The Good Hagrid
For the first time, a new headline spread through Hogwarts Castle with Rita Skeeter's name attached to it.
Normally, that wouldn't have been surprising, since Rita was known for always having some explosive piece of information.
But this time, the story was about her.
The Aurors had caught Rita Skeeter with evidence suggesting she might be an unregistered illegal Animagus. And it was by using that Animagus form that she had been gathering all of her so called scoops.
Which was not only an illegal use of controlled magic, but could also leave her facing charges of espionage, trespassing, invasion of privacy, and even several counts of slander and defamation that had been added on top of it all. Though those seemed to be piling up mostly to make sure this woman would never walk out of Azkaban again if certain facts were proven true.
And thanks to one of her own personal journals being handed over to the authorities, full of evidence of those crimes, as well as a few cases of blackmail and manipulation, that now seemed far easier to prove.
That journal had also thrown the Ministry into complete chaos, because inside it were pieces of evidence suggesting Rita had used blackmail against several high ranking officials in order to slip away from previous suspicions about being an unregistered Animagus.
And there were even rumors that Fudge himself might be involved.
Because of that, many people wanted the journal made public.
But the Ministry rejected that idea almost immediately, claiming it was now part of an ongoing investigation.
Everyone was interested in knowing who had uncovered all of this.
But it seemed that the people who had found it so easily, and who hadn't even cared to take credit for it, were far more occupied with their daily lives than paying attention to one very annoying, terrible woman.
Harry, Draco, and Hermione all seemed to have a slight headache as they walked outside the castle, still thinking about how to uncover the secret of the golden egg.
They really seemed to be resisting with all their strength what Daphne had said earlier about simply putting it in water.
They were rejecting with everything they had the idea that it could possibly be that simple.
But the moment they looked toward the Black Lake in the middle of this freezing weather…
They saw Viktor Krum diving straight into the water.
And Daphne was standing not too far away, dressed like a coach with a whistle she seemed to blow every now and then, while holding a stopwatch in her hand.
She seemed to notice the gaze of her three friends, so she turned slightly and spotted them while still having the whistle between her lips.
Then she gave them a truly mocking smile.
And that smile alone seemed to say that she was miles ahead of them already, and that because of that, she was obviously going to win with ease.
The three of them, after seeing Daphne's smile, all wore neutral expressions for a moment as they stood there in silence.
"I think… I really need to take a bath. The prefects' bathroom should be perfect for that," Harry said.
"Yes. I'll ask Dobby to prepare a bathtub for me," Draco said immediately.
"I'm going to get Fleur," Hermione said, and the three of them finally could no longer deny that maybe Daphne had actually been right after all, as they split off and ran at full speed to grab their golden eggs and find a large enough bathtub to submerge themselves in with them.
Hours later, Daphne arrived at Ravenclaw Tower, and the moment she entered, she found Draco and Harry drying their hair with deeply annoyed expressions, while looking like they were seriously tempted to throw the golden egg as far away as possible.
"Oh. Looks like you finally discovered the secret. Bravo," Daphne said, though her tone made it sound far more like she was mocking them.
And she seemed to be enjoying it far too much.
"Shut up," Draco said with an irritated look. He had no interest in dealing with his friend's teasing right now.
But obviously, neither he, nor Harry, nor Hermione were going to be spared from it.
Daphne didn't say much more, but the arrogant smile on her face was still incredibly annoying.
…
The group went back to visit Hagrid with the excellent news of Rita's arrest, which might finally encourage him to come out of his hut again.
Meanwhile, Daphne kept bothering the other three because she had figured out Luciel's clue faster than any of them, and in such a ridiculously simple way that it only made it worse.
"Technically, you didn't figure out how the egg works. You figured out the hint Luciel gave Harry, so it doesn't count," Hermione said, her competitiveness flaring up instantly for a moment.
"Even then, you still didn't get anywhere close," Daphne added in a teasing tone.
"Alright, enough. Let's see if Hagrid's feeling a little more willing to come outside," Harry said, stopping them before it escalated any further and turned into one of their usual competitions where, obviously, everything would go completely to hell very quickly, as always.
Professor Flitwick still had mild panic attacks every time he saw Terry, especially if he happened to be holding a bottle of ketchup.
Yeah, well… maybe they had taken that last one a little further than usual.
When they arrived at Hagrid's hut, Hermione immediately stepped forward and knocked hard on the door, just like she had done over the past few days.
"Hagrid, it's us. We already know you're in there. We've got good news. And we already told you, it doesn't matter that your mother is a giant," Hermione said.
But her voice stopped short when the door suddenly swung open and nearly hit the person opening it.
It was Sirius, who gave them a faint smile when he saw them.
"Oh, it's you lot. You have no idea the trouble you've caused me these past few days. Rita, in an attempt to save herself a few years in prison, tried claiming I had an army of dangerous, trained magical creatures at my disposal. And Fudge, trying to toss the ball around and distract Amelia from paying too much attention to Rita's journal, sent Aurors to inspect the Forbidden Forest. I've got to say, we're lucky Newt happened to be nearby and had the official contract regarding the creation of a magical creature care area. Because honestly, even I was surprised when I saw the place Red and his friends managed to build," Sirius said while looking at the four of them, letting out several tired sighs.
Though, knowing him, at least half of what he was saying was probably just him showing off to look cool.
And judging by the look on his face, he seemed to be expecting applause or at least a thank you.
But the four of them just stared at him neutrally.
"You lot really are getting less adorable the older you get," Sirius said in a slightly offended tone, clearly annoyed by the complete lack of appreciation from all four of them.
Not even from his own nephew and godson.
"I'm off. I still have a lot to do. Hagrid, remember to come back to teaching next week. Your break is over. And you should be in a better mood too. There's a whole group of brats here who got someone arrested just to cheer you up," Sirius said before shouting into the hut, then turning around, waving the group goodbye, and heading off.
The four of them watched Sirius leave, faint smiles appearing on their faces once his back was turned, before they stepped inside Hagrid's hut.
And the moment they entered, they spotted a massive lump under the blankets, covered from head to toe.
Harry, upon seeing it, wasn't sure whether to laugh, because the sight of a half giant trying to hide under a pile of blankets was… interesting, to say the least.
"Come on, Hagrid, cut it out," Daphne said as she quickly walked over and yanked the blanket away.
The moment she did, it uncovered him, and all of them were able to see the pitiful state he was in.
His hair was a complete disaster, his beard even more unkempt than usual, and his eyes were red, probably from crying so much.
"Wow. You don't look very good," Daphne told him, only to receive an elbow from Hermione telling her to shut up.
"What? It's true," she muttered back, earning a hard glare from Hermione.
"Hi, Hagrid," Harry said, ignoring the two girls as he walked closer to the half giant and noticed the teacup on the nearby table, which had most likely belonged to Sirius. "Looks like Sirius was talking to you," he said gently.
"Yeah," Hagrid murmured with a small nod. "He's a good bloke, that Sirius Black. Though I still liked Dumbledore as Headmaster, Sirius isn't all that bad," he added.
At another time, Harry might have said something about Dumbledore and the affection Hagrid still had for him, but this wasn't the moment.
After all, from Hagrid's perspective, Dumbledore really had helped him a lot in the past by giving him a job after he was expelled from Hogwarts.
Though there was still the fact that Dumbledore probably should have realized the Heir of Slytherin had been someone else and not Voldemort.
But Harry decided to leave that for later.
"He brought me a lot of letters from parents who studied here and still remembered me. Even Narcissa. And I thought the Slytherins all hated me. But she and the Greengrass couple said I was a good gamekeeper," Hagrid said, looking like he was about to cry again, though not out of sadness this time. "And he also told me what you all did. Thank you very much," Hagrid told them with a smile that, between the sniffles and the tears, wasn't exactly the prettiest thing in the world.
But his happiness was obvious.
That made the group let out a small sigh of relief when they saw that Hagrid didn't seem nearly as crushed by sadness as before.
And it looked like Sirius had actually done a pretty good job.
Though none of them were ever going to tell him that, because according to their mothers, it would only go to his head and make him unbearable.
"Though not all the parents really like me… I can't let down the ones who do, can I?" he said softly.
"So… you're going back to teaching?" Harry asked with a more relaxed smile.
"Yeah. I promised Sirius. And he also told me about the place Red and his friends made, and how Newt's really interested in teaching me a few things I didn't know about magical creatures so I can help look after the new place," Hagrid said with a hopeful smile.
After all, what gamekeeper who loved animals wouldn't want to learn something from Newt Scamander?
With everything solved, it seemed like the group didn't really have much left to worry about with Hagrid.
Or Rita, who wouldn't be writing anything else from Azkaban anytime soon.
Or technically much of anything at all, aside from the Tournament.
So they could go back to enjoying their peaceful days at Hogwarts.
Or…
At least, that was what they hoped.