Chapter 470

"We try to choose sparsely populated routes that we can, and we want to keep them out of sight—especially not from the Death Eaters. Hagrid sighed, "I don't think a thick-skinned person like me thinks anything, it's just that Olim is bitter—"

Harry and Ron looked at each other with strange expressions.

"Dumbledore warned us before we set off that the Mysteries had probably sent the Death Eaters to contact the giants, and he told us to be careful. "

"Did you find the giant at last?"

Hagrid paused for a long sip of tea.

"You say. Harry urged.

"Found it. Hagrid said bluntly, "One night over the ridge, they were right below, little campfires, huge shadows, they were like mountains moving. "

"How big?" Ron asked, holding his breath.

"About twenty feet," Hagrid said nonchalantly, "the big one might be twenty-five feet." "

"How many are there?" asked Harry.

"I think seventy or eighty. Hagrid smoothed his beard.

"Is it all there?" asked Hermione.

"Well," said Hagrid sadly, "there are so many, there used to be many, at least a hundred tribes in the world, but they are dying. Of course, the wizards killed some, but most of them were cannibalistic. Now they're dying faster, and they're not fit to live together like that. Dumbledore said it was our fault, that the wizards had driven them far away, and that they had no choice but to stay together in order to survive. "

After the War of the Giants, the remaining giants were driven together by wizards to keep them away from humans - not only wizards, but also Muggles, who kept the giants living in the deep mountains and forests, strictly forbidding any contact with humans, and not allowing them to step out of the range that the wizards had set for them.

Colonization is a normal thing for humans, but this kind of normal thing is a little abnormal for giants.

Giants live in family units – a male giant, several female giants, and sometimes female humans, as well as their children. Usually there will only be one adult male in a giant family, and the young giant will be kicked out when he reaches adulthood, provided that he is not killed by his grumpy father.

Yes, the temper of the giant is very short-tempered. Sometimes they move towards another giant without warning—even between family members. One can imagine the situation of the giants living in the form of tribes under the pressure of wizards - they stop fighting all the time, and in this case, the number of giants that were already few has dropped dramatically.

"So," said Harry, "you saw the giant, and then what?"

"We waited until the morning, not wanting to sneak past in the night, to be on the safe side," Hagrid said, "and they fell asleep around three o'clock in the morning." We didn't dare to sleep, one was afraid that one giant would wake up and climb up, and the other was snoring scariously. It was almost dawn and caused an avalanche.

"We went down after daybreak. "

"Just like that?" Ron asked in awe, "you walked straight into the giant's camp?"

"Dumbledore told us what to do," Hagrid said, "and give Gugo a gift as a tribute. "

"To whom?" asked Harry.

"Oh, Gugo—that's the leader. "

"How do you know which is Gogo?" Ron asked.

Hagler is up.

"It's not wrong, he's the biggest, the ugliest, the laziest, sitting there waiting for someone else to bring him something to eat, a dead sheep or something. His name is Kakus. I estimate that he was nearly thirty feet tall and weighed as much as two bulls. Skin like a rhinoceros. "

"You just walked up?" Hermione asked worriedly.

"Well, went down, and he lay in the valley. They stayed in a depression between four high mountains, near a mountain lake. Kakus lay on the edge of the lake, roaring for people to feed him and his wife. Orim and I walked down the hill, and Sirius was hiding in the shadows—after all, the giants hated wizards the most. "

"But didn't they want to kill you?" asked Ron, incredulous.

"Someone must think so," Hagrid shrugged, "but we held the gift up in the air, as Dumbledore had said, and stared at Gugo and ignored the others. And just like that, the others quieted down and watched as we walked past, and we went all the way to Kakus's feet, bowed, and placed the gift in front of him. "

"What gift for the giant?" Ron asked with interest, "anything to eat?"

Hermione pursed her lips disdainfully at Ron's words.

"Of course not, they can get food themselves. Hagrid said, "We'll give him magic." Giants love magic, they just don't like it when we use it against them. Anyway, on the first day we gave him a Gublai Immortal Fire. "

Hermione gave a soft wow, but both Harry and Ron frowned.

"A-what?"

"Eternal fire," Hermione said impatiently, "you should know, Professor Flitwick brought it up at least twice in class!"

"Anyway," Hagrid said hurriedly, not waiting for Ron to reply, "Dumbledore used magic to make this torch burn forever, which is not something that ordinary wizards can do. I placed it on the snow at Cascus' feet and said, "Albus Dumbledore's gift to the giant Gugo as a tribute." “

"And then?" Harry asked urgently, "what did he say?"

"Nothing," Hagrid said, "won't say anything about us." "

"You're kidding!"

"It doesn't matter," Hagrid said calmly, "Dumbledore warned that this could happen. Luckily, Kakus called two giants who knew our words to translate for us. "

"Does he like the gift?" asked Ron.

"Oh, as soon as they understood what it was, the camp was in turmoil. Hagrid flipped the dragon meat over and pressed the cool side to his swollen eyes, "They were very happy. Then I said, 'Albus Dumbledore has a message, and when the messenger comes again tomorrow with a gift, ask Gugo to speak with him.' ’"

"Why didn't you talk to them that day?" asked Hermione.

"Dumbledore wants us to take our time and show the giants that we're keeping our word. Bring a gift tomorrow, if you do, it will make a good impression on them. And let them sometimes ask to check the first gift and find that it is a good thing and want more. In short, giants like Kakus - say a lot at once, and they will kill you. It's simple. So we bowed and retreated, and found a comfortable little cave to spend the night, and when we went back the next morning, we saw that Kakus was waiting for us. "

"You talked to him?"

"yes, we'll give him a beautiful helmet—made of goblins, indestructible, and then we'll sit down and talk. "

"What did he say?"

"I didn't say much, mainly listened. But the signs were good, he had heard of Dumbledore and knew that he was against killing the last of the giants of England. Kakus seemed interested in Dumbledore's words. There were also a few people who came around to listen, especially those who knew a little English. We left with hope and promised to bring another gift the next day.

"But bad things happened that night. "

"What do you mean?" asked Ron.

"As I said, giants are not fit to live together," Hagrid said sadly, "not for such a large group." They couldn't control themselves and had to beat each other half to death every few weeks. Men fight with men, and women fight with women. The remnants of the old tribes fought around, not counting the battles for food, fire, and sleeping places. Seeing that their entire race is on the verge of extinction, you thought they would stop killing each other, but ......"

Hagrid sighed.