CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE

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Things returned back to normal after the Yule Ball or as normal as it would get with the Triwizard Tournament still in progress

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Things returned back to normal after the Yule Ball or as normal as it would get with the Triwizard Tournament still in progress. While Cedric had managed to figure out the clue inside the egg revolving around the merfolk in the Black Lake, Eleanor and Marnie were trying to help him figure out what exactly would be taken for him to retrieve.

They went over all of his valuables, from a watch that his father had given to him, to a few gifts that had been given to them over the years from his best friends. But to Eleanor, it all seemed too simple to be the answer and she hoped she was just overthinking matters.

She had attempted to talk to Harry about it, thinking he would have his own insight on the matter. However, in recent days, he had been rather upset, over the fact that Hagrid appeared to be missing from the Hogwarts grounds. From what Eleanor had heard from Cedric, Professor Grubbly-Plank had stepped in as a substitute but wouldn't tell the students how long she would be there.

It didn't take long for rumours to circulate and finally, the reasoning behind his disappearance surfaced on the front page of the latest article released by Rita Skeeter.

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 Defence 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 new-found 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 which many admit to be '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 manticores 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, it seems, considers himself to be above such petty restrictions.

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