CHAPTER FIVE
“Flew,” said Hagrid.
“Flew?”
“Yeah — but we’ll go back in this. Not s’pposed ter use magic
now I’ve got yeh.”
They settled down in the boat, Harry still staring at Hagrid, try-
ing to imagine him flying.
“Seems a shame ter row, though,” said Hagrid, giving Harry an-
other of his sideways looks. “If I was ter — er — speed things up a
bit, would yeh mind not mentionin’ it at Hogwarts?”
“Of course not,” said Harry, eager to see more magic. Hagrid
pulled out the pink umbrella again, tapped it twice on the side of
the boat, and they sped off toward land.
“Why would you be mad to try and rob Gringotts?” Harry
asked.
“Spells — enchantments,” said Hagrid, unfolding his news-
paper as he spoke. “They say there’s dragons guardin’ the high-
security vaults. And then yeh gotta find yer way — Gringotts is
hundreds of miles under London, see. Deep under the Under-
ground. Yeh’d die of hunger tryin’ ter get out, even if yeh did man-
age ter get yer hands on summat.”
Harry sat and thought about this while Hagrid read his newspa-
per, the Daily Prophet. Harry had learned from Uncle Vernon that
people liked to be left alone while they did this, but it was very dif-
ficult, he’d never had so many questions in his life.
“Ministry o’ Magic messin’ things up as usual,” Hagrid mut-
tered, turning the page.
“There’s a Ministry of Magic?” Harry asked, before he could
stop himself.
“ ’Course,” said Hagrid. “They wanted Dumbledore fer Minis-
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