Chapter 115
Chapter 115
“Hic…” Hagrid staggered as he pushed open the pub’s wooden door. The howling cold wind spiralled inside.
“Are you all right, Hagrid?” Suer looked at him worriedly. He had a bad feeling that Hagrid might simply collapse by the roadside in a moment.
“Heh heh, hic…” Hagrid peered at Suer with drunkenly unfocused eyes and gave him a foolish smile. “I’m… I’m fine, Suer.”
Fine? He looked exactly like a drunk who had swallowed far too much alcohol.
“I’m afraid we won’t make it back to the castle tonight.” Suer could already imagine spending the night with Hagrid in the snow, using the sky as their blanket and the earth as their bed.
He had no idea how far the castle was from here. Suer rubbed his brow with a headache.
“Hic…” Hagrid hiccupped endlessly. Even the icy air did nothing to sober him.
It appeared they would have to find somewhere to sleep. Suer looked around, but saw no suitable building advertising rooms.
They could only keep walking.
“Oh, the Hog… the Hog’s Head!” Hagrid suddenly said. “This… this is another… hic… excellent place…”
“I… hic… got Nor… Norbert here.”
Suer rubbed his forehead. It was impressive that Hagrid could drink so much and still remember to give him a tour.
The Hog’s Head, though? Suer looked towards the lonely wooden building at the end of the street, standing apart from its surroundings just like the Shrieking Shack.
“Perhaps we should ask whether they have rooms? I seem to remember the owner is Dumbledore’s brother.”
Suer was still considering the idea when Hagrid began walking towards it, muttering to himself.
“Wonder how my baby Norbert’s doing in Romania? I miss it so much, hic… Haven’t been ter the Hog’s Head in ages. Let’s have a look, have a look.”
“Good grief, you’re still thinking about that dragon?” Suer sighed and hurried after him.
Bang!
Hagrid shoved the door open so hard that it slammed into the wall with a tremendous crash. He called out cheerfully, “I’ve come ter see yeh, old Aberforth!”
The owner was called Aberforth?
Suer followed him inside and carefully examined the pub. Like the sign hanging by only one side outside, the furnishings were worn and broken. Several tables with obviously uneven legs stood haphazardly across the open floor. Their surfaces gleamed black with grease beneath the dim yellow light.
The floor was even worse. Only a few paces from Suer lay a glistening puddle of unidentified milky-white liquid. Even one Cleaning Charm would have made the guests more comfortable…
Several empty cobwebs hung in the corners of the ceiling.
Suer casually wiped a nearby surface. A layer of grey matter immediately coated his finger.
Calling this pub dirty, chaotic and dreadful was being generous.
“…” Lost for words, Suer wiped his finger on Hagrid.
There were no customers inside. Only a clatter from the room at the far end disturbed the silence.
Before long, a man with a wild beard emerged carrying a black, shiny rag. With a dark expression, he first looked at the wooden door Hagrid had smashed against the wall, now swaying precariously. His lips compressed into a thin line.
“That door will cost three Galleons,” he said gloomily.
“You’re still the same.” Hagrid paid no attention. He staggered towards the man and slapped one enormous hand down hard on his shoulder. “Long time no see.”
The blow made the man stumble. “I had no wish to see you.”
“Don’t be so unfriendly, old Aberforth.” Hagrid wrapped an arm around his shoulders.
“What are you doing here? You know young wizards aren’t welcome in my establishment.”
Hagrid did not answer, instead releasing a long hiccup.
“It’s like this, sir.” Suer helplessly stepped forwards. “Hagrid came to meet me at the station. While he was showing me around Hogsmeade, he accidentally drank too much at the Three Broomsticks.”
“Clearly, he can’t take me back to the castle now.”
The man silently studied Suer for a long time before finally saying,
“There’s a room upstairs. Third door on the right, second floor.”
“Thank you, sir,” Suer said gratefully.
The man did not appreciate his thanks. “One night, two people, five Galleons,” he said coldly.
Then he turned back towards the inner room and ignored them.
Suer stood frozen for a moment. Five Galleons?
“Ptooey. Robber.” He shook his head helplessly and coaxed Hagrid upstairs with a few words.
To his surprise, perhaps because the lower floor was so filthy, the room upstairs looked reasonably clean by comparison.
At least the quilt and its cover were clean, provided one ignored the conspicuous tea stains on the room’s cups and the dust in the corners.
There were two beds.
The moment Hagrid reached the room, he fell face-first onto one and went to sleep. Beneath his weight, the bed frame gave an ugly creak.
Suer sighed, walked to the bed on the other side, drew his wand and waved it at the quilt.
This should already count as part of the castle grounds, so young wizards could use magic here.
“Scourgify!”
A beam of light shot straight at the bed.
Rustle, rustle…
One, two, then three mice scurried out from beneath the quilt. Suer’s face twitched.
Good grief. An entire family had been wintering in there?
The second lesson–never judge anything solely by its surface.
Suer sighed. It seemed that tonight he could only…
He looked around. In the entire room, only one chair appeared clean. Surely there would not be ants or anything of that sort in it?
To be safe, Suer still used a Cleaning Charm on the chair. He did not want to remain awake all night sitting there…
The bed was absolutely out of the question. If his own bed could contain a little surprise, then Hagrid’s…
He looked again at Hagrid’s enormous body.
Even if small animals had been hiding in that bed, they had probably gone to meet Merlin by now.
Suer took a quilt brought from home out of his luggage and spread it over the chair. Then he let his feet hang beyond one armrest and curled his body into a downward parabola within it.
This would have to do…
Suer sighed and closed his eyes. At that moment, he missed the warm, soft bed in the Hufflepuff common room more than ever.
At five in the morning, rhythm-less snores exploded beside Suer’s ear like thunder.
Resisting the urge to use an imperfect Silencing Charm on Hagrid, Suer helplessly opened his eyes. If he ever shared a room with Hagrid again, he would be beep-beep-beep–
All night! Hagrid’s snores had been like a devil whispering–no, like a devil bellowing through a megaphone directly into his ear.
Even stuffing things into his ears had not helped.
Suer rubbed his eyes as his stomach growled.
Sigh… He sighed, rolled out of the chair, rubbed his eyes and slapped his cheeks to wake himself before packing the quilt back into his luggage.
He wondered whether the owner provided breakfast…
Winter mornings were bitterly cold, and the pub’s owner plainly did not believe in keeping the fire burning all night. That was normal. Swindlers were generally as miserly as Grandet.
Suer walked down the passage and headed downstairs, but the lower floor lay in darkness.
Clearly, the owner was not awake.
I should never have entertained any hope. Suer sighed and returned to the corridor containing his and Hagrid’s room. Was there a dim yellow light shining from the room at the far end?
Was the owner awake after all?
Suer drew closer. The door had not been shut tightly, and he peered through the crack.
The first thing he saw was a painting. The owner stood staring blankly at it. Suer did not care what the man was doing, but the figure in the portrait stunned him.
The large painting showed a smiling girl with both hands folded before her. Behind her ran a narrow path, and at its end stood a wooden house.
This… This was…
“What are you doing here?” The man had somehow reached the door without Suer noticing. He yanked it open and blocked Suer’s path, his face dark and his tone unfriendly.
Suer jumped.
“I came to ask whether you had… breakfast… sir…”
“No!” the man snapped. He slammed the door, cutting off Suer’s view.
Suer stood outside in a daze for a long moment.
At last, he could not stop a choice piece of profanity from bursting out.
“I hope you go bankrupt soon!”