“Prechka afraid,” the giantess said, and the low throb of her voice caused more windows to rattle and shatter around the dark warehouse. She put out her hand and Hagrid reached up to take it. His fist was just big enough to grip the end of her grubby index finger, and yet he held it as if she was a child, and then kissed the back of one huge knuckle.
“Yeh can follow the same path back home that you took here, can’t yeh?” Hagrid asked, looking up at her shadowy bulk.
James knew that giants had a special sense that allowed them to retrace their steps perfectly. And yet Prechka looked troubled.
Carefully, Grawp said, “We come back to old cave home now.
We live by brother Hagrid at Hogwarts.”
James glanced back at Hagrid in time to see the colour fade from his cheeks.
“Now we talked about this, Grawpie. Yeh can’t come t’
Hogwarts. It’s not allowed, remember? Why, they’ve made me send away even my last few Skrewts. What would headmaster Merlin say if he learnt yeh two was back livin’ in the Forbidden Forest?”
“Grawp and Prechka be quiet,” Prechka said, raising her index finger to her lips in a gesture of solemn secrecy. The timbre of her voice could be felt through the soles of James’ shoes. “Headmaster never know.”
Hagrid was shaking his head sadly. “I’d love nothin’ more, loves. But we just can’t do it. Yeh have t’ go back to the mountains.
Yer tribe needs yeh. And yeh need them. It’ll be all right. Maybe, when all o’ this Vow of Secrecy bizness is cleared up, why I can make arrangements for yeh to comes an’ visit then. How would that be, eh?”
He gave the giants an attempt at a grin.
Grawp and Prechka looked at each other and seemed to commune for a long moment with their eyes. Finally, Grawp looked down again and said, “OK, brother Hagrid.”
Hagrid sniffed, and nodded, and collected himself. “That’s good, then.” Perking up a little, he said, “So, yeh both remember how to summon the hidin’ charm I sent yeh, right? Do yeh still ‘ave it with yeh?”
Grawp reached up and rummaged in the thick burlap of his collar, retrieving something hung about his neck on a hank of rope.
James was surprised to see that it was an old automobile tyre, threaded right through the centre like a ring. “We hide when hear people,”
Grawp said. “Like this.” He squeezed the tyre between his thumb and forefinger and muttered, “Obscuro.”
Nothing happened. Both giants remained exactly where they were. And yet, somehow, James’ eye refused to see them. Where Grawp hunkered, James instead seemed to sense a huge grey trash bin half-buried in plastic bags of rubbish. Where Prechka knelt, he perceived a rusting water tower on thick iron supports.
“That’s a camouflage talisman!” Zane exclaimed. “Maybe the best I’ve ever seen!”
“Hagrid,” Rose said, clearly impressed. “Did you do that?”
“Now don’t go acting all surprised, yeh lot,” Hagrid answered, stifling a smile of sad pride. “Jus’ cause I teach Care o’ Magical Creatures doesn’t mean I fergot how to use a wand. It’s just a little somethin’ I whipped up fer their journey here and back. Couldn’t expect ‘em to travel without any kind o’ magical help, could I?” He glanced tentatively at Rose and added, “Do yeh really think it’s a good one?”
“It’s excellent, Hagrid,” she nodded, still squinting at the disguised giants, trying to see them.
“Whoa!” Ralph said, backing away. “I think they’re moving, but I can’t really tell!”
James glanced up and was alarmed to see what appeared to be the trash bin tilting up onto its end as its rubbish bags rolled and clustered all around it, forming and reforming into new piles. The water tower leaned on its iron supports, which creaked and moaned with the sound of wrenching metal.
“Give ‘er another squeeze, Grawpie,” Hagrid called up, cupping his hands to his mouth. “I could only pump so much magic into that tyre. Save it for when yeh need it, why don’t yeh?”
A moment later, the disguises blinked away and James could once again recognize the monstrous shapes standing in the dusty gloom.
Hagrid nodded in relief.
Ralph announced, “We should be off, then, right?”
“Before I freeze my tuchus off,” Zane agreed. “Not that this hasn’t been a great time. Seriously. Let’s do it again next week.”
Hagrid called to Heddlebun, “Is Norberta ready to go, then?”
Heddlebun paused and raised her head, her huge ears pricking up. “We’re ready,” she said, her voice very tiny after the boom of the giants.
Hagrid said his goodbyes and allowed the giants to leave first.
Their hulking forms blocked out the blue nightglow as they lumbered through the broken bay door. Within a minute, the sub-audible thump of their footsteps blended into the constant thrum of distant traffic.
They were gone, wending their way carefully back into the outlying villages, and the mountains beyond.
“They’ll be safe,” Hagrid whispered, staring hard at the empty bay door. “Makin’ their way back home. They’ll be just fine, won’t they?”
James realized that Hagrid was trying to convince himself as much as anyone else.
Rose put her hand on Hagrid’s shoulder where he hunkered in the dark. “Of course they will. You equipped them. And they’re smart, in their own way.”
For giants, James thought, but didn’t say. After all, Hagrid himself was half-giant, and he had conjured one of the best camouflage talismans James had ever seen.
Hagrid nodded decisively. “Right then,” he whispered, and tossed a glance back toward Heddlebun and the coiled shape of Norberta. “Let’s be away, then.”
Herding James, Rose, Ralph, and Zane ahead of him, the half-giant led Norberta out through the open bay door and down the broken asphalt of the drive. Snow filled the air in a million fluffy flecks, sketching the shape of the wind as it surrounded the warehouse, scoured the pier, and escaped over the wasteland of the frozen Thames.
James glanced back, curious, and saw Heddlebun riding atop Norberta’s head, bent low to her ear, whispering incessantly. With one hand, she patted the great dragon on the bunched muscles of her jaw.
Norberta followed Hagrid as if in a trance, her head low and sweeping over the pier, her feet lifting and falling like a cat stalking through a garden, making no noise whatsoever.
Silently, the troupe threaded past the ice-locked barges and down to the frozen surface of the Thames. The Gertrude was barely a low, sleek shape amidst a panorama of drifting grey. Beyond this, London itself was merely a dull throb and a watercolor fog of lights.
“Easy now,” Hagrid muttered nervously as Norberta settled her weight onto the frozen river. The ice groaned precipitously but held firm, at least for the moment. In a ragged line, with Ralph in the lead and Norberta following behind, the group began to trek toward the black hole in the ice where the Gertrude rocked, waiting.
Shivering but still chipper despite his hushed voice, Zane asked James, “So where’d you guys find the dragon-whisperer?”
“Heddlebun?” James shook his head. “She was a house elf in Millie Vandergriff’s house. Got sacked just this past holiday after spending her whole life there. Somehow Hagrid got hold of her when he found out she’d lost her service and knew how to keep beasts calm.