rted taking the egg out of his trunk every time he
went up to the dormitory, opening it, and listening intently, hoping that this time it
would make some sense. He strained to think what the sound reminded him of,
apart from thirty musical saws, but he had never heard anything else like it. He
closed the egg, shook it vigorously, and opened it again to see if the sound had
changed, but it hadn't. He tried asking the egg questions, shouting over all the
wailing, but nothing happened. He even threw the egg across the room - though he
hadn't really expected that to help.
Harry had not forgotten the hint that Cedric had given him, but his less-thanfriendly
feelings toward Cedric just now meant that he was keen not to take his
help if he could avoid it. In any case, it seemed to him that if Cedric had really
wanted to give Harry a hand, he would have been a lot more explicit. He, Harry,
had told Cedric exactly what was coming in the first task - and Cedric's idea of a
283
fair exchange had been to tell Harry to take a bath. Well, he didn't need that sort of
rubbishy help - not from someone who kept walking down corridors hand in hand
with Cho, anyway. And so the first day of the new term arrived, and Harry set off
to lessons, weighed down with books, parchment, and quills as usual, but also with
the lurking worry of the egg heavy in his stomach, as though he were carrying that
around with him too.
Snow was still thick upon the grounds, and the greenhouse windows were covered
in condensation so thick that they couldn't see out of them in Herbology. Nobody
was looking forward to Care of Magical Creatures much in this weather, though as
Ron said, the skrewts would probably warm them up nicely, either by chasing
them, or blasting off so forcefully that Hagrid's cabin would catch fire.
When they arrived at Hagrid 's cabin, however, they found an elderly witch with
closely cropped gray hair and a very prominent chin standing before his front
door.
"Hurry up, now, the bell rang five minutes ago," she barked at them as they
struggled toward her through the snow.
"Who're you?" said Ron, staring at her. "Wheres Hagrid?"
"My name is Professor Grubbly-Plank," she said briskly. "I am your temporary
Care of Magical Creatures teacher."
"Where's Hagrid?" Harry repeated loudly.
"He is indisposed," said Professor Grubbly-Plank shortly.
Soft and unpleasant laughter reached Harrys ears. He turned; Draco Malfoy and
the rest of the Slytherins were joining the class. All of them looked gleeful, and
none of them looked surprised to see Professor Grubbly-Plank.
"This way, please," said Professor Grubbly-Plank, and she strode off around the
paddock where the Beauxbatons horses were shivering. Harry, Ron, and Hermione
followed her, looking back over their shoulders at Hagrid's cabin. All the curtains
were closed. Was Hagrid in there, alone and ill?
"What's wrong with Hagrid?" Harry said, hurrying to catch up with Professor
Grubbly-Plank.
"Never you mind," she said as though she thought he was being nosy.
"I do mind, though," said Harry hotly. "What's up with him?"
Professor Grubbly-Plank acted as though she couldn't hear him. She led them past
the paddock where the huge Beauxbatons horses were standing, huddled against
the cold, and toward a tree on the edge of the forest, where a large and beautiful
unicorn was tethered.
284
Many of the girls "ooooohed!" at the sight of the unicorn.
"Oh it's so beautiful!" whispered Lavender Brown. "How did she get it? They're
supposed to be really hard to catch!"
The unicorn was so brightly white it made the snow all around look gray. It was
pawing the ground nervously with its golden hooves and throwing back its horned
head.
"Boys keep back!" barked Professor Grubbly-Plank, throwing out an arm and
catching Harry hard in the chest. "They prefer the woman's touch, unicorns. Girls
to the front, and approach with care, come on, easy does it. ..."
She and the girls walked slowly forward toward the unicorn, leaving the boys
standing near the paddock fence, watching. The moment Professor Grubbly-Plank
was out of earshot. Harry turned to Ron.
"What d'you reckons wrong with him? You don't think a skrewt - ?"
"Oh he hasn't been attacked, Potter, if that's what you're thinking," said Malfoy
softly. "No, he's just too ashamed to show his big, ugly face."
"What d'you mean?" said Harry sharply.
Malfoy put his hand inside the pocket of his robes and pulled out a folded page of
newsprint.
"There you go," he said. "Hate to break it to you. Potter. ..."
He smirked as Harry snatched the page, unfolded it, and read it, with Ron,
Seamus, Dean, and Neville looking over his shoulder. It was an article topped with
a picture of Hagrid looking extremely shifty.
DUMBLEDORE'S GIANT MISTAKE
Albus Dumbledore, eccentric Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and
Wizardry, has never been afraid to make controversial staff appointments, writes
Rita Skeeter, Special Correspondent. In September of this year, he hired Alastor
"Mad-Eye" Moody, the notoriously jinx-happy ex-Auror, to teach Defense Against
the Dark Arts, a decision that caused many raised eyebrows at the Ministry of
Magic, given Moody's well-known habit of attacking anybody who makes a
sudden movement in his presence. Mad-Eye Moody, however, looks responsible
and kindly when set beside the part-human Dumbledore employs to teach Care of
Magical Creatures.
Rubeus Hagrid, who admits to being expelled from Hogwarts in his third year, has
enjoyed the position of gamekeeper at the school ever since, a job secured for him
by Dumbledore. Last year, however, Hagrid used his mysterious influence over
the headmaster to secure the additional post of Care of Magical Creatures teacher,
over the heads of many better-qualified candidates.
285
An alarmingly large and ferocious-looking man, Hagrid has been using his
newfound authority to terrify the students in his care with a succession of horrific
creatures. While Dumbledore turns a blind eye, Hagrid has maimed several pupils
during a series of lessons that many admit to being "very frightening."
'I was attacked by a hippogriff, and my friend Vincent Crabbe got a bad bite off a
flobberworm," says Draco Malfoy, a fourth-year student. "We all hate Hagrid, but
we're just too scared to say anything."
Hagrid has no intention of ceasing his campaign of intimidation, however. In
conversation with a Daily Prophet reporter last month, he admitted breeding
creatures he has dubbed "Blast-Ended Skrewts," highly dangerous crosses between
manti-cores and fire-crabs. The creation of new breeds of magical creature is, of
course, an activity usually closely observed by the Department for the Regulation
and Control of Magical Creatures. Hagrid, however, considers himself to be above
such petty restrictions.
"I was just having some fun," he says, before hastily changing the subject.
As if this were not enough, the Daily Prophet has now unearthed evidence that
Hagrid is not - as he has always pretended - a pure-blood wizard. He is not, in fact,
even pure human. His mother, we can exclusively reveal, is none other than the
giantess Fridwulfa, whose whereabouts are currently unknown.
Bloodthirsty and brutal, the giants brought themselves to the point of extinction by
warring amongst themselves during the last century. The handful that remained
joined the ranks of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, and were responsible for some
of the worst mass Muggle killings of his reign of terror.
While many of the giants who served He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named were killed
by Aurors working against the Dark Side, Fridwulfa was not among them. It is
possible she escaped to one of the giant communities still existing in foreign
mountain ranges. If his antics during Care of Magical Creatures lessons are any
guide, however, Frid-wulfa's son appears to have inherited her brutal nature.
In a bizarre twist, Hagrid is reputed to have developed a close friendship with the
boy who brought around You-Know-Who's fall from power - thereby driving
Hagrid's own mother, like the rest of You-Know-Who's supporters, into hiding.
Perhaps Harry Potter is unaware of the unpleasant truth about his large friend - but
Albus Dumbledore surely has a duty to ensure that Harry Potter, along with his
fellow students, is warned about the dangers of associating with part-giants.
Harry finished reading and looked up at Ron, whose mouth was hanging open.
"How did she find out?" he whispered.
But that wasn't what was bothering Harry.
"What d'you mean, 'we all hate Hagrid'?" Harry spat at Malfoy. "What's this
286
rubbish about him" - he pointed at Crabbe - "getting a bad bite off a flobberworm?
They haven't even got teeth!"
Crabbe was sniggering, apparently very pleased with himself.
"Well, I think this should put an end to the oaf's teaching career," said Malfoy, his
eyes glinting. "Half-giant. . . and there was me thinking he'd just swallowed a
bottle of Skele-Gro when he was young. ... None of the mummies and daddies are
going to like this at all. ... They'll be worried he'll eat their kids, ha, ha. ..."
"You-"
"Are you paying attention over there?"
Professor Grubbly-Planks voice carried over to the boys; the girls were all
clustered around the unicorn now, stroking it. Harry was so angry that the Daily
Prophet article shook in his hands as he turned to stare unseeingly at the unicorn,
whose many magical properties Professor Grubbly-Plank was now enumerating in
a loud voice, so that the boys could hear too.
"I hope she stays, that woman!" said Parvati Patil when the lesson had ended and
they were all heading back to the castle for lunch. "That's more what I thought
Care of Magical Creatures would be like . . . proper creatures like unicorns, not
monsters. . . ."
"What about Hagrid?" Harry said angrily as they went up the steps.
"What about him?" said Parvati in a hard voic