Chapter 1043: Meeting Grawp Again

"What's wrong with him?" Harry felt something was wrong. There were some... gullies in Grawp's body?

"Well, now - those centaurs - 'fierce ones' - are a bit harsh," said Hagrid - still squeezing Harry's hand excitedly. "Now he might shake me when he's in a bad mood. A few times, but he's getting better, much better, staying here well."

"What are those ropes for?" Harry asked. He had just noticed that there was a circle of ropes almost as thick as a small tree tied to some of the thickest trees nearby, connected to Graop who was curled up in the middle with his back to them. Before, when Fan Lin was still there, Gropp Luopu is more free-spirited.

"You have to tie him up, right?" Ron said weakly. For Ron, Grawp was definitely the kind of monster that could only be watched from a distance.

"Well, yes," Hagrid said, his expression looking worried, "you see - like I said - he doesn't really understand how strong he is."

Harry now understood why other animals in this part of the forest had strangely disappeared, and at the same time he also understood why the centaur chose to attack him——

"So, what do you want me to do Ron?" Harry asked worriedly.

"Look after him," Hagrid roaily said, "after I'm gone."

Harry and Ron exchanged grimaces, and Harry realized painfully that he had promised Hagrid that he would do whatever Hagrid asked.

"W-what does this include, exactly?" Ron asked.

"Not food or anything!" said Hagrid eagerly. "He can find his own food, no problem. Birds and deer and other things. No, he just needs someone to keep him company. If I knew someone who could Help him. Teach him, you know."

Harry said nothing, just turned to look at the huge figure lying on the ground in front of them.

Unlike Hagrid, who just looks like a taller man, Grawp looks a little misshapen. A huge moss-covered stone on a mound--so he had always thought--he now saw that it was Grawp's head.

It was much larger in proportion to its body than a normal human head, and was almost a perfect sphere - covered with curly fern-colored hair. Flesh-toned ears were clearly visible on the single large head - which looked like it was sitting - with little neck connection between Uncle Vernon's head and shoulders.

The back beneath his head looked like a brown smock roughly sewn with animal fur, and it was very roomy. When Grawp slept, it was as if the rough seams of his fur were stretched tight. The legs were curled up under the body, and Harry could see the exposed, huge, dirty soles of the feet - they were as big as sleds and rested on top of each other on the ground.

"You let us teach him," Harry said with a somewhat vacant look. He now knew what Fraser's warning meant.

Hagrid's efforts weren't working, so he'd better give it up. Of course, other creatures in the forest must have heard about Hagrid's pointless attempt to teach Grawp English.

"Yes, even if you just talk to him," Hagrid said hopefully, "I guess if he can talk to humans, he will understand better that we like him and want him to stay."

Harry looked at Ron, who was backing away in refusal.

"You kind of wish we could get Nob back, don't you?" he said, and Ron just smiled weakly.

If Nobo came back and saw this guy on his territory, he would be considered to have a good temper if he didn't burn Grawp into charcoal with a breath of dragon flame.

"So, you agreed?" Hagrid said. He didn't seem to understand what Harry just said.

"Well," said Harry, ready to keep his promise, "we'll try, Hagrid."

"I knew I could count on you, Harry," Hagrid said beamingly, wiping his face again with his handkerchief. "But I don't want to come too often. I know you have exams coming up. You just have to come here once a week using your invisibility cloak and talk to him for a while. I'm going to wake him up and - introduce you , although he has already met you once, he only left an impression on Fan Lin, and he still needs to get acquainted with the others again. "

"Wha - no!" Ron jumped up and said as if his butt was on fire, "Hagrid, no! Don't wake him up. Really, we don't need -"

But Hagrid had already stepped over the huge tree trunk in front of them and walked towards Grawp. When he was only ten feet away, Hagrid picked up a broken, long, thick branch from the ground, turned his head and smiled reassuringly at Harry and Ron over his shoulder, and then poked it with the head of the branch. The back of Graup's head.

Harry almost ran away reflexively, but he had already promised Hagrid.

He swore that when Grawp first arrived here, it was really not worse than it is now. However, even Fan Lin was unwilling to come over and have a second contact with Grawp. If it weren't for Hagrid's request, Harry would almost Forgot that Hagrid had a giant brother and took him to the Forbidden Forest.

The giant roared, echoing in the silent forest. The birds in the treetops above were frightened and flew up, disappearing in the blink of an eye. In the meantime, in front of Harry and Ron, the giant Grawp stood up from the ground and stood up unsteadily with his hands. He turned his head to see who had woken him.

"Okay, Grawp?" Hagrid said in a cheerful voice, lifting the thick branch again, ready to poke Grawp again, "Did you sleep well?"

Harry and Ron kept backing as far as they could while still keeping the giant in their sights. Grawp knelt down between two trees that had not yet been uprooted. They looked up in surprise at his huge face - like a full gray moon in the shadows of the clearing.

His face seemed to have been chiseled into a huge stone ball - the almost shapeless nose was thick and short; the crooked mouth contained strange yellow teeth as big as bricks; and the eyes were small and... Greenish brown like mud, they were almost stuck together now because they had just woken up.

Grawp raised his dirty knuckles, each the size of a cricket ball, to his eyes and rubbed them vigorously. Then, without any warning, he started walking with astonishing agility.

"Oh, my God!" Harry heard Ron shouting in horror next to him. The tree at the other end of the rope tied to Grawp's wrists and ankles creaked ominously.

He was - as Hagrid had said - at least sixteen feet tall. Grawp looked around hazily, stretched out a hand as big as a parasol, grabbed a bird's nest on the branch of a towering pine tree, turned it upside down, and made a sound. howled, obviously not very satisfied with not a single bird inside.

The eggs fell to the ground like grenades, and Hagrid held his stone bow over his head, protecting himself.

"Anyway, little Grawp," Hagrid called, looking up worriedly in case any more eggs fell, "I brought some friends to see you. Remember? They came to see you once. Remember, I said I might take a trip and let them take care of you? Do you remember?"

But Grawp just growled lowly again; it was hard to tell whether he was listening to Hagrid or even whether he heard Hagrid's voice.

He was now grabbing the top of the pine tree and pulling it toward him. Apparently, he liked to see how far the tree would bounce when he let it go.

"Now, little Grawp, don't do that!" shouted Hagrid. "This is how you stop pulling out other-"

No doubt Harry saw the soil next to the tree begin to crack.

"I've found a companion for you!" Hagrid shouted, "Did you see that, mate? Look down, you big clown, I brought you some friends!"

"Oh, Hagrid! Don't!" Ron said painfully, but Hagrid had already raised the big branch again and stabbed Grawp's knee hard. The giant let go of the pine tree, which swayed alarmingly, and the falling needles rained down almost covering Hagrid. Then he looked down -

"Here," Hagrid said, pointing to where Harry and Ron were standing, "It's Harry, Grawp! Harry Potter! He's going to come here to see you after I'm gone, do you understand?"

"In fact, I originally planned to leave this matter to Fan Lin, but he left first." Hagrid shook his big head.

Grawp also heard Hagrid's words. To be precise, he heard Fanlin's name, and then stepped back unconsciously.

"How did he..."

"He is more afraid of Fan Lin." Hagrid said, "Because some things in the giant tribe made Fan Lin a little unhappy..."

The giant had just now noticed Harry and Ron standing there. They looked at him with violent tremors - he lowered his stone head and looked at them vaguely.

"Uh, this is Ron, did you see it? He-" Hagrid said hesitantly. He turned to Ron and said, "Do you mind if he calls you Ron, Ron? Ron's a pretty hard name for him to remember."

"No, I don't mind at all," Ron said, taking two steps back.

"This is Ron, Grawp! He's coming to see you too! Okay? Huh? Two friends for you - Grop... No!"

Grawp's hand suddenly rushed towards the two of them; Harry quickly pulled Ron and hid behind a tree, so Grawp's fist hit the trunk of the tree, but it barely reached them.

"Baby, baby! Grawp!" They heard Hagrid shouting, while the two dazed people were breathing heavily from behind. Harry suddenly understood why Fan Lin was annoyed.

"Bad boy! You can't catch - ow!" Harry poked his head out from behind the tree and saw Hagrid lying on the ground, covering his nose with his hand. Grawp had obviously lost interest. He stood upright again and was busy pulling the pine tree as far as he could.

"Okay," Hagrid said thickly, pushing himself up with the hand covering his bleeding nose and grabbing his stone bow with the other hand. "Okay, they're there. You've met them, and—and he'll know you when you get back. Yeah."

He looked up at Grawp - he was pulling at the pine tree, his stone face full of joy. The roots made a crunching sound as he pulled them up from the ground.

"Well, I guess that's enough for today," said Hagrid. "We're going to - er - we're going back now, okay?"

Harry and Ron nodded desperately. For them, there was no better news than this.

Hagrid put the stone bow on his shoulder again, still holding his nose, and led them back towards the depths of the trees.

For a while, neither of them spoke, even when they heard a distant crash--signifying that Gotop had finally let go of the tree.

Harry couldn't find anything to say. What would happen if someone discovered Hagrid hiding Grawp in the Forbidden Forest? He had never thought about this problem before, and after Fanlin left, he could only solve it by himself.

And he promised that he and Ron would continue Hagrid's completely pointless attempt to teach giants civilization.

How could Hagrid trick himself into thinking that those sharp-toothed monsters were cute and harmless? How about lying to himself that Grawp would adapt to getting along with humans?

It was obvious that there was either something wrong with Hagrid's brain or that Harry hadn't woken up from his sleep today.

The latter is more likely, as Fan Lin said, there is nothing in Graup's head except food, and even food comes from instinct.

Looking at it now, Harry was more inclined to think that what was in front of them was a stone giant with a brain as hard as a rock, and then hit it with a pine tree.

"Stop," Hagrid said suddenly, as Harry and Ron were fighting in a bush behind him. He took out an arrow from the quiver on his shoulder and placed it on the stone bow.

Harry and Ron raised their wands - now that they had stopped, they could hear something moving nearby.

"Oh, shit," Hagrid whispered.

"I thought I told you, Hagrid," said a deep male voice, "that you are no longer welcome here, including your dangerous monster, Hagrid."

The naked upper body of a man floated directly towards them from the half-lit woods. They saw that he was connected seamlessly to a brown horse body from the waist down. The centaur had a proud face with prominent cheekbones and long black hair.

Like Hagrid, he carries weapons - a full quiver of arrows and a longbow slung over his shoulder.

"You'd better make him more alert!" the centaur's voice threatened, "If something happens again, we won't be merciful anymore, and you have to tell that guy not to leave his footprints in the Forbidden Forest. Appear, the moon god will punish all betrayers."

There was a rustling sound in the bushes behind the centaur, and four or five more people appeared behind him. Harry recognized the dark, bearded Bailey, whom he had met four years before when he met Fraser. Bailey pretended to have never seen Harry at all.

"So," Bailey said in an obnoxious voice before turning directly to Margaery, "we all agree, I wonder, what should we do if this man's face appears in the Forbidden Forest again."

"Is this, now, me?" said Hagrid testily, "because I prevented your shameful murder?"

"You shouldn't meddle in your own business, Hagrid," said Margaery. "We have our own ways, and they are none of your business, and have nothing to do with your laws. Fraser betrayed us and brought us shame. "

"I don't understand how you could do this," Hagrid said impatiently. "He has done nothing but help Dumbledore -"

"Fraser became a slave to man," said a gray centaur with a deeply wrinkled face. "In the Centaur tribe, this is an unforgivable mistake. We cannot allow him to smear the Centaur so unscrupulously." (To be continued)