"Oh, oh...oh, it’s you guys."
Hagrid, who was busy taking the loop off the rooster’s head, responded reflexively. It took several glances around the hall before he finally spotted Harry and Hermione, who were buried in the chicken feathers.
"What’s going on here?"
Looking at Hagrid wrapping the rope around his arm, Hermione asked, somewhat confused.
"It’s the headmaster’s order, he wants to keep some roosters in the castle..."
Hagrid mumbled uncertainly. Although his voice wasn’t loud, Harry still managed to make out most of it amidst the crowing of the roosters.
"Dumbledore wants to...wait, he wants to keep chickens? And inside the castle?" Harry gaped, momentarily at a loss for words, "I thought you were going to send them to the kitchen..."
"Ah, of course not, this is already the third batch—Professor McGonagall contacted a Muggle chicken farm, and they said there are three hundred more today." Hagrid sighed as he finished tying the rope, "Luckily, Filch isn’t awake yet, or he’d fight me to the death if he saw this..."
Harry looked around the hall, which was feather-filled within two minutes, and nodded in agreement—Filch always hated little wizards who disregarded the cleanliness of the castle. Once, when Harry brought some mud after training, he was nearly locked in a cupboard and subjected to Filch’s ’inhuman punishment’—
If Filch saw this scene now...
"Alright, I have to take them up to the fourth floor—" Hagrid said as he carried the roosters up the stairs, waving at them, and briskly headed upwards under the strange gazes of a group of little wizards.
"..."
Watching Hagrid vanish up the stairs, clucking away, both Harry and Hermione fell into a long silence.
"What do you think Dumbledore is up to?"
Finally, Harry’s somewhat bewildered voice broke the silence—keeping chickens in the castle, is that really something the headmaster of Hogwarts would do?
Well, actually, only the headmaster would have the authority to do something like that.
"...I don’t know." Hermione, too, rarely looked confused. She busied herself with removing feathers stuck in her hair, and her frizzy hair added to her troubles, "Where were we again?"
"Malfoy..."
"And William, he’s definitely not simple. A fifth-year transfer student who managed to beat Snape—"
"Maybe it’s just because the old bat is a lousy...j."
"..."
"Alright, William does seem suspicious, but..."
"Which is why we need to keep an eye on them—in turns—using the Marauder’s Map." Hermione grabbed the map from Harry’s hands.
...
"...Just put them here, sir."
The House-Elf in a small-tailored suit waved at the giant who just climbed the stairs, speaking in a squeaky voice, "There’s no rooster in the classroom on the fourth floor yet, Mr. Dumbledore said to leave them here, sir." It repeated the instruction.
"Uh, alright...but who are you?" Hagrid asked, puzzled. Although the House-Elves in the castle were treated well compared to others, none well enough to afford small suits, "I don’t think I’ve seen you at Hogwarts?"
"Yes, sir, I’m Dobby." Dobby nodded, its pointy ears flopping behind its head, "Dobby is now working for Ric... I mean, Hogwarts, and can earn a Sickle every week!" It boasted.
"Payment? That’s odd—" Hagrid untied the loop from a rooster and tossed it into the empty classroom behind Dobby, silencing the noisy crowing, "I haven’t known a House-Elf to ask for payment..."
"But Dobby is free!"
"Alright, a free House-Elf is not weirder than keeping chickens in the castle..." Hagrid mumbled indifferently, watching Dobby snap its fingers and vanish.
"Hagrid."
"I’m here, you...oh, it’s you." Hagrid turned around, noticing the boy standing behind him. He scratched his nose, "...William? Oh, William Richard, I remember you—"
"Yes, glad you still remember me." William nodded, and Kabuda on his shoulder waved a paw at Hagrid.
"Is there something you need?"
"It’s about the attack fifty years ago..." William got straight to the point.
"Wh-what attack fifty years ago, I don’t know..." Hagrid immediately reacted defensively, shaking his head vigorously.
"Headmaster Dumbledore sent me." William, anticipating this, interrupted the agitated giant.
"Even if it’s Dumbledore...oh, Dumbledore sent you..." Hagrid blinked, muttered a few times, "What did he want you to ask? I’ve told him everything, he promised me—" Speaking, feeling betrayed, Hagrid’s emotions flared up again.
"Calm down, calm down..."
William sighed, his eyes glowed blue, soothing the other with the power of emotions.
He didn’t want to open Hagrid’s old wounds either, but he guessed the old man Dumbledore got addicted to playing the Riddler. No matter what William said, he asked him to talk to Hagrid, "Only through direct dialogue can you hear one’s inner voice—"
Bah, the old mystic!
Last night, after William explained about the diary, Dumbledore immediately agreed to the idea of ’keeping chickens in the castle’—yes, that’s William’s plan, ’Tell the Teacher.’
Catching a Basilisk in the castle wasn’t hard for him—but Hogwarts’ intricate sewer system was a huge obstacle. He couldn’t be sure a student wouldn’t be killed before he could catch the Basilisk.
The only reason Hogwarts remained open was because the attacked wizards were merely petrified, yet the Basilisk’s gaze could kill. One couldn’t keep relying on sheer luck from above, right?
Besides, it wouldn’t do William any good if Hogwarts closed down.
So, the best option was to keep chickens!
The crowing of roosters is deadly to Basilisks, so ideally, the rooster’s cries would kill the Basilisk outright.
But even if the Basilisk was gifted, it would at least be weakened by the crowing and unable to roam freely in the castle. And by summer vacation, when all students leave—it might as well just wait to die.
However, after accepting William’s plan, Dumbledore took away Voldemort’s diary...who knows what the old man planned to do with it?