Hagrid's fingers slipped on the dragon steak and it slid squelchily on to his chest.

Hagrid's fingers slipped on the dragon steak and it slid squelchily on to his chest.

‘Giants?’ said Hagrid, catching the steak before it reached his belt and slapping it back over his face, ‘who said anythin’ abou’ giants? Who yeh bin talkin’ to? Who's told yeh what I've—who's said I've bin—eh?’

‘We guessed,’ said Hermione apologetically.

‘Oh, yeh did, did yeh?’ said Hagrid, surveying her sternly with the eye that was not hidden by the steak.

‘It was kind of ... obvious,’ said Ron. Harry nodded.

Hagrid glared at them, then snorted, threw the steak back on to the table and strode over to the kettle, which was now whistling.

‘Never known kids like you three fer knowin’ more'n yeh oughta,’ he muttered, splashing boiling water into three of his bucket-shaped mugs. ‘An’ I'm not complimentin’ yeh, neither. Nosy, some'd call it. Interferin'.’

But his beard twitched.

‘So you have been to look for giants?’ said Harry, grinning as he sat down at the table.

Hagrid set tea in front of each of them, sat down, picked up his steak again and slapped it back over his face.

‘Yeah, all righ',’ he grunted, ‘I have.’

‘And you found them?’ said Hermione in a hushed voice.

‘Well, they're not that difficult ter find, ter be honest, said Hagrid. ‘Pretty big, see.’

‘Where are they?’ said Ron.

‘Mountains,’ said Hagrid unhelpfully.

‘So why don't Muggles—?’

‘They do,’ said Hagrid darkly. ‘On'y their deaths are always put down ter mountaineerin’ accidents, aren’ they?’

He adjusted the steak a little so that it covered the worst of the bruising.

‘Come on, Hagrid, tell us what you've been up to!’ said Ron. ‘Tell us about being attacked by the giants and Harry can tell you about being attacked by the dementors—’

Hagrid choked in his mug and dropped his steak at the same time; a large quantity of spit, tea and dragon blood was sprayed over the table as Hagrid coughed and spluttered and the steak slid, with a soft splat, on to the floor.

‘Whadda yeh mean, attacked by dementors?’ growled Hagrid.

‘Didn't you know?’ Hermione asked him, wide-eyed.

‘I don’ know any thin’ that's bin happenin’ since I left. I was on a secret mission, wasn’ I, didn’ wan’ owls followin’ me all over the place—ruddy dementors! Yeh're not serious?’

‘Yeah, I am, they turned up in Little Whinging and attacked my cousin and me, and then the Ministry of Magic expelled me—’

‘WHAT?’

‘—and I had to go to a hearing and everything, but tell us about the giants first.’

‘You were expelled!’

‘Tell us about your summer and I'll tell you about mine.’

Hagrid glared at him through his one open eye. Harry looked right back, an expression of innocent determination on his face.

‘Oh, all righ',’ Hagrid said in a resigned voice.

He bent down and tugged the dragon steak out of Fang's mouth.

‘Oh, Hagrid, don't, it's not hygien—’ Hermione began, but Hagrid had already slapped the meat back over his swollen eye.

He took another fortifying gulp of tea, then said, ‘Well, we set off righ’ after term ended—’

‘Madame Maxime went with you, then?’ Hermione interjected.

‘Yeah, tha's righ',’ said Hagrid, and a softened expression appeared on the few inches of face that were not obscured by beard or green steak. ‘Yeah, it was jus’ the pair of us. An’ I'll tell yeh this, she's not afraid of roughin’ it, Olympe. Yeh know, she's a fine, well-dressed woman, an’ knowin’ where we was goin’ I wondered ‘ow she'd feel abou’ clamberin’ over boulders an’ sleepin’ in caves an’ tha', bu’ she never complained once.’

‘You knew where you were going?’ Harry repeated. ‘You knew where the giants were?’

‘Well, Durnbledore knew, an’ he told us,’ said Hagrid.

‘Are they hidden?’ asked Ron. ‘Is it a secret, where they are?’

‘Not really,’ said Hagrid, shaking his shaggy head. ‘It's jus’ that mos’ wizards aren’ bothered where they are, ‘s'long as it's a good long way away. But where they are's very difficult ter get ter, fer humans anyway, so we needed Dumbledore's instructions. Took us abou’ a month ter get there—’

‘A month?’ said Ron, as though he had never heard of a journey lasting such a ridiculously long time. ‘But—why couldn't you just grab a Portkey or something?’

There was an odd expression in Hagrid's unobscured eye as he surveyed Ron; it was almost pitying.

‘We're bein’ watched, Ron,’ he said gruffly.

‘What d'you mean?’

‘Yeh don’ understand,’ said Hagrid. ‘The Ministry's keepin’ an eye on Dumbledore an’ anyone they reckon's in league with ‘im, an'—’

‘We know about that,’ said Harry quickly, keen to hear the rest of Hagrid's story, ‘we know about the Ministry watching Dumbledore—’

‘So you couldn't use magic to get there?’ asked Ron, looking thunderstruck, ‘you had to act like Muggles all the way?’

‘Well, not exactly all the way,’ said Hagrid cagily. ‘We jus’ had ter be careful, ‘cause Olympe an’ me, we stick out a bit—’

Ron made a stifled noise somewhere between a snort and a sniff and hastily took a gulp of tea.

‘—so we're not hard ter follow. We was pretendin’ we was goin’ on holiday together, so we got inter France an’ we made like we was headin’ fer where Olympe's school is, ‘cause we knew we was bein’ tailed by someone from the Ministry. We had to go slow, ‘cause I'm not really s'posed ter use magic an’ we knew the Ministry'd be lookin’ fer a reason ter run us in. But we managed ter give the berk tailin’ us the slip round abou’ Dee-John—’

‘Ooooh, Dijon?’ said Hermione excitedly. ‘I've been there on holiday, did you see—?’

She fell silent at the look on Ron's face.

‘We chanced a bit o’ magic after that an’ it wasn’ a bad journey. Ran inter a couple o’ mad trolls on the Polish border an’ I had a sligh’ disagreement with a vampire in a pub in Minsk, bu’ apart from tha’ couldn't'a bin smoother.

‘An’ then we reached the place, an’ we started trekkin’ up through the mountains, lookin’ fer signs of ‘em ...

‘We had ter lay off the magic once we got near ‘em. Partly ‘cause they don’ like wizards an’ we didn’ want ter put their backs up too soon, an’ partly ‘cause Dumbledore had warned us You-Know-Who was bound ter be after the giants an’ all. Said it was odds on he'd sent a messenger off ter them already. Told us ter be very careful of drawin’ attention ter ourselves as we got nearer in case there was Death Eaters around.’

Hagrid paused for a long draught of tea.