly.
“Of course I will,” Hagrid said, “When am I not careful,” The centaur shook his head laughing slightly, “I must be on my way now. You must follow directly back the way you came, I don’t want you getting into any trouble. Understood?”
Hagrid nodded, “Goodbye Therix, thank you for your help,” The centaur tipped his head, turned, and cantered off.
“Alright let's get you guys back to the castle safely,” Hagrid said. The girls nodded. “And ah, best not tell anyone about this, I’d hate to be in trouble for taking you into the forest without permission.”
“Alright, Hagrid!” Lily said, making sure the others agreed. “Well we better be heading back to the castle now, I don’t want to be getting detention.”
“Of course, you all should be heading back up to the castle.” He said Lily grabbed Mary and Marlene’s arm and began to pull them towards the castle, a little panicked at the idea of getting detention.
“It was lovely meeting you, Hagrid,” Marlene said, waving as she was tugged away by Lily.
The air was bitter but the three of them trudged their way over to the castle. The light from the moon was able to guide them safely to the castle. Fortunately, nobody was inside the great hall when they opened the door.
As the trio got to the stairs they heard multiple voices. The voices drifted past them but no one was there. Marlene thought that one of the voices sounded like, “James,” she whispered into the near empty corridor.
The hushed whispers stopped, “Marlene?” He whispered back, James’ head appeared floating in the air, and Sirius and Peter’s heads could be seen too.
“Woah what, James! Since when did you have an invisibility cloak.” Marlene said a little hurt that he hadn’t told her this previously. “Dad gave it to me when I started school,” he chirped. He must have picked up on her hurt feelings. “Don’t worry I was going to tell you, eventually,”
Marlene didn’t feel fully convinced by that but she didn’t want to cause a rift between them so she smiled and said “Of course you were.”
“What on earth are you three doing out at this time anyway. And where’s Remus,” Lily asked, jumping into the conversation. “He’s in the hospital wing,” Sirius said, “He went yesterday and hasn’t been back since, we were going to go check on him.”
“Alright well, we best be on our way back to the common room. We might be caught out by Filch if we stay out any longer.” Mary said she carried on walking up the stairs. Marlene smiled at James and she and Lily continued up the stairs.
They were near the safety of the common room when they heard the sound of a cat meowing from down the corridor. “Oh crap, that’s Miss Norris, Filch's cat, we better get out of here fast.”
They ran up the next flight of stairs, but when they reached the top, Flich was standing there waiting for them. Miss Norris stood next to him, she looked up at the girls taunting them. Marlene had the urge to kick the stupid thing.
“Students outside of the common room, past curfew. Detention, for all of you. I expect to see the three of you in my office at 4 o’clock sharp.” Flich said.
“You’re lucky I can’t take house points,” he eyed the girls as they walked past him, holding their breath.
As soon as they were out of earshot of the caretaker, Marlene released her breath, Lily sighed and Mary grumbled. “Arghhh, and of course, it happens just before we get to the common room.” Mary rolled her eyes. “Turkey Delights,” Lily said.
“We’re out late aren’t we girls,” The fat lady said. Marlene huffed, “Trust me, we know,” The fat lady’s portrait swung open. The girls clambered into the common room.
“That was stupid,” Lily said swinging herself off the archway and into the shared dorm, “We were just about back anyway,” The other two nodded in agreement.
“It’s not even like we had done anything,” Marlene said, as she took out a Beatles band t-shirt, quickly changing into it.
“And we got detention!” Mary added, she too was getting into her pyjamas. “I hope it’s nothing too bad. Maybe we will only have to write lines or something.” She said hopefully.
Lily didn’t look so convinced, “I doubt it, this is a magic school it will probably be something icky.”
Marlene yawned from across the room, she had already cuddled into bed. Salem was perched on the foot of the bed, he looked as if he was part of the conversation.
“It’s silly isn’t it, Salem,” Mary said to him, pulling the sheets back of her own bed. Salem meowed back at her. “See, even he gets how unfair it is,” she flopped into bed and sighed.
“Goodnight Marlene,” Mary said. “Goodnight Mary,” she said back. “Goodnight guys,” Lily said from across the room. “Goodnight,” they both said back.
Marlene rolled over and curled herself deeper into her bed. Salem came and joined her a few moments later.
“Goodnight Salem,” she whispered to him, and then she fell to sleep and dreamt of weird cats and rock cakes.