3

On the third, the Great Hall was as good as empty when Snape arrived at the same time as the day before. In fact, the only people already present were Dumbledore and McGonagall.

The witch pushed a cup of coffee towards the potions master as soon as he had sat down and Dumbledore informed him of the extraordinary quality of the sausages that the elves had served that particular day.

Snape dutifully tried them and had to agree that, yes, they were very good.

"Any idea why nobody is here yet?" he asked his superior as he reached for another sausage from the platter that refilled itself magically every time somebody took a sausage.

"It's Sunday," Dumbledore pointed out, "and everybody knows now that the bell really chimes at eight. They will be here in time."

"Why don't we enjoy the peace and quiet as long as it lasts," smiled McGonagall as she buttered a scone.

"Did you tell the house elves to serve sausages for breakfast, Albus?" Snape asked, more to make small talk than out of interest.

"Indeed," the older wizard replied, "after all those cookies yesterday, I thought everybody could do with something a bit more spicy."

McGonagall chuckled and added a big spoon of raspberry jam to her scone. "You seem to think that people won't like a sweet breakfast two days in a row. You are wrong, Sir!" She wiggled her spoon at the headmaster and chuckled when a dollop of jam flew into his beard. "Ooops! Sorry!"

Dumbledore, to Snape's disgust, lifted part of his beard to his mouth and sucked the jam off. "Delicious!" he muttered while he removed the jam he didn't get that way with a wordless spell.

Ten minutes before the bell was supposed to chime, the students arrived and Snape was reminded of a stampede. The door to the Entrance Hall opened and the boys and girls streamed in as if they were souls fleeing from the gates of hell.

By the time the bell did chime, everybody was seated and had a cup of something warm – cocoa or tea for most students – in front of them. As soon as the bell sounded, teenagers dove under the house tables to check their socks. Only the Weasley twins had a different idea. One of them, Snape thought it must be Fred, turned sideways to his brother and lifted a hairy leg up high for the other twin to see. "Would you kindly check my sock, oh brother mine?" he asked and the other twin made a show of looking at it. No, there was no number on the sock. The show was repeated first with this twin's other leg and then with the other twin's legs. No, all four socks were entirely numberless.

It was Hagrid's booming voice that finally announced "Got it!"

The students cheered. With Hagrid's huge feet, there must be room for a spectacular gift in his sock!

The gamekeeper removed his shoe and sock under the table and slid his foot back into his shoe self-consciously as soon as he had retrieved the sock. It was, indeed, a huge sock!

When Hagrid reached into it, a beatific smile appeared on his face. "Look!" he cried excitedly and presented a small egg. "I'm gonna be a Mommy!"

Most of the students chuckled good-naturedly. The teachers looked at each other, alarmed. What had Hagrid got? He was known for his uncommon taste in pets, after all!

"Hang on! There are more!" Hagrid cried. And really, there was an egg for every person present! Hagrid kept the first egg to himself and handed out the rest. They were of various sizes and colours and many of the girls squealed when they got a particularly pretty one.

"What now?" drawled Draco Malfoy. "Are we expected to incubate them?"

"A splendid idea, Mr Malfoy!" cried Dumbledore. With a quick spell he turned part of his beard into a nest and put his gaudy orange egg inside. A second spell made a nest in Hagrid's beard. The half-giant beamed his thanks at the headmaster as he carefully placed the tiny egg he had kept for himself into its new home.

Draco rolled his eyes but conjured a small box for his egg. He might not like the idea of taking care of an egg but he got it from Santa, and Draco was too much of a Slytherin to risk his Christmas presents by refusing a gift from the man in charge of the festivities.

All around the Great Hall, students took a leaf out of the blond's book and made nests for their eggs. Older students helped the first and second years. Most conjured boxes like Draco, but the Weasley twins magically grew beards to make beard nests like Dumbledore.

Neville Longbottom had got an egg big enough to house a dragon – Snape was undecided whether to hope it wasn't a dragon egg or look forward to getting free potions ingredients if it was one – and conjured a pram lined with straw.

Luna Lovegood made a hat that held a nest for her egg – medium sized, blue with yellow dots – and several Hufflepuff girls who had got very small eggs wore their little nests on chains like medallions.

Snape went for a traditional bird's nest – his egg was the size of a chicken egg but black and shiny – that hovered above his head, expertly held in place by a spell. Flitwick used the very same spell to keep his egg in place, only did he refrain from using a nest. The resident Charms master warmed his egg with a spell, of course.

"Can you identify the eggs, Hagrid?" Snape asked the half giant, once everybody had settled down to finally eat breakfast. "Which birds can we expect?"

"Unfortunately not," admitted Hagrid. ("What kind of teacher are you?" cried somebody from the Slytherin table.) "They are not right. Take yours. The colour says you have a snitch, but the size is wrong! Or take Harry. A phoenix egg. But not the right size."

Dumbledore advised the children to be very careful with their eggs, especially since they didn't know what kind of bird they were going to get and gave permission to call for a house elf if they needed help once their birds hatched. The elves were instructed to go and get a teacher if there were any potentially dangerous birds or birds they did not know.

Snape left the Great Hall with a feeling of foreboding that day.