"Always glaring."
He muttered.
"Always acting like she was better than everybody around her."
His eye gleamed maliciously.
"Always looking at me like she hated me."
The room seemed colder now.
"And do you know what happened in the end?"
Hagrid asked.
"She stopped."
A pulse of anger surged through Riven’s chest.
Memories immediately resurfaced.
His mother’s face.
Her suffering.
The hopelessness.
The humiliation.
Years of misery compressed into a single moment.
Meanwhile, Hagrid continued speaking.
"By the end she didn’t look at me like that anymore, because I broke her down bit by bit until she understood that she was just a slave and I was her master."
He chuckled.
"Life fixed that problem eventually."
The old man leaned back comfortably into his chair.
"And once I’m done with you, you won’t be looking at me that way either."
His voice remained calm, almost casual, which somehow made the threat feel even worse.
"Because if there’th one thing I’ve always enjoyed in thith world..."
He said, as his eye remained fixed on Riven.
"It’s breaking people."
A long silence followed.
"I like watching proud people become obedient."
Hagrid continued.
"I like watching stubborn people learn their place."
His smile widened.
"And I especially like watching disobedient slaves realize that no matter how hard they struggle, no matter how much they dream, and no matter how much they pretend otherwise..."
The cripple pointed toward the floor.
"They always end up right back where they belong."
Hagrid concluded, as Riven remained silent.
However, for reasons he could not fully explain, Hagrid found himself becoming increasingly irritated by the boy’s silence, because years ago a conversation like this would have ended very differently, with Riven being in tears by now, or at the very least trying desperately to defend himself.
However, despite everything he had said so far, Riven simply stood there with his head lowered and endured it all in silence, as although the boy still appeared obedient on the surface, the old man could no longer shake the uncomfortable feeling that something about him had fundamentally changed over the past few weeks.
And he was not wrong, because unlike before, when his words would have filled Riven with despair, they now produced something else entirely.
Rage
Pure rage.
The kind that settled deep inside the heart and remained there.
The kind that waited.
The kind that remembered.
And while Hagrid continued talking, laughing, and trying to grind him down piece by piece, Riven simply lowered his head further and endured it all in silence, because despite the violent thoughts surging through his mind, he understood one simple truth.
Today was not the day.
However, although he knew that today was not the day, somewhere deep down he also understood that the day for him to exact his revenge was not too far away either.
"And listen to me boy, tell your insthructor tomorrow thath you need to be excused earlier than usual day afther.
It’s the moon goddess festival day afther and I need you to take me to the central campfire.
Do you understand?"
Hagrid asked, as Riven nodded with his head bown low, completely unaware of the consequences this request was going to have on his life.