Facing an incandescent Professor McGonagall, the two culprits who had snuck out didn't fare well. Besides losing fifty house points each, Harry and Hermione were both sentenced to a month's detention and assigned a one-foot-long essay of self-reflection. Yet, watching the pair leave the Great Hall hand in hand, visibly delighted despite their punishment, McGonagall couldn't shake an odd, indescribable feeling. It was as though the penalties she'd just imposed weren't punishments at all, but some rare reward…
Since the previous night's festivities had kept everyone up late, when Harry, Neville, and Hermione dragged themselves out of bed early the next morning for training and arrived at the Great Hall for breakfast, the place was utterly deserted.
Hermione, who had dazzled the entire student body the previous day, had reverted to her usual bookish self. With a head of wild, bushy hair, she munched on bread while skimming the latest issue of The Daily Prophet, freshly delivered by owl.
"Anything important in the news?" Harry looked up from a pile of bacon, glancing at Hermione.
"Gringotts break-in… Firebolt planning a family edition… Pygmy Puffs sparking a pet craze among witches… No, nothing major," Hermione said, shaking her head.
After breakfast, the trio discussed their plans, packed some food and drinks into paper bags, and carried them back to the Gryffindor common room.
Unlike the empty Great Hall they'd left, the common room at nine o'clock was already buzzing with a scattering of students. They chatted lazily, punctuated by the occasional long yawn.
Ron was teasing Crookshanks with a chocolate bar, but the cat clearly had no interest in the dark treat. No matter how Ron dangled it in front of Crookshanks' face, the cat refused to take the bait.
Then, just as Ron tried to shove the chocolate bar into Crookshanks' mouth, Hermione's furious shout echoed from the common room entrance.
"Ron! What are you doing?!"
Both Ron and Crookshanks jumped in fright. In two strides, Hermione stormed over, swatting the chocolate bar out of Ron's hand.
"Cats can't eat chocolate! Don't you know that?!" Hermione glared at Ron, her voice brimming with indignation. She scooped up Crookshanks, who was trying to climb her trouser leg. "Chocolate contains theobromine and caffeine, which are toxic to cats. They can cause vomiting, diarrhea, seizures—severe cases can even be fatal!"
"I didn't know, alright…" Ron muttered, scratching his nose sheepishly. Then, eyeing Hermione, who had slipped back into her familiar bookworm demeanor, he added, "Hermione, why didn't you keep yesterday's look? You were loads prettier than you are now."
"Dressing up wastes time I could spend practicing magic," Hermione replied, settling into a chair by the fireplace with Crookshanks in her arms. She scratched behind the cat's ears, then glanced up at the common room entrance with a half-smile. "What do you think, Harry? Am I prettier made-up or not?"
"What's the difference? You're prettier than everyone else either way," Harry's voice called from the doorway. Ron only now noticed Harry and Neville entering, each carrying a large bag of food.
"Food!" Ron's eyes lit up, his hunger overriding everything else as he lunged for the bags.
"Wait! Don't grab it all! Some of that's for Seamus and Dean—oi, Ron—" Harry's protest was cut short as Ron snatched a bag and darted off to devour its contents.
Unlike Ron, whose mind was entirely on food and oblivious to the subtle exchange between Harry and Hermione, a few girls—including Ginny—watched the pair with surprised expressions. Ginny's gaze, however, held a trace of jealousy alongside her astonishment and envy.
Soon, someone noticed Gryffindor's house points had plummeted.
At first, the loss of a hundred points sparked outrage. But when word spread that McGonagall had docked them from Harry and Hermione, the anger fizzled out. Never mind whether anyone could take on those two—Hermione Granger's status as a Hogwarts champion was worth more than a few House Cups.
Besides, no one was even sure if there'd be a House Cup this year.
As time passed, the students gradually recovered from the excitement of the Yule Ball. Hermione, during a bath, inadvertently cracked the secret of the golden egg. Just when Harry thought the holiday would end in this peaceful lull, the morning before term resumed, an owl-delivered Daily Prophet landed like a boulder, sending ripples through Hogwarts.
As usual, Hermione read the Prophet while eating breakfast. Suddenly, her bread-biting paused. Her expression grew grave, and she began scanning the paper rapidly. Around her, a low, oppressive murmur began to spread.
"Hermione, what's happened?" Harry noticed her change, looking up from his bacon.
"Hagrid's in trouble…" Hermione sighed, finishing her scan. She pulled out a page and slapped it on the table in front of Harry. "That Rita Skeeter somehow found out Hagrid's a half-giant and published it!"
"Hagrid's a half-giant?!" Neville, sitting across from Harry, dropped his bacon with a splat. Ignoring it, he scrambled over to Harry's side to read the article.
Ron, Ginny, Seamus, and Dean crowded in soon after. Within moments, a small cluster had formed around Harry.
At the top of the page was a photo of Hagrid. Strangely, instead of his usual jovial, hearty demeanor, he lurked in shadows, looking furtive, as if hiding some guilty secret.
Below the photo, bolded text screamed:
Dumbledore's Grave Mistake
By Special Correspondent Rita Skeeter
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry's eccentric headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, has never shied away from hiring controversial staff. But of all the employees he's appointed, Rubeus Hagrid, the Care of Magical Creatures professor, is undoubtedly the most unsettling for students.
Rubeus Hagrid has admitted to being expelled from Hogwarts in his third year. Since then, he has served as the school's gamekeeper, a position Dumbledore secured for him. Last year, according to reliable sources, Hagrid used some innate, mysterious power to sway an increasingly addled Albus Dumbledore, outmaneuvering far more qualified candidates to become the Care of Magical Creatures professor.
A hulking, ferocious-looking man, Hagrid habitually abuses his authority, introducing a parade of terrifying creatures to frighten the students in his charge. In a series of lessons many have called "utterly horrifying," Hagrid has caused multiple student injuries, which Dumbledore has willfully ignored.
One student was hospitalized last year after being mauled by a Hippogriff in Hagrid's class. Regrettably, when this reporter sought to verify the incident, the student had already withdrawn from Hogwarts, reportedly out of fear of Rubeus Hagrid.
(Continued below)
The group quickly finished the article.
"Perhaps Harry Potter is unaware of these unsavory truths about his oversized friend—but Albus Dumbledore surely has a duty to ensure Harry Potter and his peers understand the dangers of associating with half-giants," Ron fumed. "'Dangers of associating with half-giants'—Hagrid's the kindest person I've ever met! And that nonsense about a student withdrawing? That woman's making it all up!"
"Everyone hates him?" Ginny said indignantly. "How can that reporter slander him like this? Hagrid's lessons last year were a bit dangerous, sure, but they were interesting!"
At the Gryffindor table, a few students began defending Hagrid, but most seemed genuinely unnerved by his half-giant heritage. As Harry and his friends left the Great Hall, they overheard a Ravenclaw girl lecturing her friends about how terrifying and savage half-giants supposedly were.
Over at the Slytherin table, a few students mimicked a giant's clumsy, ferocious movements, while others roared with laughter.
Worried for Hagrid, Harry resolved to talk to him. After breakfast, he, Hermione, and Ron trudged through the snow toward Hagrid's cabin.
In early January, the cold was biting. The grounds were blanketed in thick snow, and the trio struggled, sinking deep with each step and laboriously pulling their feet free as they made their way to Hagrid's small wooden cabin at the edge of the Forbidden Forest.
Harry knocked repeatedly, but the only sounds from within were Fang's claws scratching the door and low whimpers. There was no sign of Hagrid.
Seeing no response after several minutes, Harry sighed. Rita Skeeter's article must have hit Hagrid hard.
"Hagrid! We'll come back tomorrow night!" Harry shouted through the door, but only Fang's noises answered.
"He's avoiding us," Hermione said on the way back to the castle, glancing back at the snow-covered cabin. "He can't possibly think we care that he's a half-giant, can he?"
Hagrid, it turned out, cared deeply about how others saw him. He didn't appear at the staff table for lunch or dinner, and when term resumed, Care of Magical Creatures was taught by an elderly witch with short, gray hair and a sharply jutting chin.
"Move along, move along, the bell rang five minutes ago," the witch barked. The students trudged through the snow toward her.
"Who are you?" Ron demanded, scanning for Hagrid and finding no trace of him. "Where's Hagrid?"
"I'm Professor Grubbly-Plank," she replied curtly. "Your temporary Care of Magical Creatures teacher."
"Where's Hagrid?" Harry pressed.
"He's unwell," Professor Grubbly-Plank said brusquely, clearly unwilling to discuss her half-giant colleague.
"This way, please," she added, leading the class around the temporary stables toward the forest.
Harry noticed the Beauxbatons horses in the stables, shivering in the cold wind without Hagrid's care. Whoever had taken over clearly wasn't tending to them properly.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione followed Professor Grubbly-Plank with the other students, occasionally glancing back at Hagrid's cabin.
Seeing the tightly drawn curtains, Harry vowed to talk to Hagrid properly on Saturday.
At the edge of the Forbidden Forest, Professor Grubbly-Plank stopped by a large tree where a fully grown unicorn was tethered.
"Boys, stay back!" she snapped, flinging an arm to push Harry, who had leaned in curiously, away. "Unicorns prefer women's touch. Girls, step forward, approach carefully—come on, relax…"
As Professor Grubbly-Plank listed the unicorn's magical properties in a booming voice audible even to the boys standing far back, the lesson unfolded.
"I hope she stays," Parvati Patil said after class, on the way back to the castle. "This is what Care of Magical Creatures should be—studying proper creatures like unicorns, not the monsters Hagrid likes…"
Harry opened his mouth to argue but found himself at a loss for words.
At lunch, Hagrid was absent from the staff table.
That afternoon, during Charms, Harry and Hermione stayed after class to ask Professor Flitwick about spells for breathing underwater. He suggested two approaches: the Bubble-Head Charm and human Transfiguration.
"Hermione, I'd recommend the Bubble-Head Charm," Flitwick said after demonstrating it. "It's easier to master than Transfiguration, though it's less adaptable to underwater conditions…"
Ten minutes later, armed with a handful of underwater-friendly spells, Harry and Hermione left the Charms classroom.
At dinner, Hagrid was still nowhere to be seen.
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