Yuletide Blessing in Disguise

Taken By Surprise

In a deep cavern, seated around a long wooden table, several Goblins argued noisily, banging their fists on the table to punctuate their points, while the other Goblins took hefty swigs of frothy Goblin Ale from their tankards and chuckled.

The cavern wasn't a nasty, slimy, wet cavern filled with wriggling worms and burrowing beetles, but it wasn't exactly a comfortable Hobbit Hole either. It was the main hall of a Goblin Warren, and that meant hard, but clean, smoothed surfaces carved from the stone walls and floor. Highly polished stalagmites and stalactites posed as pillars, glittering in the flickering light of the burning torches and candles.

Intricately detailed murals and pictures were etched into the stone walls, and the wooden table and chairs, rigid though they were, were masterfully sculpted. The tankards which held the ale, and the platters piled high with seared wild boar shanks, roasted potatoes, and boiled beets were made of ornately engraved and delicately moulded spun silver, belying the rough-hewn manners of the Goblin Artisans who had crafted them.

The arguing Goblins didn't notice when an enormous, fat, jowly Goblin entered the cavern, accompanied by two bodyguards and a slender, sly looking Goblin with spectacles and a goatee, but those drinking ale hastily set their tankards on the table.

"Hem...hem," the sly looking Goblin coughed to get everyone's attention. The quarreling Goblins immediately shut up.

"Sorry Chief Bloodaxe!" muttered the one closest to the head of the long table. The rotund Goblin commandingly tugged at the lapels of his finely tailored business suit and narrowed his eyes.

"Don't care!" Chief Bloodaxe grunted coldly. "I just want to know what Bagman has to say for himself, Grimnut. According to Accountant Gutripper, we lost 10,000 galleons on the First Task..."

"Ten thousand and nineteen galleons, eleven sickles, and six knuts, to be precise..." the goateed accountant interjected, trailing off and gulping when Chief Bloodaxe glared at him.

"Anyone else care to interrupt?" The Chief snarled, his lips curling savagely.

The bodyguards to either side of Chief Bloodaxe leered menacingly as if they were hoping that someone would interrupt the boss, flexing their spindly fingers as they gripped their black market, muggle-made machine guns. The cavern was silent.

"Thought not!" Chief Bloodaxe snapped. "Now back to business," he growled, "Potter tied for first place in the First Task! He wasn't even supposed to get past second. What went wrong? And how does Bagman intend to fix it?"

"According to Bagman, the Champions were tipped off that the First Task was Dragons and they had a chance to prepare," said Grimnut quickly. "Potter still got the Horntail like Bagman promised, and Bagman sabotaged the chain binding Potter's Dragon as well, but as you know, Potter managed to obtain his broom and out-fly the beast..."

There were a number of raised eyebrows around the table.

"Still can't figure out how Potter pulled that off," grumbled another Goblin. "Shouldn't be possible to out-fly a Dragon - especially not a Horntail..."

"Bagman suspects that one of the Dark Lord's former supporters might've had a hand in that, Skullcrusher," Grimnut proffered in response. "Apparently, one had infiltrated the tournament disguised as a former Auror subbing as a professor. He was apprehended over the Christmas Holidays - but the whole thing is being kept hushed up by the Ministry.

"Anyway, Bagman thinks that the supporter somehow slipped the Dragon a Mickey to make it easier for Potter to win..."

"That doesn't make any bloody sense!" exclaimed Skullcrusher as he scratched his head. "Why would a Dark Lord supporter be trying to help Potter?"