Dudley, much to his surprise, had a nice time at the Yule Ball with Luna. When he returned to the dorm room, Ron was already there, looking very pleased with himself.
"Snape took 10 points from Gryffindor," he said.
"Oh, what for?" Dudley said, sitting down on his bed and finally taking off his ridiculous beret and kicking off his shoes. His feet were surprisingly sore.
"He erm, caught me and Cho in the bushes," Ron said, grinning.
Dudley who had been about to lie down shot upright. "Did you kiss her then?" Dudley demanded.
Ron nodded, looking very pleased with himself. "Yeah."
"How was it?"
"Pretty good," Ron said. "Hope I can do it again."
"Are you gonna meet her again?"
"Yeah, well ... we're going out," Ron said. "You know, boyfriend and girlfriend!"
"Wow!" Dudley was impressed. Judging by the early part of the night, Ron's date was being a disaster up until he had finally danced with Cho and introduced her to Lockhart's quidditch player date.
Dean arrived shortly after, looking tired.
"Ron kissed Cho," Dudley said, before Ron could say anything.
"Did more than me then," Dean said, a little mournfully. "Parvati just wanted to dance and talk. Neville's downstairs, apparently Snape caught him and Lavender kissing—10 points from Gryffindor."
"I reckon lots of people lost points," said Ron. "Quite a few people were out there. Including, and you'll never believe this—Hagrid and Madame Maxime!"
"No way!" Dean shouted, paying attention now. "What? They were kissing?"
"I dunno," Ron said. "I think Hagrid tried to lay the charm on her and she got angry."
Dudley snickered. "Trust Hagrid to mess things up."
"Snape was acting weird too," Ron said. "He was with Karkaroff."
"Wait ..." said Dean. "You don't mean ..."
"Course not," Ron said, scathingly. "They were just interrupting other people's fun," he said. "Including mine and Cho's," he added, mournfully.
"Oh yeah," Dudley said, suddenly remembering what Luna had said. Quickly he filled Dean and Ron in.
"And you're sure Luna is right?" Ron asked. "I know she's your girlfriend ... date ... whatever, but she also believes in Cacky Snorgle Horns or whatever they're called."
"She seemed certain," Dudley said. "And you said it yourself, Durmstrang has a really bad reputation."
"You don't reckon Karkaroff put yours and Nev's names in the Goblet, do you?" Ron asked.
"Could be," Dudley said. "I bet Moody is keeping a close eye on him."
Everybody got up late the next day. Ron was in a good mood and greeted Hermione warmly. His annoyance over Hermione going with Krum seemingly forgotten now that he had gotten a snog from Cho Chang.
Now that the Yule Ball was over, they all decided it was time to finally start doing the homework they had neglected. It had piled up over the last few weeks.
Dudley also had the second task on his mind. He felt glad he had worked on the egg and practiced the bubble-head charm early as February 24th suddenly didn't seem all that long away.
They had Care of Magical Creatures that day. They all hoped that finally Hagrid would move on from Skrewts.
"His classes have definitely gone downhill," Dudley admitted. "They were so good last year, but even I'm sick of Skrewts."
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. "I'm Professor Grubbly-Plank."
"Professor who?" Dudley muttered to Hermione who shrugged.
"Where's Hagrid then?" Dean said quietly. "Maybe he's ill or something?"
Soft and unpleasant laughter reached Dudley's 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.
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.
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 Dudley 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.
"That is pretty cool," Dean admitted.
"Yeah, much better than Skrewts," Ron said. "Wish I could go and touch it though."
Behind him, Draco let out a short laugh.
"Then you should be thanking me, Weasley," Malfoy sneered.
"What do you mean?" Dudley demanded.
"I mean, I tipped off the press about Hagrid's giant secret. Smirking, he tossed Dudley a copy of the Daily Prophet.
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.
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."
He has shown his class Hippogriffs, Manticores and Abraxan Horses—all of which are considered dangerous by the Ministry.
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 manticores and firecrabs. 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, Fridwulfa's son appears to have inherited her brutal nature.
"Hagrid's a half giant?" Ron said, stunned.
"Yeah, and there's me thinking he just swallowed a bottle of Skele-Grow when he was younger," Malfoy said. "You can keep the paper—I don't want it after you've touched it Dursley."
Dudley narrowed his eyes, glaring daggers at Malfoy. In their little discussion about Hagrid, he had forgotten how nasty and horrible the Slytherin was.
"Leave it, Dud," Ron said. They turned back to Grubbly-Plank as she lectured them on Unicorns.
"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..."
"It was a good lesson," Dudley admitted.
"Yeah, Grubbly-Plank taught me so much about unicorns!" Hermione said.
They all talked about the class as they headed up to the castle. Even Dudley, who had liked Hagrid's classes last year, thought the unicorns had been great. Other than the dragons this year, all of Hagrid's lessons had been on the Skrewts which nobody liked.
Dudley showed Hermione the article. She read it thoughtfully. "Did any of you know?" she asked.
"No, I just ... assumed he was big," Dudley said with a shrug, he suddenly realized that was pretty dumb of him since nobody grew to 12 feet tall.
"Same," said Dean.
"Like Malfoy, I thought he just ate Skele-Grow," said Ron, shuddering at the thought of thinking anything the same as Malfoy.
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR
Question to any readers- would you prefer me to upload short chapters fairly regularly, or longer chapters compiled together. I post them once I have finished writing, usually. But if people prefer longer chapters I can instead compile them as one but they might be released not as regularly. Like the Yule Ball chapters could have been just one longer chapter instead of a bunch of short ones. Let me know. Thanks for reading. I appreciate it.